January 19, 2010 - Bobby -
There was a meeting of the Qualification Development Team (QDT) for the new NPAs in Computer Games today. It was a full-day meeting because we had a lot to go through. I was approached by Julie McLaren of Forrester High School in late-April of last year. Julie wanted to develop a new non-advanced qualification in computer games for her pupils and wanted my opinion of her proposed qualification, which was a single award based on existing units. Since that time,…
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January 18, 2010 - Bobby -
We recently validated the new PDA in Applications of ICT in Libraries at SCQF Level 8 (G9LE 48) and have been busy working on finalising the arrangements document and internal processing of the award to make it live on our systems. As I had previously blogged, in addition to this, we have also added new HN Units in Digital Culture to the optional section of the PDA in Applications of ICT in libraries at SCQF Level 7 (G8PX 47). The…
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January 15, 2010 - Bobby -
Me and Caroline met with the lead developer for the HNC/D Computer Games project today. Nigel Kennington, of Telford College, is leading this work. It was really a review meeting, to consider how things were progressing. We had originally hoped to have these qualifications (we are developing an HNC and an HND) validated this month (January 2010) but things have slipped a little. It now looks like the validation event will take place in March. The draft framework has been…
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January 7, 2010 - Bobby -
A number of developments should reach fruition early in 2010 (or, at least, first half of the year). These include: NPAs in Computer Games (at SCQF Levels 4/5/6) HNC/D Computer Games Development PDA in Child Online Protection SVQs in IT Professional new units relating to FITS improved PC Passport units and assessments. We will also commence some new developments including: review of HNC/D Computer Networking review of HNC/D Computing new vendor linked awards. We also plan to work with centres…
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January 6, 2010 - Bobby -
The following HN Units in Digital Culture are now live and available for download from the SQA website: F86T 33 Digital Culture: Web 2.0 Applications (SCQF Level 6)F86P 34 Digital Culture: Online Communication (SCQF Level 7)F86V 35 Digital Culture: Online Collaboration (SCQF Level 8) Two of the Units (F86T 33 & F86P 34) now form part of the optional section of the Group Award G8PX 47 PDA in Applications of ICT in Libraries at SCQF Level 7. The standalone Units…
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January 5, 2010 - Bobby -
SQA re-started today. Caroline and me made it back, but Hilary fell on the ice during the holiday and broke her wrist, and I’m not sure when she will make it back. I hope you choose to follow us during 2010. This can be done in a number of ways. This blog is the best way to keep up-to-date with developments. So either bookmark this page or add the feed to your newsreader (I use Google Reader). Most modern phones…
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December 22, 2009 - Bobby -
We stop for Christmas tomorrow and return on Tuesday, 5 January. It’s that time of the year when you reflect on the past year. One of the highlights was the addition of Hilary to the team, who joined us in June. Hilary replaced Shirley, who many of you know well, but she is full-time and Shirley was part-time, meaning that the team grew. As you probably know, my portfolio is roughly split between Caroline, who takes care of HNs, PDAs…
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December 21, 2009 - Bobby -
Scotland’s Colleges organises regular subject networks when Computing lecturers get together to discuss curricular issues. There was a meeting on Friday dedicated to the recent HMIe Aspect report for the subject. I was asked to speak about SQA’s response to the report. My presentation [PPT] pointed out the good and not-so-good comments made about qualifications and assessment. My proposed actions included: continueing to try to reduce the amount of assessment, increasing the use of objective tests (and online assessment using…
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December 16, 2009 - Bobby -
I met with Chris Morrow, of E-Skills UK, on Monday afternoon to discuss new National Occupational Standards (NOS) relating to IT Professional. E-Skills maintains two sets of Standards: one set relating to IT user (ICT) and one set relating to IT professional (Computing). It recently revised their IT Professional Standards and SQA, along with other awarding bodies, is now in the process of turning these Standards into qualifications. These have traditionally been SVQs but we explored the possibility of creating…
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December 10, 2009 - Bobby -
E-Skills UK is the Sector Skills Council for IT. Once very quarter, it convenes a meeting of all of the awarding bodies involved in delivering S/NVQs. I attended the final meeting of 2009 today in London. SQA is one of a number of organisations that attend, including City & Guilds, EdExcel and BCS. I find it particularly useful since it is an opportunity for me to catch up with what is going on in the rest of the UK. There…
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