Re: [OS:N:] Re: Questionaire about the support of students rights and the freedom in the learning environment

"Les Bell" <[email protected]>
Newsgroups gmane.org.open-source-now
Message-ID <[email protected]>
Charles McColm <[email protected]> wrote:

>>
The fact that there are people out there
writing books that I can go out and buy means I don't have to be forced
to take someone's course - I'm free to learn on my own in my own time.
If I so choose I can also find HOWTO's, full books (O'Reilly DocBook)
and other free as in beer materials online to learn from.
<<

This is *very* important. Many vendors, especially, lock their
certification tests to their own courses. In some cases, the courses teach
incorrect material and the test expects the answer to be the incorrect one
given in the course. This disadvantages the student who has real-world
experience and/or independent study, since they will give the factually
correct answer and be marked wrong.

The correct way to do it is for experts to design the test question pool,
etc. and then design the course material. And ideally, let course
developers compete so that quality improves.

This is one of the reasons I'm an ardent backer of LPI (Linux Professional
Institute), and wrote some of the LPI objectives (but not the questions -
there would be a conflict of interest there): LPI sets the test and the
test objectives, and then lets the open market sort the rest out. The
student can study by themselves, or with one of many training companies.
The result is a robust and healthy environment in which course quality
should be improving and candidates getting a fair assessment.

This is not to say I don't support the RHCE/RHCT certification as well; and
the fact that the test is hands-on means that the answers must be correct
in the 'opinion' of the system being fixed or built, and not the opinion of
a test question author who may himself have a flawed understanding.

The good news is that both certifications have a much better standing than,
say, MCSE.

Best,

--- Les Bell, RHCE, CISSP
[http://www.lesbell.com.au]



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