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Abstract:
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We report a local or regional undergraduate examination form – the synopsis-based oral
examination (S-BOE), as it is deployed in both large and small international management
education programs at a Scandinavian business school. The S-BOE format is designed to assess
student cognitive achievement in light of specified learning objectives through a focused
presentation and dialogue involving an examiner and qualified censor, the latter being formally
present to ensure process fairness for both examiner and student. It affords the examiner and
censor the opportunity to explore student cognitive skills over the known range: unistructural >
multistructural > relational > extended abstract (Biggs, J. 1999). Individuals as well as student
project groups may be assessed using this approach. Administrative costs do not significantly
exceed that of other course assessment formats: written reports or in-class group examinations.
There are also interesting learning efficiencies; practitioner experience, reflection, and dialogue
with students suggest that all students experience this examination format as a learning
experience in itself, over a range of course-related knowledge issues and interpersonal skilling.
Exemplary students manifest “dramatic knowledge” in those instances when they creatively
display a comprehensive, reflective, and reflexive understanding of course material in
presentation and subsequent intersubjective dialogue. The authors discuss important features of
this undergraduate examination format that remain largely overlooked and under-appreciated in
terms that regionally and locally contextualize international accreditation standards and process.
At a time when economic, efficiency, and standardization concerns increasingly pressure
educational institutions to adopt testing methods that are psychologically “distant” in respect to
the instructor-student relationship, the synopsis-based oral examination is an interesting
alternative suitable for small as well as large academic programs. |
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