HN Graded Unit review

I previously mentioned that a couple of EVs, led by the Senior EV, were looking at the current HN Graded Units to check them for clarity and consistency. We did this because EVs were reporting some inconsistency in the way centres were dealing with such things as the re-assessment of candidate's projects.

So this small team of EVs audited all of the current HN Graded Units (GUs) to check them for advice relating to re-assessment, autonomous working, and stage progression (progressing from one stage in the project to the next).

We met this morning to look at the findings of the audit. While no major problems were discovered, and the EVs reported that centres were dealing with ambiguities when they came across them, inconsistencies were found. I agreed to revise some of the units to make them clearer. We plan to revise the following units:

• FP25 35 Interactive Media: Graded Unit 2
• F8VG 34 Computer Games: Graded Unit 1
• F8VH 35 Computer Games: Graded Unit 2.

These units will be revised to clarify the marking scheme, and improve the clarity of advice regarding re-assessment and remediation. We hope to have the revised units published by January 2013.

The Graded Units within the current HNC/Ds in Computing were found to be clearer so these will not be revised, partly because they are about to be replaced by new Graded Units as part of the HN Review. These new units will be much clearer about such things as progression (from stage to stage), re-assessment (when students have to resubmit work) and remediation (when students need help from their teachers).

Contact David Drennan if you need advice about assessing GUs.