Re: Ubuntu Certified Professionals

email.listen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
I need to dispell this myth that somehow multiple choice questions are
inherently poor quality and that practical exams must be better.

It depends entirely on what you are measuring. Some things might lend themselves to multiple choice and some things don't. I've taught mathematics for several years and I wouldn't use multiple choice on a math exam (I think that the SATs are worthless btw). Likewise, you can't replace an essay question with multiple choice. I've seen some good physics and astronomy exams that were multiple choice. It's not as simple as "multiple choice is ok" or "multiple choice is bad". It has to be apt for what you are testing.

Btw, I also work for a computer certificate company (though we aim at a much lower level than LPI - roughly highschool level). Our certificate is awarded based on direct observation and samples of work because those are just more appropriate ways of measuring the things we are trying to measure. This is also very good pedagogy because it gives the instructor flexibility to build a course around the criteria which is suitable for his teaching styles and his students' needs.

http://theingots.org

The truth is that practical exams are just as removed from reality as
multiple choice.

Not the ones we do :) But I guess that's because we don't require a single "exam day". The assessment is based on prolonged observation.

Btw, we don't sell courses, we just do certification.

And practical exams are not reproducible,

I don't see why a practical exam is less reproducible than a multiple choice. You still have to ask the pupil to either tick the boxes again, or perform a task again, and you can still get different results because the testee was having a bad day.

You can't validly compare two people
writing different practical exams and prove you are comparing apples
and apples.

You can't compare two people writing different multiple choice exams and prove you are comparing apples and apples.

Why should it? If it's a *different* exam, then it's not apples and apples.

There has to be $ changing hands, unless the sabdfl is prepared to
finance the cert in perpetuity. There are courier costs for the
written exams, Prometric and Thomson Vue want their slice for
computer delivered exams. Clerical staff need to be paid, proctors
have to be transported to the exam venue to supervise, etc, etc. $100
is dirt cheap, compare what it costs to write some other exams.

Reminder: The certification I work with aims at a totally different market than LPI, but I want to talk about it anyways :)

Because we use a different assessment method we remove 95% of the bureocracy and can afford to give the exams at $10 :) One disadvantage of multiple-choice exams is that they automatically force quite a bit of bureocracy. Instead, we train teachers (who are already professional instructors) for a fee, and they then incorporate our practical certificate in their course and pupils pay only about $10 for the certificate. The teacher time is finnanced by the school anyways, so over-all it's cheap for the school and cheap for the pupils. We do spot checks on statistically representative samples to improve quality control (more thorough checks for more advanced levels).

Thomas wrote:
IMO its of no use certifying a test method only like the LPI. On the long run it would be better to certify educatuional institutions and educational movements / infrastructures (movements in the meaning of projects like ubuntu or others).

You might like the INGOT certification. Though, as I said, it's not geared towards Linux administration. It's really for highschool-ish level and not even about Linux in particular. :)

Cheers,
Daniel.
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