UNIVERSITY OF ZIMBABWE FORM C.

D 4

DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNITY AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

INDUSTRIAL ATTACHMENT: VIVA VOCE [ORAL] EXAMINATION

Context and Rationale

 On a set date, all students who were on student attachment will be invited to
present on the key highlights of their industrial attachment before a panel whose
composition will be determined by field work coordinators in consultation with
programme coordinators and department chairperson, for the purpose of oral
assessment.
 Oral assessment has twin goals: 1) to give students an opportunity to verbally
articulate key skills and sets of knowledge they learnt and programme inspired
skills and knowledge they applied or imparted to the host/agency organisation
or research project; 2) it serves as a monitoring and authentication tool on
whether a student was indeed exposed to meaningful and relevant
industrial/project placement.
 Viva voce is in line with Education 5.0 virtues of diversifying assessment
methods which engender holistic, skills-based and outcome-based education.
 Each student will be allocated between 10 to 15 minutes of presentation
including question and answer time. Each panel of assessors must be
constituted by a minimum of 3 to 5 lecturers, one of which must be the
programme coordinator or a person designated to act as programme
coordinator. Students must be encouraged to do a PowerPoint presentation or
in the absence of a [fitted] projector, they are to print a few handout copies of
their presentation for the panel. The panel can set any additional reasonably
necessary ground rules.
 During the course of the oral examination, the panel must always act
professionally, affording each student a fair and equal chance to present
without any unprofessional innuendos.

NB: In essence for the purposes of oral examination, students are invited to present
an abridged version of their final fieldwork report.

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Students will be assessed and awarded marks on the following components.

1. Setting the background of the attachment placement [student to spend 2

to 3 min] [20%]
 The student briefly introduces him/herself, identifies and briefly describes the
nature of the organisation or research project he or she was attached/placed
to, specifying the duration of attachment.
 The student is expected to provide brief justification for attaching to the
particular organisation or project drawing inferences to relevance to a set of
knowledge and skills embedded in the specific degree programme.
 The student must then briefly identify and highlight own set of attachment
objectives and the specific tasks, duties, responsibilities and activities he
or she was involved with during attachment (at this introductory stage these
must simply be outlined without any explanation).

2. Technical Presentation of Fieldwork execution of activities and

experiences (45%) [student to spend 5 to 8 min]

 This is the body of the presentation where the student is expected to discuss
the technical aspects of industrial attachment. Student are expected to:
i. explain identifiable roles, duties, tasks, responsibilities, activities, targets
they performed in the host organisation/department or research project.
ii. discuss the set of skills, knowledge, attitudes, competencies, values and norms
they deployed and got tested on in the course of performing said duties
and responsibilities.
iii. illustrate opportunities they got to apply theories, discipline knowledge and
research skills learnt from class [e.g application of criminological theory).
iv. describe any notable experiences which include testing of interpersonal skills
etc.

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 3. Evidence of critical thinking, problem solving skills and Innovation
(30%) [students to spend at least 2 min]
 Students will be assessed on their level of possession of critical thinking skills,
problem solving skills and innovation as they relate key highlights of attachment
placement.
 In order to address this component, students are expected to:
i. articulate identifiable key lessons they drew from the whole learning
experience in partial fulfilment of their degree programme.
ii. briefly describe any notable meaningful challenges, if any, they encountered
and how they addressed them [as well as positive experiences]
iii. at least two key contributions/impact or innovation/initiative they made to
the agency organisation or research project.

4. Quality of technical presentation and ability to answer Questions from the

Panel [15%]
 The panel will assess and allocate marks on:
i. Logic [is the presentation systematically presented and organised]
ii. Elaboration [is the presentation punctuated by real lived experiences; ability to
answer panel questions]
iii. Effectiveness in communicating [style of presentation, voice projection,
personal expression, confidence, demeanour]
iv. Relevance [did the student address the key demands/expectations as outlined
in the technical presentation components in number 2 above].

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