QRT meeting

The Qualification Review Team (QRT) met yesterday, in Glasgow, for its third meeting. As mentioned previously, the QRT aims to design alternative assessments (for HN awards) that better match the sort of assessments students face at university.

We're now at the "sharp end" of the project, getting down to actually producing things. Two members of the Team (Anne Russell and Cameron Walker) have been asked to develop assessment specifications for these alternative assessments.

Anne and Cameron will produce a number of university-type assessments. One of these will be a combined assessment that will integrate the practical outcomes of a number of HNC units to produce a much larger, more holistic, assessment activity. Another will be a new examination for the HND awards that will combine the theoretical outcomes of a number of HND (year 2) units, which will look like the sort of assessment students face at university.

Another aim of the project is to improve college students academic skills, such as their study skills and their critical thinking. This has been a long standing issue for universities, which have reported that college students are sometimes weak in these areas. The QRT for Computing hopes to address this by profiling these skills, which will highlight to teachers where they can be taught.

We hope to have these new assessment designs by the middle of April, so that pilolt centres can offer them next session.

Contact me if you want to know more about this project.