Computing – Page 133 – Computing & Digital Blog

Post-validation meeting for NPAs

February 2, 2009 - Bobby - 0

This afternoon I met with the team behind the proposed NPAs that were recently validated to agree what needs to be done to address the various validation conditions and recommendations. There’s a great deal to be done but we set short timescales to get the work done because I know many centres are awaiting these awards. We’re hoping for the awards to be validated at the end of April and available to centres from end-May. Bill Brown (Lauder College) and…

HND Interactive Media validation

January 28, 2009 - Bobby - 0

We held the validation event for the HND Interactive Media qualification today. Ron Dillin of Stow College chaired the Panel, which included representatives of industry (including SkillSet), FE and HE. The QDT was led by Mark McPhee of Adam Smith College. The Panel were very thorough and we got several conditions and recommendations to deal with, but, overall, the outcome was positive, and the resulting qualification will be much better for it. We agreed to address the conditions and recommendations…

HND Computer Games

January 26, 2009 - Bobby - 1

As you will probably remember, we have started developing a new HND award relating to Computer Games. I created a blog this afternoon to record developments so that you can keep up-to-date with what’s happening. You’ll find the blog here and you may want to bookmark it if you are interested in this new award.

NPA validation event

January 21, 2009 - Bobby - 2

Three more NPAs were validated on Monday… or, rather, we held a validation event on Monday because the result of the meeting was a large number of conditions that we must meet before the awards will be validated. Although we were a little disappointed at the outcome, the Panel was very thorough and the awards will be much better as a result. But we have got a lot of thinking to do about precisely what NPAs we should develop. I…

Next Generation User Skills

January 15, 2009 - Bobby - 0

Some time ago, I mentioned a report (partly commissioned by SQA) that looked into the sort of skills needed by IT users in the future. The report made several recommendations relating to SQA provision and this morning I met with John Gordon, who many of you will know, to discuss how to take this forward. John is going to examine each recommendation in the report and identify the action that SQA should take to address it. I’m hoping that this…

HND Interative Media validation

January 14, 2009 - Bobby - 0

I posted a message on the HND Interactive Media blog today about the forthcoming validation event (which takes place on Wednesday, 28 January). I also reported that I did not intend to continue with that blog and to use this one instead.

Best practice event for National Certificates

January 13, 2009 - Bobby - 1

Glasgow Met is hosting a best practice event for the NC Digital Media Computing awards on Friday, 6 March in Glasgow. The purpose of the event is to share experiences of delivering the new National Certificates. Although this is not an SQA event, it sounds very worthwhile and should prove valuable to any centre involved in the delivery of the new awards. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to attend since I am on annual leave at that time, but Shirley…

NPA validations

January 12, 2009 - Bobby - 0

They’ve taken a long time coming but we have got there eventually… the much-delayed validation event for three more NPAs will take place next Monday. I met with Shirley this afternoon to check the arrangements for the event and everything is in-hand. The three awards are: Still Images, Audio and Video (SCQF Level 4). Still Images, Audio and Video (SCQF Level 5). Animation (SCQF Level 5). Gillian Leitch (Langside College) is leading the Panel, and Bill Brown (Adam Smith College)…

SQA on Scribd

January 12, 2009 - Bobby - 0

The Computing team make use of a web service called Scribd, which is a publishing/document sharing service. I’ve spent a little time today tidying the SQA group on Scribd. It contains a lot of useful documentation such as the new Guide to Assessment. You can subscribe to the SQA document feed here.

External verification team

January 9, 2009 - Bobby - 0

I’ve been working on criteria for selecting and de-selecting External Verifiers today. Appointing EVs has traditionally been at the discretion of the Qualifications Manager (i.e. me) but I’ve never been comfortable with the subjectivity of the system. The current system also makes it difficult to “break into” the EV team since new people are put on a reserve list. Becoming an EV is fantastic CPD. You get the opportunity to visit centres throughout Scotland (and sometimes further afield) and it…