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Computing & Digital Blog

February 2, 2015

Heads of Computing event

The Heads of Computing event took place on Friday at the Stirling Highland Hotel. This annual event has taken place for over 20 years now and is an important date in the team’s calendar. It went well. The agenda this year, I thought, was a particularly good mix of stuff-you-need-to-know and interesting presentations about such things as the future of assessment and cyber security. My own presentation provided an update on qualifications (a standing item on the agenda) plus a…

Categories: Computing

Bobby 0

January 28, 2015

Gender problem persists

The Times ran an article last week about the continued problems attracting women to STEM subjects at university. The figures for Computer Science were particularly bleak, with 87% of entrants last year being male, a rise of 2% since 2008. The good news is that the total number of people doing Computer Science at university has risen dramatically, up almost 50% in the last seven years. But the gender problem appears to be getting worse. There has been numerous initiatives…

Categories: Computing

Bobby 0

January 27, 2015

PC Passport QDT meeting

The first meeting of the Qualification Development Team (QDT) for PC Passport met on Saturday in Stirling. It was a good meeting. There were representatives of the college and school sectors. We made a lot of progress in a short time. There was a consensus among the group that we wanted to go back to basics with the award, which would mean simplifying the structure and refocusing on application packages. Application packages have changed a lot since PC Passport was…

Categories: Computing

Bobby 2

January 23, 2015

Review of HNC/D Interactive Media

I announced the review of HNC/D Interactive Media some time ago. Since then, we’ve created a Qualification Development Team (QDT), which has now met on three occasions. One of those meetings was held today in the SQA offices in Glasgow. Fiona Murnin (of New College Lanarkshire) is leading the development. The development is progressing well. Fiona has created  frameworks for three new awards; HNC Digital Design & Web Development HND Web Development HND Digital Design. Today’s meeting was to discuss…

Categories: Computing

Bobby 2

January 19, 2015

Update on Lead Person Network

I’ve mentioned the Lead Person Network (LPN) previously. The Network now has 28 members, covering every college in Scotland. I appreciate that this is, in fact, more than the total number of (new) colleges in Scotland but, for the time being, some colleges have been permitted more than one representative. The FAQ covers the most common questions about the Lead Person Network. In time, I’m sure that the LPN will serve a very useful service as a conduit between SQA…

Categories: Computing

Bobby 0