Latest in Comments on Science and Academia
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Dear editor (of an Elsevier journal)
Thank you for the request to review an article. My usual reviewing fee for Elsevier journals is one full year of free access to your digital library for my university. However, Elsevier has locked out German universities from accessing research on their websites, including our own. So in addition to my usual fee I must…
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The downside of college teaching
“Teaching young minds is great and keeps you young!” There is some truth to this made-up quote. Growing older, you might get set in your ways, but younger people will most certainly challenge you to rethink those. While there is a lot of positive things to say, I want to discuss two difficult but critical…
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Does basic research need to have a purpose?
The short answer: This question is click-bait and was written to incite reflexes rather than reflection. The long answer: The question is a red herring, because a researcher arguing that research shouldn’t have to have a purpose is actually complaining about society not seeing the value of their research as they do. First of all,…
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How to prevent efficient creation and grading of written exams
Want to know how to make it hard for professors to create and grade written exams efficiently? Learn from the best, the Bavarian ministry of education, which oversees the handling of the state-wide written exams for budding high-school teachers of computer science. A thread. The grading process is even better. This, in case anyone was…
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Announcing open course “Software Product Management”
Software product management (PROD) is a course that teaches students software product management using the case method. The following materials are available: All materials are in English. The course materials (slides, videos) are available under the CC-BY 4.0 license. This means you can use my materials, remix them, and share them. You don’t have to…
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Announcing open course “Free/Libre and Open-Source Software”
Free/Libre and Open-Source Software (FOSS) teaches principles, practices, and economic underpinnings of free/libre and open source software. The following materials are available: All materials are in English. The course materials (slides, videos) are available under the CC-BY 4.0 license. This means you can use my materials, remix them, and share them. You don’t have to…