We all know how to level up skills in oblivion. We use them repeatedly till they pop out a level, but just for fun. Can we come up with any other ways to gain skill levels? I doubt Bethesda is going to make radical changes in how exp is gained. I can just see the explosion that would happen if they did, but that dosen't mean we can't geek out with new ideas. What do you think? Can you think of ways to gain exp without grinding?

you have to lick a different coloured mammoth for each skill

Let's see:
Melee weapon skill can be increased by striking a dummy (dummies were in Oblivion, but they didn't increase your skill).
Melee and blocking can be increased by practicing with a sparing partner, using weapon anologs that don't deal damage.
Marksman can be improved by shooting at a range (there were targets in Oblivion, but they didn't increase your skill).
Magic skills can be improved by reading books about them (more than now, where each book only improves 1 point).
Speechcraft can increase as a reward for talking to NPC's a lot on various topics.

They can give out skills for completing quests. For athletics/agility, they can take a page from cackdown and place agility boosting flags on top of buildings. For smiting, they can give exp for each new recipe you make. Same way with alchemy. You gain levels from discovering new types of potions rather then making the same potion all day.

Well skills not need to grind, just do your work and they will rise, no need to running into wall or stand fight with rats, try roleplay way not power-leveling thats is not an MMO where is competitions need.
For second there is other way to level in Oblivion, trainers, skill books and quests.
Personally I use some mods for improving my leveling make it more immersive
nGCD
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=14065
Intelligence Overhaul
http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=11205
Retroactive Training Sessions
http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=31578
Trainers Greed
http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=20361
Duke Patricks Basic Combat Training
http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=26916
Duke Patricks Minimalistic Bottle Shoot Archery Practice
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=26868
Sagittas Archery Range
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=37193

Skill incense might be more common as quest reward. Always welcome and fit well for most npc. As your skill increase it’s take longer to rise so an increase will be worth more.
Not all npc will own artefacts or find the quest important enough to give away one.