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We have javascript turned off, which automatically gives me FO's signature. I never notice how girly FO's signatures are until they get appended to my posts.

Because I thought that point I brought up was interesting, I'd like to explore it more.

When I say that a test should not be able to be cheated, some people might think, "Blasphemy!" You have to give grades in a class! And you have to have tests to give grades! And when a teacher gives a test, they have a right to expect the student to adhere to a code of ethics!

We should really put the ball back in the teacher's court. Forget about how a student might or might not cheat. What does a teacher want to test?

Say you're teaching physics, maybe a 100 or 200 level class. What do you want your students to be able to demonstrate? Knowledge of physics? The ability to mark the correct pattern of bubbles on a scantron? The ability to work with numbers from word problems?

"Knowledge of physics" is too broad, and rather unrealistic for a 200 level class. More realistic and specific might be something like, "Being able to see aspects of physics, like inertia and energy, in your every day life."

"Filling in bubbles on a scantron" is often what might get tested, but that's probably not what the teacher really wants. It also can be "cheated" on by copying from neighboring students. Teachers might go this route anyway because such tests are easy to grade, especially with huge classes, but they shouldn't fool themselves into thinking that it "really" tests physics knowledge. Just because it's easy doesn't mean it's ideal.

After you think about the goals of the class, you can see how a test might be tailored to meet a teacher's goals than stereotypical tests. If you want the student to work with number problems, you give them more complicated numbers, not just 30-45-60 angle triangles. You could theoretically scramble the numbers in each student's test, so even if they had to do the same steps, they'd get different answers and couldn't copy (assuming you could figure out a way to make grading these tests practical).

But then you'd still have to ask yourself if such a test really accomplishes what you want. Is physics really nothing but number problems?

You could have the students write essays. I think that if it comes to demonstrating real, intuitive knowledge of physics, this is just about the only approach (except maybe talking directly to the student). It might be somewhat difficult to grade. It's practically impossible to cheat.


Anyway, it all comes back to games. What does the designer really want the player to do? What skills do they want the player to demonstrate? The entire game should be based around that.

There's another side of this, which is that playing is how humans learn. So, a game should teach as well as evaluate. What a game should teach, of course, is how to play it. I think I'll leave this issue for another post, though.

Gray leader rules wrote:

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Maybe they should make an R-Type racing game next.

Gallop?