Jeff Boulton

Woah. Wait a minute. Are you crazy?

(It’s an oral exam…)

THE SUMMATIVE:  Personal skills profile  Understanding of self  Understanding of required skills  Feedback/outside opinion  Community involvement  Research and prep work  Studying  Demonstrate research skills  Timeline  Understanding of career and educational paths THE EXAM:  Job application  Receive one, pick one  Begin to prepare  Exemplars of interview  Given process, types of questions, sample answers  Specific preparation  Apply summative results  Conduct Interviews  One on one, no notes  Question draw out course content  Specified time, location, and limit  During class or exam block The goal is: you evaluate their learning, and they learn an invaluable life skill in the process!

(Translation: this sounds like more work.) (Also can be translated as: this sounds dumb.)

GIVEN THAT:  Exam time is busy  Have oodles of marking  Have to post online now too  No time to remake anything  Should be emphasizing higher level thinking skills  Authentic tasks  More relevant  More interesting and fun  Lend themselves to higher level thinking skills THIS FINAL 30%  Saves you time!  Is easy to make and mark  Is IMPOSSIBLE to cheat on!  Has already been made for you  Emphasizes analysis, articulation, and application  Is a simulation that’s  A realistic, necessary life skill  Engaging and interactive  Simultaneously requires the use of all a student’s skills

GIVEN THAT:  You need to accommodate special learners THIS FINAL 30%  Allows simple flexible accommodation for all  The interviewer can:  Repeat questions  Ask questions in a different way  Clarify question  Alter the time duration  For questions  For the entire interview  Have unclear responses explained  Provides students with the maximum opportunity to be successful under conditions suitable to them

I KNOW, YOU’RE THINKING:  I need an examination  In a controlled environment  With time limits  That tests course content  Doesn’t prepare them for University  Yes, they don’t do this stuff  Well, it’s not that important, waste of time  More important skills  They have 60% exams  Won’t prepare them for Uni WELL,  It is an examination  It is; it’s one on one  It’s got ‘em  It does  Are you completely sure about that?  They do now  80-90% graduate with an offer; 92% of grads placed for summer  Top skills demanded are used  Not as much any more  84% of us have no degree

WOULD YOU RATHER:  Write up a brand new assignment?  Modify your exam for each new semester?  Spend 20 minutes marking a student’s work?  Have to mark at home on your own time?  Sit for several hours in an exam setting? OR WOULD YOU RATHER:  Use the one included with the outline?  Never really need to modify it ever again?  Spend 20 minutes with the student?  Mark in the interview during your work day?  Be finished with this course on the last day of classes? Think about it

Highest degree attained for Canadians 15 and older. Statistics Canada. Available online October 5, 2006 at Class of 2005 Final Employment Results. Queen’s School of Business. Available online October 5, 2006 at: HBA Summer Employment Statistics. Richard Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario. Available online October 5, 2006 at: Employability Skills Conference Board of Canada. Available online October 5, 2006 at