We recently “scoped” HND Computer Science to determine what (if anything) needs to be changed. The consultant (a retired university teacher) made several recommendations, which I summarised in this post. We are now progressing to development. The qualification will be reviewed between now and Christmas, with the goal of having the revised award validated (late) this year and available to centres by (early) next year. This means that the revised award will be offered by centres from August 2018. HND Computer…
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I recently mentioned that we had completed “scoping” the changes needed in some NPAs. I’m pleased to let you know that we have now been given the green light to proceed with the following developments: NPA Web Design Fundamentals NPA Digital Media Basics NPA Digital Media Editing. So, we will formally commence the review of these awards in the (very) near future. We hope to have the QDTs in place before the Summer holiday, and Emma will be looking for…
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May 22, 2017 - sqablogs -
In 2016, SQA revised the Internet Safety Unit and, in February this year, online teaching and learning materials were made available on the SQA Academy, in order to support the delivery of this award. The online learning materials can be accessed by teachers and learners via the following link (https://www.sqaacademy.org.uk/course/view.php?id=667). We have now developed formative assessments, as additional support materials. These assessments have taken the form of four quizzes, which cover the different sections of the Internet Safety Unit and…
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I attended my first “teachmeet” event yesterday, held in the National Library of Scotland. The idea behind teachmeet is for teachers to share best practice using (very) short presentations on a wide range of topics. It’s a bit like speed-dating for academics. There was a fantastic turnout, around 100 teachers attended, considering it started at 5pm. I’ve never been asked to cover so much in so little time. So I sped through a brief summary of SQA’s National Progression Awards (NPAs)…
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I’ve spent the last couple of days reviewing the scoping reports for a number of NPAs and an NC. We commenced this work a couple of months ago and things have ran to schedule. The purpose of a scoping report is to outline the likely changes needed to an award. Scoping is the pre-cursor to development. We commissioned a report for each of the following awards. NPA Software Development (SCQF Level 4) NPA Digital Media Basics (SCQF Level 4) NPA…
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We are currently developing HNCD Technologies in Business (the revised HNCD Information Technology). As part of the development process, we consult with stakeholders about the nature and content of the award. I would appreciate if you could take 5 -10 minutes to complete this short questionnaire about the new qualification. https://goo.gl/forms/o1bELhs2tH7bvyCC3 Please feel free to share this survey with your networks. Thank you in anticipation of your assistance.
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I recently encouraged readers to consider becoming an SQA External Verifier (EV). We are now formally advertising for EVs. I hope that you consider applying. We’re looking for new EVs in all three of my cognate groups – Computer Science, Digital Literacy and Information Technology. We’re particularly looking for people with experience of the school and university sectors – but don’t let that stop you if you have a different background. The job of an EV is really interesting. It’s fantastic…
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As previously mentioned, we started scoping the changes needed to HND Computer Science in February. We also considered the need for a separate HNC Computer Science. The consultant has now completed the work. His report makes interesting reading. His main conclusions are: no need for a separate HNC significant changes to the HND. The report contains a lot of details about why he recommended these actions and also a lot of information about the sorts of changes needed to the…
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My team get a lot of requests to add units to existing qualifications. These requests are passed to the Qualifications Support Team (QST) for consideration. If approved, these units are added (as options) to the award(s). We normally do this on an ad hoc basis but we’re going to change that. In future, we will update frameworks once per year (each July). Any request that we receive will be added to a “change request register”, which we will submit to…
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The Scottish Government published the National Action Plan on Internet Safety on Friday. It contains detailed information about how the Government is seeking to protect young people when they are online. One of the (many) actions in the document is that school inspectors should consider this aspect of pupil behaviour when they visit schools. SQA has had a qualification (a National Unit entitled Internet Safety) in this area for some time time. It was recently updated to reflect the latest…
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