[Year 12 IT Apps] itapps Digest, Vol 120, Issue 26

[Garth, Lucas A]

Hi Anthony (and other readers)

I agree - SACs running over multi-periods is a different "test" than those that exist in the English or Maths faculties, but it's probably sharing some features with the Technology area in that projects are crucial to the demonstration of understanding.

IT offers a major challenge in that it's very difficult to restrict network accounts, and most of our projects mandate the use of software development tools (and require work to be saved).

In such an environment, offering students the opportunity to access all of their resources makes sense, so long as:

- They don't take additional work or notes into class from home (including notes added to a textbook)
- They don't collaborate or copy other students' work
- They don't take the question sheet out of the classroom

These are all measures to ensure that the work is all completed by the student

Where I think the key to setting a good assessment is (and this being my first year doing it, I think I've got a lot to learn) is a good scenario to ensure that the analysis (and evaluation) component is sufficiently difficult that no textbook will provide the students with a satisfactory answer.  This then helps you to differentiate between the high and low students while still allowing lower graded students to showcase their skills in what can be a complex assessment.

It's less about the process of using the products (Dreamweaver, etc) and more about their ability to apply their knowledge to the scenario.  Most people can build a prototype website.  Not everyone can create a website that meets the needs of a customer.   And this is what we are asking for as part of this SAC

Lucas



   1. Re: SACS and BYOD (Anthony Sullivan)


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Message: 1
Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2015 01:44:00 +0000
From: Anthony Sullivan <asullivan at tps.vic.edu.au>
Subject: Re: [Year 12 IT Apps] SACS and BYOD
To: "itapps at edulists.com.au" <itapps at edulists.com.au>
Message-ID:
	<48aeb053da794957aa57211baeca133e at RIO.peninsula.vic.edu.au>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

My two cents worth

Having SAC's that run over multi periods is pretty unique to VCE IT

The way you run and manage your VCE IT SAC's is really up to you

Every school probably has a different approach

Some schools allow notes, textbooks, network and internet access. Others run their SAC's a lot more like a test or an exam with no notes or assistance

Remember the purpose of an assessment task is discriminate between your top student down to your bottom (for lack of a better word) student . In other words, rank your students in order of their understanding of the content for each outcome

If you give a task that allows this discrimination or ranking to occur (with notes and network and internet access) then that is no problem

But if you allow notes, etc. and every students gets 100% then it defeats the purpose of assessment task. You are not really identifying the order of ability in your class

My approach and BYOD devices

Students here use their own personal laptop for SAC's.

I have network access turned off for these periods and collect the files from each student on USB at the end of the lesson

I'm happy for them during a SAC (and I cannot really stop them) from accessing the files on their laptop of the practice tasks we completed leading up to the SAC

I tell students this before the SAC to encourage them to complete all the practice tasks

But as mentioned earlier this is my method that works for me and each school needs a method that works for them

Anthony

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