There is, again, no reason why public service cannot be incorporated into individual assessment. Adding value to fire and police services by means of monitoring and reporting (not the piece-work model of something like CrimeStoppers, but actual prevention), supporting environment by counting birds, sampling water, servicing sports events by acting as a timer or umpire - all these can add to a person's assessment.
I'm not thinking of the simple sort of tasks grade school students can perform. Indeed, a person hoping to attain a higher level qualification would need to contribute to the public good in a substantial and tangible way. Offering open online courses (that are well-subscribed and positively reviewed by the community) should be a requirement for any graduate-level recognition. The PhD used to be about offering a unique research contribution to the field; now it's about paying tuition and being exploited as a TA.
These three things - helping others, being cooperative, contributing to the public good - are obviously not easy to assess. To be sure, it's far easier to ask students simple questions and grade the number of correct responses. But assessing students in this way, far from measuring putative 'content knowledge', is really an exercise in counting without any real interest in what is being counted. It acts as an invitation to cheat, as it places self-interest ahead of the values it is actually trying to measure.
Ashley Tan on 04 Nov 11From MOE news digest: Republic Poly offers 3 -year diploma in mobile software development (Ng Jng Yng, Today, 4/11, p26)Diploma in Mobile Software Development is among the new courses to be rolled out by RP next year (Ong Jue Qi, ZB, 4/11, p14) Republic Polytechnic to offer 3 new diplomas (CNA Online, 4/11) Reports noted that Republic Polytechnic (RP) was looking to tap into the fast-growing mobile application market by offering a new diploma from next year. The three-year Diploma in Mobile Software would enable students to learn about the design and development of mobile applications used in smartphones. Reports highlighted that the students would be taught marketing strategies to sell the applications they had developed. The course would take in 40 students. Reports added that RP hoped to increase its academic intake in the next academic year. RP would be launching two other new diplomas, the Diploma in Consumer Behaviour and Research and the Diploma in Sports Coaching. RP would also be giving out 200 scholarships for the first time in the next academic year and each scholarship was worth $2,500 per academic year. ZB carried comments from P/RP that with more new courses and the new scholarships, RP was confident that it would attract outstanding Singaporean students to study at the polytechnic. CNA Online noted that RP said the new diplomas targeted students with an interest in the growing sports, marketing and mobile industries.
