I met with Graeme Clark, of the E-Assessment & Learning team in SQA, this afternoon to discuss how that team could support the new HN awards.
The existing HNC/D Computing is the best supported HN award on SOLAR, SQA's e-testing system, with over 70 units currently supported by some form of online testing.
The purpose of the meeting was the discuss the extent of change in the new awards, and how much, if any, of the existing assessments could be repurposed for the new qualifications. Caroline and I emphasised that the new awards were significantly different from the existing qualifications and that a significant amount of new material will be needed to support them. Graeme was very supportive, and went away to consider how best SOLAR could be used to help centres to assess the new HN awards.
The revised HNC Computing will be available to centres from April 2012. The existing award will end (last registration) in 2014.
Contact Graeme if you want to know more about SOLAR.
Wednesday, 14 December 2011
Monday, 12 December 2011
Validation event
The validation event for the HNC Computing award was held on Friday in the SQA offices in Glasgow.
The validation panel was chaired by Cameron Walker, of Aberdeen College, and members included representatives on FE and employers. A key selection criterion for members of the Panel is that they have had no previous involvement in the development, so that they can bring a fresh perspective to the proposals.
The QDT was represented by Gerry Mackie, the Lead Developer, and a couple of members of the QDT, including the Qualification Leader for the HNC (Janice Maxted of Langside College).
The Validation Panel scrutinised the proposals very thoroughly, but were constructive throughout the event. It was a long day, commencing at 10am and concluding at 4pm, but, at the end of the day, I felt the Panel's ideas will make real improvements to the award.
The outcome of the validation was that the award was validated with a number of conditions. These mostly related to the quality of the documentation rather than the quality of the proposals. In fact, it was particularly pleasing that the Panel liked the structure of the new award, which will not change from the original draft framework. But it will be better explained and better exemplified (for example, we will add suggested pathways through the award).
Organising, preparing for, and conducting validation events is hard, and somethimes stressful, work. But events like Friday's reminded me of the benefits that they can bring. Without doubt the qualification will be improved as a result.
We agreed to revise the proposals by the end of January so we hope to have the conditions lifted in February, when we can focus on the HNDs. The new HNC Computing will be available to centres from April 2012.
Contact Caroline if you want to know more about any of the awards in this development or find out more about how SQA validates its qualifications.
The validation panel was chaired by Cameron Walker, of Aberdeen College, and members included representatives on FE and employers. A key selection criterion for members of the Panel is that they have had no previous involvement in the development, so that they can bring a fresh perspective to the proposals.
The QDT was represented by Gerry Mackie, the Lead Developer, and a couple of members of the QDT, including the Qualification Leader for the HNC (Janice Maxted of Langside College).
The Validation Panel scrutinised the proposals very thoroughly, but were constructive throughout the event. It was a long day, commencing at 10am and concluding at 4pm, but, at the end of the day, I felt the Panel's ideas will make real improvements to the award.
The outcome of the validation was that the award was validated with a number of conditions. These mostly related to the quality of the documentation rather than the quality of the proposals. In fact, it was particularly pleasing that the Panel liked the structure of the new award, which will not change from the original draft framework. But it will be better explained and better exemplified (for example, we will add suggested pathways through the award).
Organising, preparing for, and conducting validation events is hard, and somethimes stressful, work. But events like Friday's reminded me of the benefits that they can bring. Without doubt the qualification will be improved as a result.
We agreed to revise the proposals by the end of January so we hope to have the conditions lifted in February, when we can focus on the HNDs. The new HNC Computing will be available to centres from April 2012.
Contact Caroline if you want to know more about any of the awards in this development or find out more about how SQA validates its qualifications.
Monday, 21 November 2011
Progress update
This seems a good time to provide an update on progress.
We've been making steady progress with the awards. The frameworks have been agreed for some time, and we've spent most of the last three months writing units. This is coming along OK but, as always, it takes time to finalise such a large number of new and revised units. But most of the units are now at the validation stage, which is what me and the team are working on. The contents of the units are left to subject specialists, and the actual validation of each unit is more of a desk-check that the unit is presented correctly and uses appropriate language. Me, Caroline and Hilary are carrying out those checks now. SQA also carries out a peer review of new units, whereby another member of staff samples the units after we've validated them. There is no foolproof method of writing units, but these units have certainly been scrutinised by many people (on some occasions, as many as six people) before they will be published.
The validation event takes place on Friday, 9 December. The Lead Developer, Gerry Mackie, is busy putting together a validation proposal document (VPD) that is used at the event as the basis of discussions. Caroline has assembled a good validation panel, which consists of educationalists, employers and an SQA representative. We hope to send the VPD to the Panel members on Monday of next week to give them plenty of time to consider our proposals.
Individual units are validated separately from the group award, which is carried out at the aforementioned validation event, but the exception to that rule is the Graded Unit, which is also validated at the validation event. Janice Maxted, the Qualification Leader for the HNC award, is busy working on that unit at this time.
Contact Caroline if you want to know more about this development.
Friday, 18 November 2011
HNC Computing - Validation Event
The validation event for the HNC Computing award will take place on Friday 9th December 2011 in SQA offices, Glasgow.
We have an excellent panel on board which are well represented by FE, HE and Industry. All members of the panel have had no involvement in the development process but have particular interest in the award from a delivery, articulation and employment perspective.
The remaining four HND Computing awards will go forward for validation in March 2012 and will be available for centres to deliver from August 2012.
We are currently in the process of validating the 52 units that have came out of the HNC/D developments and these will start to appear on the SQA website over the next couple of months.
We have an excellent panel on board which are well represented by FE, HE and Industry. All members of the panel have had no involvement in the development process but have particular interest in the award from a delivery, articulation and employment perspective.
The remaining four HND Computing awards will go forward for validation in March 2012 and will be available for centres to deliver from August 2012.
We are currently in the process of validating the 52 units that have came out of the HNC/D developments and these will start to appear on the SQA website over the next couple of months.
Thursday, 3 November 2011
Unit finalisation and validation meeting
I met with Gerry (Lead Developer), Caroline and Hilary this morning to discuss how we would finalise and validate the units. Units are validated separately from the group award.
This development is going to produce a large number of new and revised units. Fifty four in total. So, it's a big job to finalise the draft versions and put them through validation.
Each unit has been scrutinised by several people -- the writer, of course, but also a vetter and, usually, an External Verifier. The Qualification Leader for each award has also looked at the units in his/her award and, of course, the Lead Developer has oversight of all of the awards. So, I'm pretty confident, at the end of this process, the contents of the units (from a subject perspective) will be right.
As usual at this stage in the development the progress is mixed. We aimed to have all of the units completed by the end of October. Many units were submitted on time, but there are a number not yet complete. In these circumstances we offer the writer extra time and support, or assign a new writer to the unit.
Me, Caroline and Hilary now have to ensure that the units are OK from a technical perspective. By that I mean that the units are written correctly and reach an acceptable standard. We will do this during November. Our priority is the units in the HNC, since we are validating that award first. This month is going to be busy for us.
Contact Caroline if you want to know more about the new units in any of these awards.
This development is going to produce a large number of new and revised units. Fifty four in total. So, it's a big job to finalise the draft versions and put them through validation.
Each unit has been scrutinised by several people -- the writer, of course, but also a vetter and, usually, an External Verifier. The Qualification Leader for each award has also looked at the units in his/her award and, of course, the Lead Developer has oversight of all of the awards. So, I'm pretty confident, at the end of this process, the contents of the units (from a subject perspective) will be right.
As usual at this stage in the development the progress is mixed. We aimed to have all of the units completed by the end of October. Many units were submitted on time, but there are a number not yet complete. In these circumstances we offer the writer extra time and support, or assign a new writer to the unit.
Me, Caroline and Hilary now have to ensure that the units are OK from a technical perspective. By that I mean that the units are written correctly and reach an acceptable standard. We will do this during November. Our priority is the units in the HNC, since we are validating that award first. This month is going to be busy for us.
Contact Caroline if you want to know more about the new units in any of these awards.
Friday, 21 October 2011
QDT meeting
The final meeting of the QDT (prior to the HNC validation) took place this morning. The main reason for having the meeting was to bring everyone up-to-date with progress.
Unsurprisingly, the turn-out was not great, given that it is the October holiday for many people, but eight people made it along.
We discussed the frameworks, links with vendors, BCS accreditation and the forthcoming validation event.
The vendor item was particularly interesting. We recently devised a procedure for adding vendor qualifications to the new frameworks and today, for the first time, the QDT had an opportunity to consider some applications from vendors. We looked at three -- from Microsoft, COMPTIA, and CIW. We are piloting a system of direct accreditation of vendor awards inside HNs, so it was interesting to "test" the process. Some of the vendor applications were approved, and it was good to see the "vendor box" in the new frameworks begin to get filled.
The development is on schedule. I'm hoping to receive most of the new and revised units at the end of this month, and the units will be validated during November. The group award validation event will take place in early December. We hope to have the new HNC award available to centres from March 2012.
The next QDT meeting will take place early next year, once the HNC validation event has taken place and we can focus on the HND awards.
Unsurprisingly, the turn-out was not great, given that it is the October holiday for many people, but eight people made it along.
We discussed the frameworks, links with vendors, BCS accreditation and the forthcoming validation event.
The vendor item was particularly interesting. We recently devised a procedure for adding vendor qualifications to the new frameworks and today, for the first time, the QDT had an opportunity to consider some applications from vendors. We looked at three -- from Microsoft, COMPTIA, and CIW. We are piloting a system of direct accreditation of vendor awards inside HNs, so it was interesting to "test" the process. Some of the vendor applications were approved, and it was good to see the "vendor box" in the new frameworks begin to get filled.
The development is on schedule. I'm hoping to receive most of the new and revised units at the end of this month, and the units will be validated during November. The group award validation event will take place in early December. We hope to have the new HNC award available to centres from March 2012.
The next QDT meeting will take place early next year, once the HNC validation event has taken place and we can focus on the HND awards.
Thursday, 13 October 2011
Progress meetings
Every couple of weeks, me and Caroline meet with the lead developer (Gerry Mackie) to discuss progress. We had one of our progress meetings yesterday morning. At these meetings, we go through our progress plan line by line, to ensure that we are moving forward.
At yesterday's meeting we discussed membership of the validation panel. The validation panel must be completely independent of the QDT, since a key role for the panel is to scrutinise the proposals, so we went through some of the volunteers who had asked to serve on the panel (my recent update letter asked for volunteers). We think we came up with a pretty good mix of people. We also discussed who should serve on the QDT at the validation event. Again, we came up with a team who we think will do a good job. Caroline is currently contacting all of the individuals to check their availability.
The main task right now is unit writing. A team of people are currently busy creating new and revised units. The deadline for the units is the end of this month, so this is a very busy period for the team. Gerry is writing the validation proposal document (VPD), which is coming along nicely.
Contact Gerry if you want to know more about progress, or contact Caroline if you want to know more about the validation process.
At yesterday's meeting we discussed membership of the validation panel. The validation panel must be completely independent of the QDT, since a key role for the panel is to scrutinise the proposals, so we went through some of the volunteers who had asked to serve on the panel (my recent update letter asked for volunteers). We think we came up with a pretty good mix of people. We also discussed who should serve on the QDT at the validation event. Again, we came up with a team who we think will do a good job. Caroline is currently contacting all of the individuals to check their availability.
The main task right now is unit writing. A team of people are currently busy creating new and revised units. The deadline for the units is the end of this month, so this is a very busy period for the team. Gerry is writing the validation proposal document (VPD), which is coming along nicely.
Contact Gerry if you want to know more about progress, or contact Caroline if you want to know more about the validation process.
Saturday, 17 September 2011
Drop-in event for unit writers
The first drop-in event for unit writers was held today, in the SQA offices in Glasgow.
This was an optional event for unit writers to drop in, if they wished, to get advice and support about the units that have been assigned to them. The Lead Developer (Gerry Mackie), several Qualification Leaders, a couple of External Verifiers, and Kenje Lamb, who has expertise in online assessment, were there to provide help and advice.
Several writers took advantage of the opportunity to meet their vetters face-to-face and thrash out the contents of the units.
There was lots of discussions about contents and assessment. One particularly interesting discussion related to the general approach to the assessment of knowledge. It was asked if we should recommend a default approach of using multiple choice questions with a specific pass mark, much as we do with the current HN awards. I agreed to post some advice on the unit writers' e-group about this issue.
The next event will take place on 22 October in Dundee. Contact Caroline if you want to know more about the new units.
This was an optional event for unit writers to drop in, if they wished, to get advice and support about the units that have been assigned to them. The Lead Developer (Gerry Mackie), several Qualification Leaders, a couple of External Verifiers, and Kenje Lamb, who has expertise in online assessment, were there to provide help and advice.
Several writers took advantage of the opportunity to meet their vetters face-to-face and thrash out the contents of the units.
There was lots of discussions about contents and assessment. One particularly interesting discussion related to the general approach to the assessment of knowledge. It was asked if we should recommend a default approach of using multiple choice questions with a specific pass mark, much as we do with the current HN awards. I agreed to post some advice on the unit writers' e-group about this issue.
The next event will take place on 22 October in Dundee. Contact Caroline if you want to know more about the new units.
Monday, 12 September 2011
Supporting unit writers
An essential criterion when we selected unit writers was that they had been trained in unit writing. But we also support unit writers in other ways.
Every unit has a writer and a vetter, and the new way of writing units means that writers and vetters work as a team. We also created an online group for the writers. The members of this group include vetters, External Verifiers, assessment experts and, of course, the SQA team.
We plan to provide some face-to-face support to writers by offering a couple of drop-in sessions, one in Glasgow and one in Dundee, so that the writers can come in and sit down and discuss their specific unit(s) with real people! The first drop-in event is this Saturday, in Glasgow, and the second is in Dundee on 22 October. Writers can attend either or both events (or none).
We hope that by providing a range of support services to writers that we get the best possible units.
Contact Caroline if you want to know more about how the units are shaping up. I hope to share the units with you at the earliest opportunity so that you can see some of the exciting contents of the new qualifications.
Friday, 9 September 2011
What's happening now?
The main current activity is unit writing. The new frameworks involve 52 new or revised units, which is a massive undertaking to produce so many updated unit specifications. Twenty-two people, mostly practicing teachers from colleges across Scotland, are working on the units. We've organised a couple of drop-in workshops for writers, in Glasgow and Dundee on the 19 September and 22 October respectively, to provide some face-to-face help and support to the writers. There's also an online community to provide peer support throughout the writing process, and members of that community include people with expertise in traditional assessment and e-assessment.
Behind the scenes, the Lead Developer, Gerry Mackie of Dundee College, is working on the Validation Proposal Document (VPD), which pulls together all of the work that the QDT has carried out over the last year.
We plan to validate the HNC award in December and the HNDs in early 2011, so that centres can offer the new qualifications from August 2012.
Contact Caroline if you want to know more about this project.
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