Monday 29 November 2010

Head of Computing meeting

I am taking this opportunity to put up a notice of the meeting on Friday, 3 December 2010, in order that Computing sections up and down the country have a chance to discuss the development of the new or existing HNC/D's in the Computing sector.

There will be a brief discussion on the possible new awards, and then all colleges should cast their vote for their preferred structure.

The options are
Option 1 Keep the current structure and tweak the current units to bring them up to date.

Option 2 Have an HNC for each new HND award. i.e
HNC / HND Computing: Software Development.
HNC / HND Computing: Technical Support .
HNC / HND Computer Networking.

Option 3 A generic HNC Computing with 3 possible HND’s.
HND Computing: Software Development.
HND Computing: Technical Support ?
HND Computer Networking

Option 4 A generic HNC Computing with 4 possible HND’s.
HND Computing: Software Development.
HND Computing: Technical Support .
HND Computer Networking.
HND Computing

If any college wants to propose a different structure please let me know asap.

There will also be a vote on which type of graded unit will be developed for the HNC.
Project or Exam

As the weather may make your journeys to Edinburgh very difficult, then I think it would be wise to contact myself if you cannot attend and I will ask that your vote would be counted at the meeting. Only one vote per college will be accepted.

Wednesday 17 November 2010

Heads of Computing Event

The annual Heads of Computing event is taking place on Friday 3rd December 2010 in the Barcelo Edinburgh Carlton Hotel.

One of the main items on the agenda is the HN Review for Computing/Networking awards.  Gerry MacKie, who is the Lead Developer for this project, will be presenting on the consultation so far and more importantly, requesting that centres cast their vote (1 per centre) on what awards will be put forward for development (i.e. common HNC leading to 3 or 4 HND awards, 3 separate HNC awards leading to 3 separate HND awards etc).

Once the QDT have a clear steer on the agreed routes the actual design/development of the awards will commence alongside further consultation.

If you have not yet registered online to come along to the event, please do so by clicking on the URL below:

http://headsofcomputing.eventbrite.com/

See you on the 3rd December.

Monday 8 November 2010

QDT meeting

The second meeting of the Qualification Development team met this morning. There was an excellent attendance, with 13 of the 14 members present, including representatives of City of Glasgow, Motherwell and Stevenson colleges.

The main item of discussion was an update on the consultation that Gerry has carried out so far. Gerry has been concentrating on colleges and visited several centres to get their views on what needs to be changed. He will now focus on Higher Education and employers, including vendors, to get their views on what should be included in the new awards. The output from this stage of the development will be a report that summarises the consultation with all of the interested parties.



We also agreed to ask a student onto the QDT to ensure that their views are represented. A recent graduate from an HNC/D course will be asked to join.

Gerry will play a key part at the forthcoming Heads of Computing event, when he will present his findings to date and present various alternative frameworks to get their feedback. The QDT will then take all of this into account before deciding on a specific framework for the revised qualifications.

Monday 1 November 2010

Survey monkey questionnaire

It is my intention to finish the questionnaire today and post it tomorrow. I am keen to find out everyones thoughts on the development.

We do really need to think long and hard about what we put in the awards, and I am keen to get a product that is fit for use for as long as possible.

There will always be change but I was gladdened to hear the CISCO unit writers have already agreed to be very generic in their writing.

The discussion on vendor units will need to be worked out as we are creating an SQA award which has to be able to be delivered by all colleges, and not only those who can take on the vendor training.

Gerry Mackie