Certificate of Merit

[Carl Hibbard]

Nothing so far

Good, I will keep an eye on it to see what the domain properly transfers the registrant name then

[John Upham]

Nothing so far

Good, I will keep an eye on it to see what the domain properly transfers the registrant name then

Keep watching. Check every five minutes.

[Carl Hibbard]

Keep watching. Check every five minutes.

Perhaps I should not both with sensible questions then

[John Upham]

Keep watching. Check every five minutes.

Perhaps I should not both with sensible questions then

That depends on your definition of sensible.

[andrew martin]

Let us pray

[Ian Thompson]

I've registered and tried a practice test. I mostly agree with previous posters. The registration function needs more work. Some fields that are shown as optional have to be filled in. The registration screen was then left in a mess after it reported these errors. I ended up using Internet Explorer instead of Firefox to successfully register. Someone who is just curious, rather than really wanting to take the test, may have given up if they were unable to register easily.

I thought there were too many practice questions covering the same topics - numerous questions asking whether castling was possible and numerous questions asking how many squares pieces controlled. I'm pretty certain I got exactly the same question twice. It asked whether white could castle. There was a white bishop still on f1 preventing kingside castling. Queenside castling was legal. There was a white bishop on d2 blocking the black queen on an otherwise open d-file. How many positions like this are there in the practice set? More than one?

There's clearly a mistake in the answers because it says I got one wrong. That might be because I miscounted the number of squares a piece was controlling in one of those questions, but I also wonder whether getting the same question twice might be the explanation.

[John Upham]

Thanks to everyone for the various comments about the registration form for students.

I have reworked the registration form on the trialling server : http://www.chessforschools.org.uk/

I would be most grateful if you could give it a go and let me have feedback.

Don't hold back (unless its about CSS type matters and they can wait!)

[John Upham]

A user has reported a bug (or at least strange behaviour) whereby the Nickname Input field is auto filled by the Email Alias.

I am attempting to reproduce this with either Firefox 3.6.2, IE 6, 7 and 8.

If you see this could you take a screen shot and send to [email protected] please? Many thanks!

[John Upham]

Thanks to everyone for much testing. I have implemented auditing to analyse what users are doing.

There have been some hacking attempts which have amused me.

including the very clever

A new student has registered for CoM :

Name = Master c c,
EmailAlias = [email protected],
Nickname = cc108,

Coming from 81.187.76.185 their ISP is Andrews & Arnold Ltd......

[Carl Hibbard]

Coming from 81.187.76.185 their ISP is Andrews & Arnold Ltd......

I would not class that as hacking but as testing to be honest, but don't worry I didn't get far as it fell over

[John Upham]

but don't worry I didn't get far as it fell over

Can you be more specific please?

[Matt Harrison]

John,

I have successfully registered at the new site, having failed at the main one. The issue seems to be that if you partly complete the form (by not noticing that there are fields lower down that you need to scroll to for example), then the system doesn't subsequently display the fields for completion. Even closing the browser and restarting the session fails to resolve it (presumably down to cookies). I managed to get to a position where the only field that appeared on my registration screen was nickname, no others were presented for logging in.

As for the site once logged in. Well it works, but in my view it needs quite a bit more work (as does my chess general knowledge!). The visual appearance is are unattractive, and the exam process is dull and uninspiring. I'd really question the value of paying £6 for a test, especially if it resulted in a fail. I think if the purpose is to improve the skills of young chessplayers whilst also making a contribution to ECF finances then a much better proposition would be £6 for each level, with multiple resits until a pass is obtained. Even if this results in a few bogus awards (due to someone using the site again and again to get a pass through guesswork) the overall benefits would be greater.

For an example of a similar site that works really well, have a look at mymaths.co.uk which my kids are using for their maths homework now. Attractive, secure, marks work, stores results, has lessons for the underlying concepts for each section etc. really excellent stuff.

[Carl Hibbard]

but don't worry I didn't get far as it fell over

Can you be more specific please?

No, what you amusing call hacking I consider fundamental testing and I really don't have the time - sorry

[andrew martin]

Matt,

Have you or any of the others who have taken the tests taken a look at the DVD and supplementary booklet which is part of the whole package? I was hoping that this would be an aid to students and teachers who want to learn chess from scratch. The point is that the DVD/booklet/website work together to help everyone. Have you seen the certificates and badges the successful students will receive? Do you know what very good value the overall package is?

This whole discussion has reminded me how important it is in education to look for positive and encouraging things to say, rather than concentrating on every, small negative thing one can find.

[Matthew Turner]

Andy,
Both you and Matt have some valid points. However, most teachers are going to check out the certificate of merit site and try the practise test before ordering the DVD and book etc. If registration is problematic and the practise tests are not that good (compare them with the free tests available at chesskids.com), then how many teachers are going to buy the package. I would suggest not many, so the DVD might be brilliant, the book might be superb, the certificate and badge might be incredible, but people are not going to see them.