Monday 30 April 2012

HN 2.0 project update

The development team for this project met on Saturday. Although this project is linked to the new HNC Computing, I will post future updates on the main SQA Computing blog, so check there for the latest update about this project.

Saturday 21 April 2012

QDT meeting

The ninth meeting of the QDT took place yesterday afternoon, in the SQA offices in Glasgow. This is the first formal meeting of the group since the HNC validation event in December. So we had a lot to talk about.

The focus of the meeting was the new HNDs. These had been put on hold until the HNC was put to bed, which it, mostly, has.

It seemed a logical time to review membership of the group. I was particularly pleased to welcome Marion McNab, of Glasgow City College, to the group, who will represent the HN Collaboration Forum. The core and extended QDT has pretty extensive representation on it, with 22 colleges represented in some capacity, which is more than half of the colleges in Scotland.


The review embraces five new awards (the HNC plus four HNDs) and although we still have to validate the HNDs, I pointed out that most of the work had been done since we had draft frameworks for the HNDs and most of the component units were now validated. But we still had work to do -- the most pressing of which was finalising the HND frameworks.

There will be four new HNDs:
  1. HND Computing (generic)
  2. HND Computing: Networking
  3. HND Computing: Software Development
  4. HND Computing: Technical Support
Most of the hard work had been done but we still need to tie down the structures. This is going to be taken forward by the Qualification Leaders, who are:
  1. HND Computing (Derek Summers)
  2. HND Computing: Networking (Chris Deegan)
  3. HND Computing: Software Development (Pete Ainsworth)
  4. HND Computing: Technical Support (Shaun Miller).
I am the convenor of the QDT and my presentation includes the key points from the meeting.
One of the criticisms of the HNC validation panel was our engagement with employers, so we have to work on this for the HNDs.

We hope to have the HND frameworks finalised by the end of May, and carry out the validation event in August, so that the new awards are available to centres from January 2013.

Contact Caroline if you want more information about this development.

Tuesday 17 April 2012

Support Materials for HNC/D Computing

We have commissioned the development of assessment exemplar materials to support the forthcoming HNC/D Computing awards and these are now well underway.

In addition to the assessment exemplars for the mandatory units in the HNC Computing award, there will be a further 32 packs in development that will cover many of the options within the HNC & HND Computing awards.

All mandatory unit packs will be in place for the start of the new session.  The remaining packs will start to appear on the SQA secure site from August 2012 onwards.

As well as assessment exemplars for HNC Computing mandatory units, we have also commissioned the development of teaching and learning e-materials which will also be in place for the start of the new session.

To access the list of materials being developed through SQA click here.

Friday 13 April 2012

HN Computing - Unit Specifications

As mentioned in my previous blog post unit codes are being allocated to the HNC Computing framework on a regular basis and the latest version of the framework can be accessed here.

Coded Units have now been published and can be accessed through the SQA website HN Unit Search

In addition to the HNC Units there are also some Units that have been developed for the forthcoming HND Computing awards that have been also published on the website.  I've listed the Units below:

Managing a Web Server (H16S 35)
Open Source Operating Systems: Introduction to Command Line Administration (H18C 35)
Open Source Operating Systems: Advanced Server Administration (H18D 35)
Open Source Operating Systems: Basic Server Administration (H18E 35)
Open Source Operating Systems: Advanced Network Services Administration (H18F 35)
Network Server Operating Systems (H16T 35)
Network Technology and Data Communications (H16V 35)
Relational Database Management Systems (H16W 35)
Server Administration (H16X 35)
Software Development: Data Structures (H16Y 35)
Software Development: Object Oriented Programming (H171 35)
Systems Development: Object Oriented Analysis and Design (H172 35)


If you have any queries regarding the HNC/D Computing developments, please get in touch with me here.