[Informatics] Question about U3O1

[Branson, Steven S]

I taught ITApps a couple of times only during the last study design but I have a question about process that I'd like some feedback on.

I noticed during the SAC that I had a couple of students who struggled with the normalisation process. When they created their queries and reports it was no surprise that the results were not what they expected. Consequently they ended up spending extra time trying to fix things, sometimes including those that were not wrong. This meant that they were not able really show what they could do in the other areas of the task as they were rushed when they finally decided to cut their losses on the other areas. These kids are effectively being punished twice for one area of weakness.

My question is that is it acceptable to provide the normalised data without links in a spreadsheet after the design stage so that all students could concentrate on the other aspects of the task without the penalty of having an unworkable set of tables? Naturally I'd have the students submit that part of their design before allowing them to start the creation process if this was acceptable.

I put this question to another teacher recently who originally said no, but on thinking about it thought that it was worth considering as we are trying to assess what they can do. I understand that time management during a task is important, but students also want to create something that works to a large degree and are easily demoralised when nothing seems to work.

Steven Branson
Hallam Senior College
9703 1266

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