LinuxSA Mailing list archives

  From: C4IS <C4IS@EISA.NET.AU>
  To  : linuxsa@linuxsa.org.au
  Date: Thu, 20 May 1999 00:36:38 +0930

Re: Certifications (A Model Worth Emulating...)

-----Original Message-----
From: Glen Turner <glen.turner@adelaide.edu.au>
Date: Wednesday, May 19, 1999 12:54 PM
Subject: Re: Certifications (A Model Worth Emulating...)


>On the other hand, amateur radio exams aren't exactly held
>frequently, because of the volunteer aspect.


You're right, of course, about the Australian model...
But only because of a restriction from WIA's Exam Office,
which is the 'only game in town' vis a vis producing the exams.

In USA, *any* Volunteer Examiners use software to automatically
generate an exam "just in time" for it to be given...

(Similar differences exist in Sweden -vs- Australia
vis a vis who can act as a notary public - e.g. to
attest to the exactness of a copy of a document...
In Sweden, ANYBODY can... in Oz, only a notary
public can...)

You would know that the gov't still treats its citizens
like colonists were treated by the British gov't...
whereas the US gov't (at least in this domain)
continues to treat its technology hobbyists with
due respect... unless & until there is reason to
suspect that the exam conditions weren't as
they should be (in which case, it is a re-exam
for the unlucky candidates and - if necessary -
a slap on the wrists for the examiners, perhaps
including a loss of license(s) for them as well...)

In any case, I see no reason why exams couldn't
be computer based (like training, for that matter),
just as Ohio's driving theory/regulations exams are.

Generated by psuedo-random question-selection
and auto-scored... isn't that the way some of the
professional exam services give Microsoft exams?

>Perhaps we should promote a scheme that gives a commercial
>testing organisation *non-exclusive* rights to the exam,
>plus allowing tests by `trusted' volunteers.


I like this!

>Perhaps the simplest way to get trusted examination
>conditions in the Linux community is by trusting
>only `established' user groups (whatever they are).


Why not use the very technology that Linux seems
to be capable of facilitating...

I.e. create an exam site... one signs up for an exam
(e.g. at a Linux SA meeting or exam-event even)...
the questions come (via the 'net, over an encrypted
channel) to the candidate's screen the answer goes
back to the official exam site... and so forth... *until*
the exam is completed... at which time the result is
given to the candidate (in real time)... and posted
on the same site (only if the candidate is successful)

This would be fun to implement... any takers?

>So LinuxSA could hold certification exams during the
>monthly meeting.  To add trust, we would allow anyone
>at the meeting to be an invigilator (the person at an
>exam who sees that the conditions are met).


You see why we're so far behind?  We 'waste time' with
64-bit words when a 16-bit word (like "proctor") would do.

>Trust could also be added by making the completed and
>marked exam a public document and placing it on the
>table at the next LinuxSA meeting.  [Although I'm not
>sure I've thought this aspect right through.]


Why would you want a "dead-tree" exam format...?
(to use Philip Greenspun's word for paper)

>This would allow certification to be available at low
>cost, but at some inconvenience.


The online scheme (above your suggestion) would
also cut out the inconvenience...  ;)

>I am massively, totally opposed to giving exclusive
>rights to a commercial organisation.  For example,
>Sylvan Prometric can't operate in Cuba because of
>US regulations.  A few years ago, it wouldn't have
>been allowed to operate in the USSR.  Yet we want
>people in both those countries to be able to use Linux
>and for accrediation to be available to them.


Tell me, does Linux export well (e.g. are there any
export controls on anything it impliments, of are
export controls on 32-bit UNIX gone these days)?

And, since Stallman hadn't bothered to check,
at least before his Linux SA talk, how has Linux
uptake/use been in developing countries...?

>Richard and Matthew: do we want to put a LinuxSA position
>                     to the LPI people?


???? (What am I missing in the last question?)

-- 
Check out the LinuxSA web pages at http://www.linuxsa.org.au/
To unsubscribe from the LinuxSA list:
  mail linuxsa-request@linuxsa.org.au with "unsubscribe" as the subject