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Computing & Digital Blog

August 2, 2016

Change to e-groups

I received notification, a few days ago, that GroupSpaces was changing its pricing model, and phasing out its free service. My team met today to discuss what (and how) to migrate to a new service. We’re planning to use Yahoo Groups. So, we will create new groups on that service. But we’re taking the opportunity to review and rationalise the groups. For example, we will create one group for school teachers and one group for college lecturers, rather than lots…

Categories: Computing

Bobby 1

July 20, 2016

Feedback form

One of the things to come out of the recent team day was a feedback form for people who work with us. We wanted to formalise the feedback that we get from teachers and lecturers (and others) when they work as unit writers or assessment writers or any number of roles. Up until now, the feedback has been informal. The intention is to formalise the feedback so that we can improve the support that we give to “consultants” when they…

Categories: Computing

Bobby 3

July 20, 2016

SQA and Police Scotland

I met with Willie Cravens, Head of Police Scotland’s Cyber Crime Unit, yesterday to discuss how SQA and Police Scotland can work together to improve “cyber education”. In fact, SQA and Police Scotland have been working together for several years now. Our relationship started in 2007 when Strathclyde Police “adopted” the Internet Safety unit for all new cadets. More recently, Police Scotland contributed to the creation of the NPAs in Cyber Security. The new Cyber Security Fundamentals award was expressly devised…

Categories: Cyber Security

Bobby 0

July 14, 2016

Annual team day

Once a year, the team take a day out to review the past year and look forward to the next one. It’s an opportunity to reflect on what works and try to improve what doesn’t. We had our day out yesterday. It’s not a day of naval-gazing. We focus on actions. So, over the next few months, we plan to do the following. Create a consultant register to capture the details of people who want to work with us. Formally evaluate your…

Categories: SQA

Bobby 1

July 11, 2016

Mathematics in Computing

The Maths team, in SQA, recently reviewed a number of Maths units within group awards, such as HNC Computing, to check that their levels and contents are right. The outcome is that a number of units are going to be revised. Some of those units are within Computing qualifications. The SCQF Level of the units won’t change but their contents will. Most will be “levelled up” to ensure the maths is pitched at the correct level. I will convene a…

Categories: Computing, Maths

Bobby 0