[vet-mm] 2006 exam

Mon Nov 13 12:06:23 EST 2006

Paul,
whilst there are help files available - students still need to
understand the question in order to answer it and I don't believe that
this level of scripting in year 12 is fair. Under exam conditions
students are trying to answer the questions relatively quickly and
having difficult scripting questions can throw then off. Also I don't
think there are many teachers who would feel 100% comfortable with
teaching scripting to the standard expected on these exams. 

The exams are heavily biased towards scripting. You might have noticed
there were virtually no visual design questions. If the exam is going to
be fair then at least all competencies should be given equal weight (yes
I know that some modules require more hours to complete than hours)
however there is still a heavy bias towards scripting, which might have
been fine for you, but I'm sure was a struggle for many others.
Regards, Sue

>>> sijp at knox.vic.edu.au 11/13/06 11:53am >>>
This was my first VET exam, I agree that particularly questions 4 and
5
in Section B were difficult.   Nevertheless, we do have to remember
that
the ActionScript editor has 'auto complete' built in and students have
access to the Macromedia Flash help files through the editor.

>From speaking to my students, none of them thought it was overly
difficult, but we spent a large chunk of the course studying
scripting.

I think the issue lies with the background of the teacher, I've worked
in IT, not in the design industry so I'm much more comfortable with
scripting than I am with visual design.  I'm interested to know how my
students went  on *those* questions!

Paul Sijpkes

The Knox School  

-----Original Message-----
From: vet-mm-bounces at edulists.com.au 
[mailto:vet-mm-bounces at edulists.com.au] On Behalf Of Mark Ridgeway
Sent: Wednesday, November 08, 2006 10:17 AM
To: VET Multimedia Teachers' Mailing List
Subject: RE: [vet-mm] 2006 exam

I was also disappointed that the exam seemed overly long on scripting
and too short on visual design. 

(And this is from someone who enjoys teaching Flash scripting in a
games
programming unit!)

The theory section was tougher than last year's - although this is
probably a good thing as the 2005 was really too easy. But we should
be
able to make the exam tougher without skewing it towards scripting.

Good luck to everyone with your results!

Regards, Mark

Mark Ridgeway
Head of ICT & Timetabler
Braemar College
Mt Macedon Rd, Woodend, 3442
Tel: (03) 5427 2500
Fax: (03) 5427 1017  

-----Original Message-----
From: vet-mm-bounces at edulists.com.au 
[mailto:vet-mm-bounces at edulists.com.au] On Behalf Of Susan Bell
Sent: Saturday, 4 November 2006 11:55 AM
To: vet-mm at edulists.com.au 
Subject: [vet-mm] 2006 exam

I don't know what others thought of the exam this year but the general
consensus of the Pixeled committee was that the exam was better than
2004 (that wouldn't be hard) but worse than 2005. 

The problem once again were the scripting questions. They are simply
too
hard! We don't have the time to go in depth with scripting so kids
only
get a superficial knowledge of conditionals, functions etc... I mean
I've been teaching this subject for 3 years now and I couldn't answer
some of those questions under exam conditions.

VCAA seem to forget that these students are 17 years old with 4 to 5
other subjects to contend with in year 12. As if they have the time to
become fully fledged programmers in half a term. It is really
ridiculous
and puts too much pressure on teachers - I mean we're not programmers
either. I would have thought the exam panel would have learnt by now
that complex scripting questions should be left to IT exams, not
multimedia ones. And where were the visual design questions? It
appears
a whole competency was missed so that the exam panel could shove in
more
scripting questions.

It really is a shame that this subject has been hijacked by people who
think that year 12 students need to know scripting. Surely this stuff
can be left to TAFE or University. I'm not against some scripting, its
fine to get the kids to make interactive pieces but these can be done
with some simple button commands. I think the exam panel are doing the
subject and the students a disservice when they come up with all these
ridiculous scripting questions. Last year they got it right, how did
they manage to get it so wrong again?

Sue

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VET Multimedia Mailing List kindly supported by
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Wesley College Melbourne is a world class coeducational independent school
developing the whole person through timeless principles of learning:
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