The Oral Test is a cornerstone of this course; oral tests are far better than any other type of evaluation to establish how you have profited from your activities so far. In this test we will have a discussion that will allow you to demonstrate your level of engagement with the material and the understanding you have derived from it, the intuitions you have developed, and your ability to synthesize information into insights.
Oral tests will be scheduled on a Google spreadsheet and the link to the spreadsheet will be announced on Quercus.
Conflicts?
If you have a conflict on your scheduled test date, you are welcome to find someone to swap with, on the course discussion group on Quercus, Discord, or elsewhere; both of you must contact me by e-mail at least two days ahead of the first exam scheduled for either of you. (One e-mail with a CC will do). We cannot however enter into iterated cycles to find dates that are suitable for both you and me.
Topic: What you did …
In the test, we will discuss what you did to prepare the report you submitted, and you will have the opportunity to demonstrate your understanding of the material. To prepare: make sure you understand the concepts, the computational aspects, the R code (if applicable), the results, and how to interpret the results. Questions that have led to productive discussion in the past included: whether all steps are necessary, whether there are ways to improve the workflow, whether the results match your expectations, how those expectations are justified, what you have done to test your tools and to validate your results etc. I am looking for your ability to analyze, critically evaluate, and synthesize. And I am looking for your ability to communicate that effectively. This is not a “memorize-and-recall” type of test, but you will need to be familiar with the course material, the semantics of the data you worked with, and the reasoning behind your workflow, to make your arguments. Again: I will simply assume you know the course, but the question is do you understand what you have been doing? Since the test is cumulative, we may also discuss aspects of your previously submitted material and its respective prerequisites.1 Obviously, topics we talked about in our class meetings may come up in the discussion as well.
Your submitted reports all require some preparatory work and all this must have been finalized by midnight of the day before the test.
Where we meet …
You must be present alone in a quiet room with a stable internet connection. A public room in the library is not suitable. You must connect from the computer that you normally use to work on the assignments.2 I cannot make concessions for technical difficulties with your internet connection during the test - that’s on you. Make sure that you have things worked out well beforehand. Be prepared to share your screen so we can look into some of your project files. (You may want to consider what windows and tabs you have open, what is on your desktop etc.) No other computer (and no mobile device) may be turned on in the room , and that includes your cellphone, your smart speaker and your shiny new PS5. Your computer may only have a single monitor. Your cell-phone must be at hand and switched off. You cannot wear headphones for the test and your audio input must pick up room sounds normally. We will need to spend a few moments to confirm this.
On your computer, the only open apps are:
Connect to the Zoom conference link you received with your scheduling eMail exactly at your scheduled time.
You need to have your T-card (picture ID) available.
The test will be recorded.
Expect that you may be asked to write a few lines of R code. You need to have your computer prepared accordingly: have an R-Studio session open, and have the ABC-units project loaded and initialized.
Checklist
Please consider the evaluation rubrics. I will tell you your marks at the end of the test. Remind me, in case I forget.
Not ready …
If you did not finish your preparations in time, you will be evaluated in the context of the work done up to the point before your test. Obviously, in this situation we can’t simply apply our usual extension policy. At best, I can take a (documented) reason for incomplete work into consideration, but to be on the safe side, you need to anticipate problems and complete the work well ahead of the deadline. Completing it two days in advance is a good benchmark.
Late …
If you are late to your test, but less than 15 minutes late, you will lose a proportional amount of marks, up to 50%. If you are more than 15 minutes late, this will be evaluated as a missed test.3
Missed it …
If you miss your test you will receive zero marks for this evaluation (no partial marks for the submitted report). If you have a documented, acceptable reason (according to Faculty policies) for missing the test, we will attempt to find a make up slot. It is unlikely that this will be possible before the last day to submit term work. In that case, the mark of zero will become part of your course grade, and you need to petition the Faculty for an alternative evaluation. In all cases, the preparatory work will be evaluated relative to the original deadline. This means: missing a test will not reset the clock on the preparations, it will only reschedule the time when the work is evaluated.
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This is a fallback, in case the discussion we are having is not very productive.↩︎
We may need to check some files on your computer while you are sharing your screen.↩︎
Fortunately we don’t have to take TTC delays into account, but be sure that you know how to connect to a Zoom session, that your Zoom application has the correct permissions to use your computer’s microphone and Webcam, and that you are not competing with your roommate’s Netflix addiction for bandwidth.↩︎