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| DiDA Debugged | OCT Level 2 Nationals in IT | The Bird box Project | 2Stimulate |
Steve Partington, ICT Coordinator at Bicester Community College, provides an overview of the new OCR National course in ICT.
This suite of examinations has been produced as an alternative to the Diploma in Digital Applications (DiDA) qualification. It can be worth 1, 2, 3 or 4 GCSEs unlike DiDA which is currently worth 1, 2 or 4 GCSEs.
The OCR Level 2 Nationals in ICT comprise:
The table below explains this with options:
The key features of these awards are:
We had been teaching GNVQ ICT since 1998 and had found that the way the course was structured and the evidence requirements suited the students at the College. As with any other examination some students did not complete in Year 11 because they could not meet the deadlines for the coursework. We also found that those who struggled in examination conditions could still achieve the Pass and Merit standards. When we first looked at DiDA we felt that the evidence requirements had become far too demanding for the students we were working with, especially the way the tasks were interlinked. After attending a number of inset sessions about DiDA, I also felt that Edexcel did not really know what they wanted as evidence and that they were almost making it up as they went along. I know that this is no longer the case but I was not prepared to gamble at the time.
When the Nationals suite was advertised, as a department we felt that it was much closer to the way we were used to working. We also felt confident that we could make the switch and maintain, or even improve, our results without the need for massive retraining and expenditure on new software and hardware. We looked at the assessment requirements and found that we could follow them and see quite clearly what OCR wanted and at subsequent training meetings our feelings have been reinforced. Another important factor was that we could hold off entering students until we were confident of the final award they should be aiming for. We decided that with the time we have all students would start off aiming at the two GCSE award, National Award in ICT. As the course is progressing I am already discussing with students if they want to change to one of the other awards. We are encouraging students who are particularly able, or well motivated, to work towards either the three or four GCSE equivalent. For those who cannot do this they can choose to ‘top up’ the award in the sixth form.
Unit 1, ICT Skills for Business, is compulsory for all students taking the exam. Working through it this year it is clear that students who have grasped the basics at KS3 can achieve well in this unit. We have found that it is best to keep students moving as fast as possible as they can get bogged down and become frustrated. The evidence required can be presented as the teacher and student see fit. That is either paper based or as an e-portfolio or a combination of both. Unlike DiDA students do not need to show every little stage of development. Assessment judgements are made more on the outcome with the assumption being that if the outcome works and is ‘fit for purpose’ then the design process has been solid and completed. This changes a little bit in the subsequent units but I will discuss this later. Once this Unit is finished there are 25 other units available. Some of them are not suited to schools but there is still a wide range covering all the multimedia areas and the more ‘traditional’ aspects.
With the resources we have (we have bought into the website package provided by Brooke Weston CTC in Corby), we are in a position to have students working on different units at the same time. This means we can keep students motivated by allowing them to follow their interests in ICT.
In the other units there is a requirement to follow the design, create, test and evaluate model, but OCR do not want every little development stage shown. Beginning, middle and end stages appear to be sufficient. The final assessment is based on ‘does it work?’ and ‘is it fit for purpose?’ The actual marking of work is based on an overall view, if the majority of the work is at a particular level then that is the level gained. This is unlike GNVQ in that all aspects of every level had to be completed and evidenced to gain that particular level.
We are intending to teach the one GCSE award (National First Award in ICT) to next year’s Year 9 and then offer them the opportunity to top up in Years 10 and 11. We will also be running it as a one-year course in Year 12. The other ‘plus’ with these awards is that every unit completed has an individual certificate awarded, so that in year 9 if students did not complete the other half unit to gain the GCSE they would still have an award at the end of the course and this could be topped up later.
The only drawback I have come across at the moment is that students who find it difficult to motivate themselves can get bogged down and switch off, but this is true of any examination. The ‘plus’ is that I can move them to something else and then go back to the unit with which they are struggling.
Entering students and administration is quite detailed. The first thing you have to do is apply to run the course. You fill out a document and send this to OCR. If you already do any OCR examinations in the school it is not a difficult task but you do have to go into a fair amount of detail about who is teaching it and how you will moderate the students’ work. Everything you need to do this is on the OCR site at:
There is no fee charged for registering the school and once this is done you receive the usual comprehensive (enormous) centre handbook that includes just about every detail you can think of. You also receive:
There are a number of forms that have to be filled in when you enter students, and it is at this stage that you pay examination fees. Once you enter students you will be allocated an external moderator who will liaise with you about visiting to moderate work. It is part of the acceptance criteria that you have internal moderation procedures built in to your marking process. You can have 2 visits per year free of charge. If you want more visits you have to pay for them. At the moderation you would be expected to have an agreed sample of work available alongside all your other students work, marked. The moderator would look at the rest of the work if they required more evidence of compliance with National Standards. You can then choose to accept or decline the marks verified by the moderator. As stated earlier there is no specific requirement for the way the evidence is presented, but obviously, if it is an e-portfolio you will have to arrange for the moderator to have easy access to it.
We have so far found very few disadvantages with this suite of examinations. The main one would have to be that at present it is level 2 only (A*-C grades). It may well be that they eventually come out with a Level 1 but I have not heard anything about this at present.
If anyone would like more information or just a general chat about the course you can contact Steve via email: spartington@bicester-cc.oxon.sch.uk
