Multimodal & Oral Defense

AI generates text. It cannot generate a student standing in a room defending their ideas in real-time.

• The Assignment: "The Viva Voce" (Oral Defense)

  • Reduce the weight of the written paper by 30-50% and allocate that grade to a 10-minute 1-on-1 interview.

  • The Questions: Don't ask "What is your paper about?" Ask process questions: "Why did you choose this source over that one?" or "How did your opinion change from week 3 to week 8?"

  • Why it’s AI-Resistant: A student who used AI to write the paper will often stumble on specific questions about the structure or sources of the paper.

• The Assignment: "The Video Abstract"

  • Students must record a 3-minute video synthesizing their research for a lay audience.

  • The Requirement: They must speak extemporaneously (no reading from a script) and use visual aids (whiteboard diagrams drawn in real-time) to explain the relationships between their variables or themes.