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hasufell <hasufell <at> gentoo.org> writes: |
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|
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> |
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> Ciaran McCreesh: |
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> > On Thu, 05 Feb 2015 11:21:37 -0500 |
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> > Michael Orlitzky <mjo <at> gentoo.org> wrote: |
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> >> I'll start with the silliest: |
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> >> |
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> >> Explain briefly the purpose of the following tools: grep, cut, sed, |
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> >> cat, wc, awk |
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> > |
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> > This is in no way silly when viewed in its proper historical context. It |
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> > was added because before the quiz existed, someone recruited a couple of |
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> > developers for Gentoo/Alt who didn't know what grep was, and they broke |
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> > the tree in a horrific way. |
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> > |
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> |
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> That just shows that our workflow is so broken that we have to ask such |
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> things in a quiz. |
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> |
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> "Let's track him for one month and revert any major breakage quickly" is |
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> our answer to what the rest of the world does: review. |
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> |
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> |
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|
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|
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Hello. |
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|
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I just wanted to bring up a quick point which hasn't been made yet. At |
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several points, there has been discussion of removing certain questions, |
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like the aforementioned "Explain briefly the purpose of the following |
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tools." |
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|
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Rather than removing such questions, and working off of a previously |
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mentioned web interface for the quizzes, I thought it worth mentioning that |
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an interactive test module, akin to Computer Based Testing (CBT). The idea |
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is simple: there are two kinds of questions, those that are are text based, |
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like policy and documentation questions, and those that are task oriented, |
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like the above mentioned UNIX tools, or ebuild editing. |
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|
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Since we are all familiar with the first kind of questions, let me just |
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describe what I envision for testing the second kind of question. For |
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example, with the UNIX tools, the quiz taker is presented, via a web |
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interface, some input, and the desired output. Then they are told that |
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using cmd foo (substitute whatever UNIX tool) they are expected to achieve |
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the desired output. This could be implemented any number of ways, so I |
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won't bother going into that now. Ebuild editing could follow a similar |
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process, whereby syntax is edited by the user and the output checked, via |
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repoman, or via some other method (depending on the scope of the problem). |
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|
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This new system could be offered as an alternative to the current system, |
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however, based on my perception of the consensus in this thread (that the |
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current quiz is inadequate), my opinion is that, once functional, the new |
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quiz format should be the only method offered. |
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|
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So, in summary, my suggestion is to consider transforming the quiz process |
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into two separate sections, the first is a standard text based test like the |
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current system, and the second is an (semi-)interactive system where the |
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user has to problem solve, giving a more practical approach to quiz |
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questions. |
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