I've seen a lot of comments in various places recently from NMs, potential NMs, and also DDs (new and long-term) about the unpleasant nature of long blocks of essay questions, in terms of both the boredom factor (answering long lists of questions isn't everyone's cup of tea) and the fact that they don't necessarily assess the applicant's ability to *do* anything except reword chunks of Policy and DevRef. There's also the fact that reading and commenting on these essays I get back bores me to tears as an AM, which means I've now got a backlog of these things to go through, since I've always got a list of more interesting things that I end up doing instead. So, I'm thinking of switching my assessment method from primarily quizzing to mostly activity-based -- that is, asking my applicants to do things (preferably real-life things for Debian, where possible) and then analysing their work and making judgment based on that. This moves me to a more mentoring role, too, where I can guide and give more concrete feedback to the applicant. It also gets more stuff done for Debian, and shows that the applicant can *do*, not just read. Several questions for the gathered masses: * (For other AMs) Has anyone else tried this in their AM activities? Feedback? * (For other AMs) Would other people be interested in NM templates for activity-based assessment of applicants? They'll be pretty rough-and-ready at first, but should polish up fairly quickly. Do any AMs who have done this kind of thing before have any existing examples they would like to share? * (For FD/DAM) What difficulties do you see in doing the final checks for applicants assessed under a scheme of this sort? In other words, what should I make sure I include in my evaluation regime to ensure that the end result is useful for your work? * (For applicants) Does this sound more interesting than the traditional Q&A method? I'm planning on trialling this method with one of my applicants (with her approval) over the next while. I'll be reporting back here soon thereafter, hopefully answering at least the first question above myself. <grin> - Matt
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