Case Study: City of Sunderland College
ICT students benefit from use of Netskills materials
Materials User: Fiona Malkin, IT Lecturer AS Applied ICT Level 3
Fiona Malkin has course content responsibility for this newly introduced qualification for the 16-19 year old age group. Sunderland currently subscribes to the Netskills Gold Scheme.
Intended audience?
Further Education students with a mixture of IT skills within the 16-19 year old age group.
For what course/subject?
The AS Applied ICT award (Advanced GCE) provided by AQA (Assessment and Qualifications Alliance), is a two year course delivered in a unitised structure. Students completing Unit 4 ICT Solutions and Unit 7 Creating a Website can make effective use of Netskills materials to assist with their studies.
Number of students using the materials. Which modules were used?
Sunderland expects around 500 students to participate on the AS course this academic year. Specific modules that match the AS Unit 7 Creating a Website study option include:
- Creating and Converting Web Pages
- Web Pages From Scratch
- Creating Web Pages Using FrontPage 2003
- Creating Accessible Web pages using Dreamweaver MX 2004
- Flash: an introduction
How are they delivered / used?
For each unit scheme of work individual module notes are integrated to cover core unit outcomes set down by the AQA qualification. Netskills materials provide a range of practical tasks to assist students to quickly develop web design and programming skills. Students can also use the training modules as a self study resource to complement formal tuition.
What benefits were identified from using the materials - for the tutor, for the student?
Having to introduce a new course to a wide range of students places demands on authoring new course content for FE course leaders. By integrating the training modules in to schemes of work Fiona can efficiently and quickly structure a new course with the assurance that notes are industry specific and relate to the latest available software. Reducing staff development time may lead to financial savings within the delivery team allowing staff to concentrate on student's academic needs.