[Year 12 Its] Degree of Difficulty for Outcome 3

[Charmaine Taylor]

I set a similar task to  Robert. This is quite challenging for beginners.

Cheers
Charmaine Taylor

Robert Timmer-Arends wrote:

>Hello Alex
>
>last year was my first year as well and I had to come to grips with the same
>question. Several resources are available to help you decide, the first of
>which is the preamble to the approved programming languages list from VCAA
>http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/correspondence/bulletins/2002/june/02junbul.pdf
>
>If you read you will see that you have to set something that will require
>students to construct a GUI (web or desktop). It should also require
>students to have code that is more than just a simple sequence (I focussed
>on some sort of data entry validation to provide this; ie is a number
>between certain values, if not error, if so continue), and some file i/o
>(many people using VB or a web-based language seem to be setting a task that
>involves the students in creating a front-end to a db - I decided to stick
>to (very) simple file i/o in VB).
>
>The second source is the study design. The key skills for outcome 3 suggest
>the program should employ 'data structures', but the key knowledge just
>talks about data types. I chose to interpret this as single variables of
>different data types, the student having to decide what data was required
>and what type it had to be. Remember the outcome requires students to
>demonstrate an ability to construct a 'module'
>
>The third source was Kevork's resources web site where I obtained examples
>of tasks others had kindly donated for the rest of us to use (thank you
>all!)
>
>In the end though, while we do need to have a minimum below which a program
>cannot be accepted as demonstrating an ability to write a program, I did
>keep in mind the level at which my students were. For several it was their
>first foray into programming and I couldn't, therefore, set a programming
>task that was too large. The task I settled on involved the construction of
>a GUI with validation on some numeric entries. The numeric entries had to
>undergo a couple of calculations to produce a result. The data and result
>had to be able to be written to disk and read back again at some later date.
>The really good students got that; the strugglers at least got the
>calculation working.
>
>Hope this helps!
>
>Regards
>Robert T-A
>Brighton SC
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Alex and Alison Hopkins" <alexali at surf.net.au>
>To: <is at edulists.com.au>
>Sent: Monday, May 30, 2005 9:35 PM
>Subject: [Year 12 Its] Degree of Difficulty for Outcome 3
>
>
>  
>
>>Could I check with others as to the degree of difficulty required for
>>the 3rd IS SAC.  Being my first year teaching IS, I'd like to check that
>>the programming tasks I have in mind are in line with expectations.
>>
>>Alex Hopkins
>>Bayside Christan College
>>
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>  
>
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>>    
>>
>Association Inc
>
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>IT Systems Mailing List kindly supported by
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>  
>
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