I’ve been volunteering as a judge at FLL (FIRST Lego League) and FTC (FIRST Tech Challenge) for many years. This year the difference in certification was interesting. After all, why would you use the same system for the same organization?
| FLL | FTC | |
|---|---|---|
| Video/educational materials | Required* | Optional |
| Quiz/cert test | Required | Required |
| Area to discuss quiz/other topics | No | Yes |
| Calls | ? | Optional |
| In person training | ? | Optional |
The FLL training videos were horrible. There’s no option to speed up play. Many online videos let you play it at 2X the initial speed. Most of the material is the basics if you’ve been doing it for years. (Apparently I’ve never been certified as a judge for FLL). And you can’t skip even a small section of it to “fast forward”. The system actually records how many minutes the video is open. Well, you get what you measure.
What makes it worse is that the cert is completely optional as judges can be walk ons or corporate volunteers who show up the day of and have barely heard of FIRST.
I passed both certs on the first shot. I didn’t need the training. I did enjoy the survey at the end.