Computing – Page 47 – Computing & Digital Blog

NPA Digital Media units are now available

October 27, 2017 - Bobby - 1

I received notification this morning that the revised units that are part of the refreshed NPA Digital Media have now been published. Six revised units are available for download. HW4W 44 Digital Media: Audio (SCQF Level 4) HW4W 45 Digital Media: Audio (SCQF Level 5) HW4Y 44 Digital Media: Moving Images (SCQF Level 4) HW4Y 45 Digital Media: Moving Images (SCQF Level 5) HW4X 44 Digital Media: Still Images (SCQF Level 4) HW4X 45 Digital Media: Still Images (SCQF Level…

Unit writing

October 23, 2017 - Bobby - 22

Producing National and Higher National unit specifications is one of the most important things that SQA does, since it directly affects what happens in the classroom. A unit specification (or “unit spec”) is, effectively, the syllabus that teachers follow. It defines the purpose of the unit, the learning outcomes and the assessment. Scotland is rightly proud of the way that we produce units. Unlike some countries, we use practising teachers to write them (rather than consultants). At any one point…

Digital Skills Partnership

October 19, 2017 - Bobby - 3

I met with Lesley Broadwood, of Digital Skills Partnership (DSP), about a new initiative from the Scottish Funding Council and Skills Development Scotland. DSP has a number of aims including: improving the links between industry and education assisting with curriculum design supporting CPD for teachers. It sounds like a very worthwhile idea and something that will help both teachers and SQA. In furtherance of the CPD aim, DSP has arranged two workshops. One is on Agile, Devops, TDD and Test…

NPA Digital Media and NPA Web Design

October 12, 2017 - Bobby - 4

I’ve been working on the Group Award Specifications and unit specifications for these courses in the last few days so this seems a good time to update you on how things are progressing. The first thing to tell you about is the title changes. Digital Media Basics (Level 4) and Digital Media Editing (Level 5) are now simply Digital Media (at Levels 4 and 5). We’ve also tidied (and simplified) the unit titles. We’ve done something similar with Web Design…

Interview by EduTalk

October 11, 2017 - Bobby - 0

I was interviewed by David Noble of EduTalk recently and the show is now available online. David asked a wide range of questions about school and college qualifications and you might find the interview of interest. The questions were wide ranging and included the current areas of skills shortage, future trends in computer education, vocational qualifications in schools with some discussion about specific qualifications such as PC Passport. Forgive me speaking for most of the time. The focus was vocational (not…

Quality Network meeting

October 6, 2017 - Bobby - 0

There was a Quality Network (QN) meeting yesterday in Glasgow. The Quality Network event is organised by SQA for training providers who deliver SVQs and CBQs. The purpose of this annual event is to update training centres about recent developments and, more importantly, to provide an opportunity for them to share best practice. We stopped organising QN meetings a few years ago but the increasing interest in CBQs (largely as a result of the growing importance of Modern Apprenticeships) made…

NC/NPA Computer Games Development review meeting

October 2, 2017 - Bobby - 3

The Qualification Development Team for the review of NC/NPA Computer Games Development met on Saturday. I recently reported that these awards had been “scoped” so we went into the meeting with some idea of what needed to be done. I was delighted at the quality of the QDT. It comprises experienced and expert teachers and lecturers from schools and colleges across Scotland. As a result we were able to make a lot of progress. We agreed that the structure of…

Sector Panel meeting

October 2, 2017 - Bobby - 0

The Sector Panel for Computing met on Friday in Glasgow. The purpose of the Panel is to provide strategic guidance to SQA on such things as employment trends and technological change. There are representatives of industry, business, schools, colleges, universities and third sector organisations on the Panel. Over 20 members attended. We took the opportunity to update members about recent changes to the qualification portfolio, particularly the forthcoming HNC Cyber Security. Chris Morrow, of the Tech Partnership, updated members about…

HNC Cyber Security team meeting

September 21, 2017 - Bobby - 3

The first meeting of the Qualification Development Team (QDT) for HNC Cyber Security took place on Tuesday. There was a huge response to our request for members to join the QDT, so much so that we could only accept a small number of the volunteers. The membership spans the Chair for Digital Living at the University of Dundee to the Head of Cybercrime for Police Scotland. The QDT is responsible for developing the new HNC. Its remit includes carrying out consultation…

HND Computer Science review

September 18, 2017 - Bobby - 1

It’s been a while since I posted anything about the review of HND Computer Science. We’ve made a lot of progress since then but also had a change of plan. The progress has been coming up with the aims and structure. The change of plan is bringing forward the quantitative research. You can see the draft Group Award Specification here, which contains an explanation of the proposed changes, the aims of the revised award and a draft structure. The reason…