New Developments


New exercises - June 28th 2010

Additional exercises on spreadsheet functions have been added to the modelling section of the exercises menu. These look in detail at the SUM and IF functions. A number of common spreadsheet functions, such as AVERAGE, MEDIAN and MODE are also covered. These exercises are supported by interactive models.

An exercise on sorting data has been added to the database searching section. This exercise covers the idea of nested sorting.

An exercise which explores the idea of gestural interfaces and people as input devices has been added to the hardware section. This supplements the other input/output exercise in this section.

New exercises - April 26th 2010

ICT students have a great deal of exposure to software tools. As a consequence, they are fairly adept at manipulating virtual environments. They are perhaps less aware of the physical tools that are available to support virtual activities.

To help students to develop a greater appreciation of the hardware that supports their curriculum, we have added a new hardware section to the exercises menu. This contains exercises on keyboard shortcuts, input/output devices, storage and ports.

Supporting Assessment for Learning - February 2010

Students are now given greater feedback when they complete exercises:

They are given a mark and a grade. This is accompanied by a comment.

If students achieve less than 100% for an exercise, they are given some guidance on how to improve their learning and hence their marks.

Students are now also told which questions they have answered correctly.

Students have always been able to tackle an exercise as many times as they wished. They can still do this. However, since they are now being told which questions they have answered correctly, the reporting system only records the marks for their first three attempts. Subsequent attempts are still reported to students but their marks are not recorded.

To help students migrate to the new marking system, they are shown the following message panel when they now log on to the student page.

The assessment reports for students have changed.

You have always been able to do an exercise as many times as you wanted. Now, however, you will be able to see the marks for your first three attempts.

You will also be told which questions you have got right. This should help you to think about how you can improve your learning and your marks.

Your results page will now include three columns, which will show the marks for your first three attempts. These will be labelled M1, M2 and M3.