Wanted – HN Assessment Exemplar Writer

We are looking for a writer to develop HN Assessment Exemplars for the following HN Units: F1X9 34 Computing: PC Hardware Operating Systems SupportF1XA 34 Computing: PC Hardware Operating Systems Essentials Units can be located on the SQA Website for those who would like to see their content. Ideally, we would prefer that one person writes both exemplars to ensure consistency throughout. This is paid work with a tight timeline (1st November). If interested, I would be grateful if you…

Internet Safety Assessment Support Pack (ASP)

Today the Assessment Support Pack for Internet Safety (Intermediate 1) was uploaded to the SQA Secure Website. The pack is located within the NQ Subjects section under ‘Digital Media Computing’. Please contact your SQA Co-ordinator within your centre to gain access to this material.

Qualification Support Team for NC/NPA awards meets

The QST for the NC/NPA awards met yesterday afternoon for the first time. There was a great turn-out with almost 20 people attending, representing schools, colleges and the workplace. The QST is responsible for National Certificate, PC Passport and other NPA awards. Since it was the committee’s inaugural meeting, we spent most of the time explaining the changes that have taken place to these awards but future meetings will be more interactive. The purpose of the QST is to represent…

Decline in IT students threatens UK success

College consortium to develop NC materials

I’ve just heard that a number of colleges have got together to form a consortium to develop teaching and learning material to support a number of units within the new NC programmes. Please note that this is not an SQA project. The initiative is being led by Mike Jannetta of Glasgow Met. So contact Mike if you want more information.

Assessment lecture

I attended an early morning lecture on assessment in Edinburgh today. Professor Dylan Wiliam of the University of London gave a Masterclass on the role of assessment in the education system. It was a fascinating talk from one of the worlds leading experts on assessment theory. During my recent secondment, I produced a paper on Assessment 2.0 [PDF], which described how we can use Web 2.0 technologies to generate evidence for assessment. It would be interesting to know how practitioners…

Computing uptake meeting

I attended a meeting at Jordanhill College yesterday afternoon about encouraging school pupils to choose Computing as a subject. This meeting was a follow-up to a two day workshop in May (that I did not attend). The meeting was chaired by Andrew McGettrick (Strathclyde University) and there were representatives of various universities (including Glasgow and Edinburgh) and national organisations (including Learning & Teaching Scotland). We had a fascinating discussion about various aspects of the issue and agreed a number of…

HN Graded Unit Exams

Today I met with Bobby to give an update on the current status of Exam Graded Unit production for 2008. These are well underway and within our original project timescale. We are producing 9 exemplars in total – Computing (x 3), Information Technology (x 3) and Interactive Multimedia Creation (x 3). These will be in addition to the existing bank of exemplar exam materials currently available. These will be available for download from the SQA secure website from December 2007.

PC Passport Assessment Support Packs (ASPs)

I have been receiving enquiries relating to the PC Passport ASPs, in particular, when will they appear on the SQA secure site? We are working closely with our in-house publications team to turn these materials around as quickly as possible. Priority has been given to Beginner & Intermediate levels (School & College versions) with Workbased versions for all levels to follow soon after. My colleagues within publications have informed me that some of the packs should start to appear on…

Great Scottish Run

Sorry for posting a personal message on the blog, and I promise not to make a habit of it, but I’m running in the Great Scottish Run (half marathon) on 2 September on behalf of Cancer Research and I’m looking for sponsors. You can donate/sponsor me online here. We have an ambitious target (£1,500) and any amount would be appreciated.