We have a new member of the team. Scott Miller joined us to replace Tricia, as administrator. Tricia was temporary and is moving on to a new job. Scott will be with us for some time. Here’s the most recent organisation chart, which you can download in various formats.
Read moreRead more about Welcome to ScottThis morning Angela and I met with Joanna McGillvray of Forth Valley College and Tony Gurney of Ayr College to discuss possible developments in the Computer Games area. There is currently an HNC Computer Games Development available to centres (developed by Stow College in 2005) and this is now offered by a number of colleges. There has been regular requests for a corresponding HND award but we’ve not taken this forward due to doubts about student numbers. What was clear…
Read moreRead more about Computer Games DevelopmentThe team met with Heads of Computing on Friday at the Menzies Hotel in Glasgow. It was a very busy agenda, which covered all of the developments which have taken place, and are currently taking place, in this subject area. There were presentations from various people. I gave an overview of developments. | View | Upload your own Gillian Leitch spoke about the new National Certificates. | View | Upload your own Caroline showcased the Internet Safety unit. | View…
Read moreRead more about Heads of Computing meetingTony is still covering another post within SQA and his replacement (Laura) left for a permanent position last week (with another organisation). So Tricia Hanlan joined the team on a temporary basis this morning. Here is the latest organisation chart for the Computing team. Tricia will be with us for a short time until Tony is covered on a more permanent basis.
Read moreRead more about Welcome to TriciaThese photos bring back memories.
Read moreRead more about Old photos of computersI attended the E-Assessment Conference yesterday. The event was held in Glasgow. I was speaking about objective testing. | View | Upload your own My presentation was based on The Guide to Writing Objective Tests. There were lots of interesting presentations including one from Martyn Ware of SQA who outlined SQA’s e-assessment strategy.
Read moreRead more about E-Assessment Question ConferenceOver the last couple of years, we’ve developed a large number of digital learning packs to support various HN units, mainly thanks to ESF funding. There have been four development phases. Phases 1 and 2 developed material for HNC Computing. The material can be found here. Phase 3 focussed on HNC Information Technology; we’re still working on these materials but they will be available soon. Phase 4 focused on HNC Interactive Media and is now virtually complete. The materials for…
Read moreRead more about E-learning material for HN unitsWe spent most of today checking the new units that form part of the National Certificate in Digital Media Computing at Level 6. The purpose of the check was to ensure that the units are fit for purpose – in other words, they are fit to be delivered in centres. So, we invited a couple of experienced college lecturers to come along and look over the units. It was very productive. We made several changes to make the units easier…
Read moreRead more about National Certificate unit checkEngland, Wales and Northern Ireland are creating a framework similar to Scotland’s SCQF and I’ve been in London for a couple of days to get up-to-speed on developments. It’s been very interesting. The Qualification & Credit Framework (QCF) has nine levels (SCQF has 12) and uses 10 hour credits (rather than SQA’s 40 hour credits). But the underlying principles are the same. Of course, it’s a major undertaking to standardise qualifications in such a complex environment as England (there are…
Read moreRead more about Qualification and credit frameworkI will be writing to centres in the near future regarding the development of the HND Interactive Media. The HNC award was developed last year (although too late for centres to offer from August) and we are now going to turn our attention to the HND award(s). I plan to walk-the-walk during this project… I’m going to make extensive use of Web 2.0 tools to create the new awards in collaboration with developers, teachers and other interested parties. I’ve written…
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