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Johannes van der Kwast 2019-08-25 16:47:49 +02:00
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Ideas-for-improving-the-QGIS-certification-programme.md

@ -6,7 +6,9 @@ You may be wondering about our approach to certification. We looked at a number
1. Computer based testing: Favoured by industry, in this approach the project owner would create a large pool of questions and then provide a test environment where a random subset of questions are allocated to the person being tested and they would carry out an online examination. There are a few issues with this approach including the need for a way to verify that the correct user actually undertook the exam and not a proxy, the need for a large amount of project input to create and maintain the test questions, and the general trend for examinees to go online and share the questions the were asked for future examinees. There is also the issue that sometimes complex (especially graphical) software is hard to examine in an environment where text based answers are expected.
2. Portfolio based testing: Favoured by academia, this approach requires attendees to submit mini-projects or other projects such as maps and reports to demonstrate their competency. This has a downside that each evaluation is very personal and subjective.
Neither of these systems is really suitable for our needs so we have opted for a third choice: In this approach we create a "web of trust". In this approach we trust the organisations that provide training to properly issue certificates for their course attendees. We spend our time verifying the certifying organisation and then trust them to 'do the right thing' after that.
Neither of these systems is really suitable for our needs so we have opted for a third choice: In this approach we create a "web of trust". In this approach we trust the organisations that provide training to properly issue certificates for their course attendees. We spend our time verifying the certifying organisation and then trust them to 'do the right thing' after that.
In the future we might want to change that, but currently it has no priority.
# Certification team
Reviewers: Kurt Menke, Hans van der Kwast
@ -15,14 +17,13 @@ Platform: Tim Sutton, Anita Hapsari
Billing: Andreas Neumann
_Others? I suggest an advisory board consisting of other educators: Lene Fischer and Erik Meerburg_
An advisory board consisting of Lene Fischer and Erik Meerburg has been proposed given their experience in GIS education and their knowledge of community building.
# Criteria
## Quality of training materials
Training materials should be provided for review of their quality.
Training materials should be using at least the latest QGIS LTR version.
The review will be done by Kurt Menke and Hans van der Kwast
Peer review by country user group
Training materials should be using at least the latest QGIS LTR version. The LTR version will be printed on the certificate. Re-assessment needs of the training materials should be done after the release of an LTR version.
The review will be done by Kurt Menke and Hans van der Kwast.
_Any other criteria?_
@ -54,12 +55,12 @@ Organisations that want to apply for the certification programme can submit an a
## Review
In the review phase the criteria mentioned above will be checked by the reviewers. Here's the workflow of the review phase:
1. The reviewers receive a notification of new applicants. _Not working well_
2. After reviewing the application form, the reviewers request the training materials for review. Proprietary materials will be treated confidential. The applicant is also asked to provide information on the contribution to the QGIS project.
2. After reviewing the application form, the reviewers request the training materials for review. _The applicant needs to indicate if and what assessment takes place. For the moment this will not be used as a criteria for certification, but might be used in the future._ Proprietary materials will be treated confidential. The applicant is also asked to provide information on the contribution to the QGIS project. The latter will be confirmed with the QGIS User Group of the applicant's country. If that doesn't exist this will be judged by the PSC.
3. The reviewer informs the applicant about acception/rejection.
Once the organisation has passed approval, the organisation owner and managers will be able to proceed with setting up courses, conveners and so on using the management interface provided on Projecta. This is explained in the next section.
In the case of a dispute about the decision the PSC will communicate with the applicant.
_We need a timing for this phase_
Once the organisation has passed approval, the organisation owner and managers will be able to proceed with setting up courses, conveners and so on using the management interface provided on Projecta. This is explained in the next section.
_We need to decide how to distribute the review between the reviewers, maybe set criteria for that such as conflict of interest, language, course themes, etc. Suggestion to add Lene Fischer and Erik Meerburg as advisors_
@ -70,11 +71,13 @@ _There is a feature I have requested that I believe would greatly help manage th
## Registration of the organisation and courses
Once the organisation is approved, the applicant will receive a confirmation email and the organisation can be managed in the Projecta platform. The Projecta platform is descibed in detail [here](http://changelog.qgis.org/en/qgis/about/). Here we'll present the workflow.
_The about page with Projecta info should be more easily found._
### Managing the certifying organisation
1. Applicant logs in at [Projecta](http://changelog.qgis.org)
2. Go to Certification -> Organisations
3. CLick **Sign Up** to sign up for certification
4. On the registration page you can fill in all the key details about your organisation including its, address (physical and online), contact person email, logo and so on. It is important to include a logo if you have one as that will be used on the certificates issued by the system. We recommend that you use a logo with a square aspect ratio for this.
4. On the registration page you can fill in all the key details about your organisation including its, address (physical and online), contact person email, logo and so on. It is important to include a logo if you have one as that will be used on the certificates issued by the system. We recommend that you use a logo with a square aspect ratio for this. We need to implement that the applicant will have to give a consent for visibility of contact information (in line with GDPR).
5. After that you can see your organisation page, which gives a quick dashboard overview of your organisation, credits, training centers and attendees. The map will be zoomed in to the region where your organisation operates. There are then four main things that can be managed:
* Courses
* Training Centers
@ -114,11 +117,18 @@ After the course has been added to the dashboard of the organisation, the partic
* Re-generate all pdf's from the course
* E-mail all participants the link to their certificate
The process of registering an attendee and issuing the certificate is separated so you need only issue certificate to those that pass your course. Each attendee will receive an email with a link to a downloadable copy of the certificate. The certificate includes a unique number which is allocated to each certificate and a unique link that they can provide (for example in their CV) to verify that they have indeed completed the course. This mechanism should help to prevent fake certificates. Course conveners should upload a digital signature to their profile. This is embedded into the certificate together with the digital signature of the project leader (who needs to set this in the project profile options page).
The process of registering an attendee and issuing the certificate is separated so you need only issue certificate to those that pass your course. Each attendee will receive an email with a link to a downloadable copy of the certificate.
The certificate includes a unique number which is allocated to each certificate and a unique link that they can provide (for example in their CV) to verify that they have indeed completed the course. This mechanism should help to prevent fake certificates. Course conveners should upload a digital signature to their profile. This is embedded into the certificate together with the digital signature of the project leader (who needs to set this in the project profile options page).
_We'll add a link to the about page, so the employer knows what the QGIS certification means._
_We need to hide the view button from the course page in order to hide the participant lists of courses (GDPR compliance)._
### Payments
We are planning to introduce an e-commerce system soon. When that is implemented, you will be able to purchase credits which can be used to then pay for the certificates you issue. Currently we work on a somewhat manual system - when you are going to be running a course, ask one of the project administrators to load credits for your organisation.
_Currently we charge 20 euros per certificate which will be 100% used for QGIS. We're discussing to use part of the income to sustain the certification platform. At this moment we'll not deviate from a flat rate to keep it simple. In the future we might want to have multiple rates for different regions."
_Currently there's no way to check credits and issued certificates. If the applicant issued a certificate, one credit will be removed. However, when this shouldn't be done if:_
_-There's an error in the name and a new certificate needs to be made for the attendee_
@ -126,4 +136,11 @@ _-There's an error in the name and a new certificate needs to be made for the at
_-Courses where attendees need to receive the certificate on the last day of the course. In that case the certificates are generated and printed in advance of the course. If attendees drop out or there are no-shows, these should be removed without lowering the credits._
# Getting help
If you have any problems using the certification platform please file an issue at [https://github.com/kartoza/projecta/issues](https://github.com/kartoza/projecta/issues).
If you have any problems using the certification platform please file an issue at [https://github.com/kartoza/projecta/issues](https://github.com/kartoza/projecta/issues).
# Platform improvements
We need to prioritize issues. We might make a budget available for the sustainability of the platform, features and bug fixing. In the future the QGIS certification platform will run on its own instance.
# Other discussion points
We have concluded that QGIS User Groups are not allowed to issue certificates for their trainings.