The trade-off over exams

Jim PavlidisCredit:.

Exams trade-offs
As a university student 50 years ago, assessment was based almost solely on invigilated exams, so the opportunity for cheating was limited. For 40 years as an academic I worked with others to develop better methods of assessment to encourage enhanced learning: assignments, teamwork, problem solving of real industry questions. As we tried to enhance learning, the greater the level of cheating became.
The only way to prevent cheating is to have individual invigilated exams. There is a trade-off between best academic practice and learning, and the opportunity to cheat.
Louise Kloot, Doncaster

Life, the edited version
Editing former partners out of wedding videos (″⁣Divorced from reality″⁣, 29/12) and photos or, as my grandmother did in the 1940s, tearing photos in half removing the other person, does not change the fact that these people were, for a time, part of our lives.
We all make mistakes. Many of us marry the wrong person for the wrong reasons or at the wrong time but they are still a part of our life story. Unless a relationship has been subject to force, abuse or coercion, trying to pretend it didn’t happen isn’t ″⁣heroic″⁣, it’s just not acknowledging that we got something wrong and can learn from our mistakes.
April Baragwanath, Geelong

Her Majesty, please
I was astounded to see that The Age (29/12) referred to the late HM Queen Elizabeth II as HRH. She was Her Majesty (HM) not HRH (His/Her Royal Highness) which is for princes and princesses.
Judy Trinham, Surrey Hills

Own worst enemy
Your correspondent (Letters, 29/12) says environmentalists have demonised the forestry industry. VicForests has been its own worst enemy in the forum of public opinion, being frequently found guilty in the courts of being unable to conform to regulations and endangering our wildlife.
Last month in a case won by Environment East Gippsland and Kinglake Friends of the Forest, Supreme Court Justice Melinda Richards said VicForests’ actions posed serious risks and irreversible harm to greater gliders and yellow-bellied gliders.
VicForests is a state-owned ″⁣business″⁣ taking taxpayer money of $18 million in 2021. Yet it has shown it is not a profitable business, nor one that is capable of following such ″⁣tight regulations″⁣.

Elaine Hopper, Blackburn

Keep it on Court
Margaret Court won 11 Australian Open singles titles to Ash Barty’s one. There is no reason why Court’s name should be removed from Melbourne Arena, and certainly not in favour of Barty, worthy player she was.
Greg Hardy, Upper Ferntree Gully

Voice in the wilderness
With the worldwide trend in democracies for women to prefer parties on the left, and, as identified by the Australian Election Study in the article ″⁣Libs ditched as younger voters flock to Albanese″⁣ (The Age, 29/12), only about one in four voters under the age of 40 voting for the Coalition in 2022, one wonders why the Liberal Party should warrant media focus any more.
A party bereft of empirically researched templates for this nation’s future, and dominated by a dying demographic of old white males still unable to comprehend the watershed significance of the Voice to parliament, for example, no longer speaks to a diverse Australian electorate. Yearning for a Menzies era is now quixotic.
Jon McMillan, Mount Eliza

High hopes
Thank you to Warwick McFadyen for his timely reminder of the enduring significance of singing Auld Lang Syne on New Year’s Eve (28/12).
McFadyen writes that ″⁣arms have been reached out to another, hands are clasped, fingers entwined .. A chorus of good cheer goes out into the night″⁣.
These days the linking of arms generally occurs as we start singing. However the call to join hands does not occur until verse 5: ″⁣Now here’s a hand, my trusty friend. And gie’s a hand of thine″⁣
Often, verse 5 is sung as the second and final verse. At this point we can reach out to others and move into the new year with goodwill and high hopes.
Jim McLeod,
Sale

Flying

Jetstar? JetDud.
John Howell, Heathmont

Maybe Jetstar should first ask the cricket umpires before it sends substitute planes in to bat.
Jenifer Nicholls, Armadale

Qantas luggage and now Jetstar U-turn schmozzles. The planes may not land but we all know where the buck stops.
Greg Curtin, Blackburn South

Furthermore
Russia states that other countries putting a price cap on its crude oil is against international law. I would have thought that invading a neighbour was also against international law.
Les Aisen, Elsternwick

I think you’re doing a really good job as prime minister, Anthony Albanese, but I don’t expect you to wear a suit and tie to the cricket.
Marilyn Moffatt, Parkdale

If “the captain of our first nuclear submarine is probably already in secondary school today” then maybe their grandchild will be our first head of a republic.
Bryan Fraser, St Kilda West

In the interests of truth and honesty, could politicians and the media replace the phrase ″⁣living with COVID″⁣ by ″⁣living and dying with COVID″⁣?
Paul Perry, Fitzroy

Loose carrots at the supermarket today, $2.50 a kilo. But less than half that if you want a plastic bag thrown in. Why, Coles? Shame on you.
Chris Millgate-Smith, Croydon

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