As generative AI improves and written work becomes harder to authenticate, more universities are shifting toward oral defenses and in-person assessment approaches. Reporting describes faculty at institutions including Cornell and the University of Pennsylvania pairing oral exams with written materials to evaluate understanding, not just outputs. At Cornell, an “oral defense” requires students to speak directly to an instructor without relying on laptops, chatbots, or other technology. At Penn, faculty pair oral assessments with papers, and the institution has organized workshops to help instructors adopt the method. The change is framed as a response to observed classroom patterns where take-home writing can be unusually “perfect” while students struggle to explain their reasoning. The evolving assessment model focuses on whether students can defend and apply what they produced.