EFF sues Proctorio on behalf of student falsely DMCA'd

Post by buran77 » Thu, Apr 22, 2021, 8:09 PM UTC

dmitrygr wrote: post #400

checkyoursudo wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I finished up the coursework for my masters degree at the start of the pandemic. My university was quite flexible for how instructors would examine us, given how sudden everything had to change. One of my courses, which only had about 8 students and two instructors, decided to do an oral examination, which ended up being basically a very in-depth, one on one conversation about the course material and based on the exp…

This is how exams are in Russian universities. You walk in. The table has a number of small paper cards on it face down with topics the course covered. You pick one at random, flip it over, and that is the question you need to answer. Since you do not know up front which you'll pick, you need to know all the material. Since you only need to answer one question, professor time is saved and exam throughput can be quite…

Post by da_chicken » Thu, Apr 22, 2021, 8:12 PM UTC

lutorm wrote: post #376

ska wrote: post #359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> decided to do an oral examination, This really is the best case, but as you note it was 8 students so quite manageable. It requires a little skill on the part of the examiner, but you can quickly find out how much material the student knows with much higher accuracy than other exam formats, in my opinion. One of the skills needed is to be able to make it conversational-feeling and reduce the anxiety of students. Yo…

Orals have a lot of advantages, but they also make it very easy for unconscious bias to come into play, in that all the criteria for grading are soft.

Post by msla » Thu, Apr 22, 2021, 8:18 PM UTC

neura wrote: post #293

msla wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Maybe skills tests in an interview process is not such a bad thing. I'm fine with this in theory, but lots and lots of places bungle it so badly that they're no longer testing programming skills, they're testing rote regurgitation of memorized code under pressure. If your job legitimately requires that, for everyone's sake get out of the industry.

Is the implication here that seeing that they have a degree is better than what "lots and lots of places" do? Personally, I think a degree doesn't say much about a person's ability to do what is required in the job. Maybe we should just get better at giving skill tests in interviews.

Post by heavyset_go » Thu, Apr 22, 2021, 8:21 PM UTC

fxtentacle wrote: post #5

In case you don't know who Proctorio is: (like me) Apparently it's a supervision software that students are forced to install on their private computer and (as expected) it'll do its worst to invade your privacy and flag "suspicious" things, based on which the university might punish you. "Suspicious" here means wearing glasses [3] or looking around in the room or blinking too much [4] or having eye and/or skin color…

Post by yhoneycomb » Thu, Apr 22, 2021, 8:28 PM UTC

lostcolony wrote: post #178

yhoneycomb wrote: post #174

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Agreed. An employer could just as easily say they don’t want anyone who bad mouths their previous employers because it reflects poorly on them. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

Only if the goal is simply "get a job, anywhere". If the interview is to mutually figure out if you should work for the company, there is no such thing as a damned if you do, damned if you don't; all it can be is a "they care about what I care about" or "I don't want to work there".