BCS ITQ
Mandatory Unit Guide
Evidence Rules All evidence you provide for your ITQ must ‘belong’ to you. You must have created or edited it at the appropriate level, and you need to ensure that you can prove it belongs to you. To do this, you should ask your Expert Witness to access your evidence via the Candidate Administration System (CASy) and confirm that the evidence you have submitted is yours. You also need to ensure that all the evidence you provide has been produced since you registered for ITQ, or up to six months earlier. Mandatory Unit - Evidence you provide for the mandatory unit must be generated using the software that you selected for your ITQ optional units. For example if you chose word processing, spreadsheets, databases and presentations as your optional units, you must provide work based evidence that is derived from at least two of these, but ideally from all of them in your Mandatory Unit. You cannot, for example, include all word processing evidence, or just word processing and spreadsheet evidence. Simulation is not permitted for the Mandatory Unit and therefore the Mandatory Unit evidence must be work-based evidence, demonstrating competence in the workplace. Optional Units - All of the Optional Units are based on the use of a specific type of software, relate to the techniques involved in using IT, and these must always be assessed, at least in part, through evidence gained from practical tasks or activities involving the creation of documents, spreadsheets, web pages or other products (preferably in digital form). Simulation is permitted for Optional Units. Simulation refers to the simulation of work tasks and activities – not to the use of IT - all assessment of Optional Units must be based on the use of real IT software and hardware to carry out tasks and activities. The tasks and activities themselves may be simulated. Where tasks and activities are simulated they must be undertaken in a realistic working environment, ie conditions similar to those found in the workplace. A realistic working environment is defined by the following criteria: be based on a work task, activity or scenario that is sufficiently challenging for the level of the understanding and skills to be assessed; include a comprehensive range of demands and constraints typical of those that would be met in a real work context; give candidates access to people, equipment and materials that would be normal for the tasks or activities represented; place candidates under pressures of time that would be normal in the workplace for the type of tasks and activities represented; and be replicable, in order to allow opportunities for reassessment under comparable conditions, where necessary.
Another method of providing evidence for your Optional Units is through a validated contributory qualification and Accreditation of Prior Achievement (APA), eg ECDL. Evidence of the software chosen for Optional Units must still be demonstrated within the Mandatory Unit.
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ECDL/ITQ/Guide/Mandatory Unit Guide Level 1, 2 & 3/0305/1.1
Optional Units via APA/Contributing Qualification(s) or Unit(s) - If you are achieving an Optional Unit using APA via a contributing qualification or unit, this does not necessarily demonstrate work-based application of the knowledge, understanding and skills contained in the NVQ unit. Assessment of the mandatory unit for the NVQ must therefore include a representative sample of these skills and knowledge. The following conditions apply: 1. Where one or two Optional NVQ Units have been gained via a contributing qualification or unit, assessment of the mandatory NVQ unit must include nonsimulated evidence of the skills from those Optional Unit(s), ie work-based. Where more than two Optional NVQ Units have been gained via a contributing qualification or Unit, assessment of the Mandatory Unit must include non-simulated evidence of the skills from at least two of these Units. Application of the other Optional NVQ Units gained via a contributing qualification or Unit, must be demonstrated either by work-based evidence or simulation. Where assessment of the contributing qualification or unit includes practical tasks or activities carried out in a realistic working environment, these can be accepted as simulation.
2.
Where ITQ unit content is only partially covered by a contributing qualification, the remaining content must be evidenced by other means. If you have chosen ECDL units as APA, there are some additional skills which need to be evidenced. These skills MUST be included in the Mandatory Unit and are outlined on pages 10 – 12 of this document. The rest of the evidence in the mandatory unit does not have to be work based, it can come from work you do in a voluntary capacity, via hobbies you have or clubs you are involved with, or it may come from tasks set by your assessor. As you complete each task, you should ask your assessor to check it for you rather than wait until you have completed all the tasks. You should record on the ‘Evidence Record Sheet’ the reference number and location for each piece of evidence. As an example, you might want to say that you have completed a certain item, and that it is located on evidence number 4 page 3. This helps your assessor, and all other members of the assessment team to understand your evidence. All of the evidence agreed by your assessor must be uploaded into CASy. Your assessor will explain to you how to add your evidence into the portfolio, and how to add your own comments and view comments written by others about your evidence. You will also be informed about the importance of keeping your user name and password confidential.
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ECDL/ITQ/Guide/Mandatory Unit Guide Level 1, 2 & 3/0305/1.1
Assessment Team Expert Witness: This will generally be your line manager, supervisor or another suitable colleague who can confirm that the evidence you have generated belongs to you, and also that you have followed company procedures when working with IT. Your Expert Witness may ask you to produce documents which you can use in the mandatory unit tasks; he or she should also confirm that the documents you produce meet his/her requirements. The Expert Witness verifies your evidence via CASy. This is the person who will guide you through the assessment process, check your evidence to ensure it meets all requirements and assist you with uploading it into CASy. Once your assessor confirms you have met all the requirements for a unit, and assisted you with uploading into CASy, the Internal Verifier will be informed so that they can check the work before submitting to the External Verifier. The External Verifier is appointed by the British Computer Society to ensure that the quality of the qualification remains consistent across all centres. If the External Verifier finds that additional work is required this will be communicated to the Internal Verifier, who will in turn, inform you and your assessor.
Assessor:
Internal Verifier:
External Verifier:
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ECDL/ITQ/Guide/Mandatory Unit Guide Level 1, 2 & 3/0305/1.1
Evidence requirements for mandatory unit: Make selective use of IT (Foundation / Level 1)
Please note: evidence for this unit must come naturally from work place tasks and activities; the evidence must be at the same level of the qualification.
A level 1 job role is likely to involve: working out how to use IT for simple tasks (eg producing a letter, making a slide for a presentation, recording spending, keeping addresses, sending a message or drawing boxes and arrows to highlight information). For level 1 you must provide evidence that you can work out how to use IT for simple tasks and purposes. This will involve you carrying out at least 3 straightforward tasks by making selective use of IT. The following explains the four different skills and techniques to this unit. 1. You need to be able to ‘explain the use of IT’ by describing what you are doing and your reasons for choosing and using the software tools and techniques that match tasks and uses. You need to clearly explain your decisions and actions about using IT. What is it you are using IT for? Why have you chosen the software? What functions does this particular software have that lead you to chose it? You can orally explain your use of IT to your assessor, or you could include a short written piece on or with your evidence. Alternatively, this is an ideal opportunity to add your comments to a piece of evidence in your e-portfolio,
For example, you may wish to explain that you had been asked to find some travel information. You used the internet as this provided the most up to date information on times, transport methods etc. You were also able to use search engines to find travel websites. 2. You need to be able to ‘find and evaluate’ information. You should chose a task where you need to gather a significant amount of information, some of which is likely to be discarded as surplus to requirements. You need to locate information from various sources. You must choose the source that is most likely to provide the information needed. You then need to choose information that is appropriate for what is needed. You need to retain the discarded information
Continuing with the example above. You may use various search engines to locate several travel websites. From these you may then select the most appropriate sites to extract the information you need and add it to your work. You discarded any information that was not relevant (but you need to provide an example of this for your evidence). 3. You need to ‘organise information’ appropriately for the task. In other words, ‘organising’ is where you put everything together in order to produce the final document.
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ECDL/ITQ/Guide/Mandatory Unit Guide Level 1, 2 & 3/0305/1.1
You need to decide which software will be most appropriate for the task. You need to consider who your work is for (your audience), and if you need to use any particular style or formatting.
For example, continuing with the information located in the second part, you might decide to use the word processing software to type up the information you found, you might include the times of travel and the modes of transport, along with the website references of where you got your information from. 4. You need to ‘review the effectiveness’ and appropriateness of your own use of IT. You are probably aware of the things that you are good at, your strengths, but you also need to be aware of your weaknesses, and take steps to make improvements wherever you can. You could review each task you carried out, or you could consider a task that you had difficulties with, perhaps you took too long, you made several mistakes, you couldn’t get the software to work properly. Describe what the difficulties were and identify why this was. In particular you need to: identify the effect that your mistakes have on colleagues at work, and review your own use of IT with the help and advice from other people. You should explain your review in a short written piece, again, this should be added to your electronic portfolio.
For example, you might have problems with spelling, so you have to re-check your work and use the spell check features available in software packages. You might have typed up some of the website addresses incorrectly in the document created in 3 above, therefore the effect on your colleagues is that they are unable to retrieve the information you found so they ask you to relocate it, this takes more time. By learning from your mistakes you check your input carefully next time and your accuracy improves.
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ECDL/ITQ/Guide/Mandatory Unit Guide Level 1, 2 & 3/0305/1.1
Evidence requirements for mandatory unit: Make selective use of IT (Intermediate / Level 2)
Please note: evidence for this unit must come naturally from work place tasks and activities; the evidence must be at the same level of the qualification.
In addition to the items listed in the level 1 job role, a level 2 job role is likely to involve: working out how to use IT for more complex tasks (eg producing a business letter, working out a monthly budget, creating a presentation with a sound track, editing a photo for a brochure or planning multiple web pages for a web site). For Level 2 you must provide evidence that you can work out how to use IT effectively for more complex tasks and purposes, taking account of your own skills and capabilities. This will involve you carrying out at least 4 comprehensive tasks by making selective use of IT. The following explains the four different skills and techniques to this unit. 1 You need to be able to ‘explain’ the decisions and actions you take about using IT, which software tools and techniques were chosen and how effectively they were used for particular tasks. You need to clearly explain what you are using the IT for. Why have you chosen the software? What tools and techniques from the software will you be using? How effective was the software for the task? Were you able to complete the task using the chosen software? You should explain your decisions and actions in a short written piece, this should be added to your electronic portfolio.
For example, you may wish to explain that you had been asked to create a presentation for your manager to deliver at a seminar next week. You chose to use the presentation package because you could include a number of graphics files, including the company logo, animated as required, you could add links to other files for demonstration purposes, you could even include links to website addresses, along with digital photographs from the company’s product range. To ascertain how effective the software was you need to consider if you were able to do everything that you wanted to do. 2. You need to be able to ‘find and evaluate’ information using appropriate methods by: Choosing and using appropriate methods of searching for relevant information. Reviewing sources and information to help choose what is most relevant. Considering when enough information has been found. Discussing what you left out and why.
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ECDL/ITQ/Guide/Mandatory Unit Guide Level 1, 2 & 3/0305/1.1
For example, continuing with the presentation at the seminar above, you need to locate the graphics files you wish to use, where will you obtain those? You need to find relevant information about your company’s history, or the product range – where will you search for those? Perhaps old press releases found on the company’s intranet, previous catalogues stored on the network. What website addresses will you need to link to? Do these websites contain information that is relevant to the presentation? How will you know when you have enough information? How will you know what information can be left out? Don’t forget to include some of the discarded information. 3. You need to be able to ‘organise your information’ using appropriate methods by: Using a variety of IT software tools and techniques to structure information to suit more complex tasks and audience needs, such as using large print for partially sighted readers.
For example, when putting your presentation together you will need to consider who your audience is – how complex or simple does the presentation need to be? Is it going to be delivered in a large seminar hall or a small conference room – this may affect how much information you put onto each slide. You need to consider your use of colour and fonts, too many colours/fonts will detract from the key points. How many graphics files or photographs will you use? Where will you use them? Will you put the company logo on every slide? Is there a particular ‘style’ your company likes to use? How long will the presentation need to be? Will you have enough or too many slides? Will you produce notes for the speaker? Handouts for the audience? 4. Finally, you need to ‘review’ your own use of IT by evaluating your strengths and weaknesses and taking account of feedback from other people. You could do this by considering a task that you had difficulties with, and describe how you overcame these difficulties. Or you could review each task you undertake. In particular you need to: evaluate your own strengths and weaknesses take account of feedback from other people, such as your colleagues your review should be explained in a short written piece, within your electronic portfolio For example, you might like to describe the difficulties you faced when you researched and prepared your presentation. Was all the information you required easily available or did you have to consider other sources? What were your weaknesses? Perhaps you struggled with animating the graphics? Did you ask for help? Did you correct any errors before you submitted the presentation to your manager? Did you proof read the document to ensure all text and animations looked professional? Did any of your colleagues suggest improvements to your work during the preparation stage? What were your strengths during this task? What changes/improvements did your manager suggest either before or after he/she had delivered the presentation? Did you go on to make the changes? If so include evidence of the ‘before’ and ‘after’. If the feedback from your manager is positive about the work, ie, it was satisfactory for his/her requirements, then you need to include evidence of this in your portfolio. You may decide to review each task, which is good practice and helps you to make improvements next time you create something similar. Or you may wish to review all tasks together, but remember to include supporting evidence, such as comments from colleagues, details of your strengths and weaknesses, and what you might do differently next time.
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ECDL/ITQ/Guide/Mandatory Unit Guide Level 1, 2 & 3/0305/1.1
Evidence requirements for mandatory unit: Make selective use of IT (Intermediate / Level 3)
Please note: evidence for this unit must come naturally from work place tasks and activities; the evidence must be at the same level of the qualification.
In addition to the items listed in the level 2 job role, a level 3 job role is likely to involve: working out how to use IT for technically complex tasks (eg creating an illustrated newsletter, doing a cost benefit analysis, reporting the results of a survey about clients needs and preferences or creating an interactive web site). For Level 3 you must provide evidence that you can work out how to use IT effectively for technically complex tasks and purposes, taking account of your own and others skills and capabilities and the needs of the organisation. This will involve you in assisting in the planning and carrying out at least 5 substantial and complex tasks that make selective use of IT that show you can: 1. Explain and analyse the effectiveness of the use of IT by: Considering the appropriateness and effectiveness of decisions and actions taken about the choice and use of software tools and techniques and in relation to the task or purpose involved. Identifying changes that could make similar tasks and purposes easier or more successful and your arrangement to carry out these improvements.
2. Find and evaluate information by: Verifying information, such as for relevance, bias, validity, reliability and sufficiency. Helping others to find and evaluate information.
3. Organise complex information by: Using the full range of IT software tools and techniques to structure information to suit complex tasks and different business needs.
4. Review feedback on and impact of your use of IT by: Reviewing how to share your skills and understanding to help others. Evaluating feedback given on work produced and take steps to improve any weaknesses. Analysing the impact your work could have on other people or the organisation.
Your evidence must also demonstrate that you: Understand what the purposes for using IT are and know how to improve its use. Know how to plan for and produce information that is well structured and fit for purpose. Know how to help others use appropriate terms for IT.
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ECDL/ITQ/Guide/Mandatory Unit Guide Level 1, 2 & 3/0305/1.1
Further considerations for task evidence The table below lists the ITQ units that you may have chosen for your Optional Units, which you may have taken ECDL tests for and you wish to use as APA towards your ITQ. If you have chosen any of these ECDL units, then there are some additional skills which need to be evidenced. These skills MUST be included in the Mandatory Unit, as they are not in the ECDL syllabus. You should ensure you proof read all documents for presentation and accuracy, and provide evidence that the document meets the requirements of the originator / Expert Witness.
Operate a computer ECDL module 2 (level 1)
If you select a task operating a computer, you MUST: Describe health and safety risks to self when using IT Describe health and safety risks to others from common hardware
Describe what health and safety laws and guidelines affect the use of IT
You should also ensure that your evidence covers a selection of level 1 skills such as: Internets and intranets ECDL module 7 (level 1) Demonstrate how you have set up your folders and files Describe how you followed health and safety laws affecting the use of IT
If you select a task using the internet, you MUST: Choose the sources that are most likely to provide the information needed Locate information from various sources Choose information that is appropriate for what is needed
E-mail If you select a task using email, you MUST: ECDL module 7 (level 1) Format your messages, such as by changing font (typeface), type size and colour.’ Format paragraphs using alignment, bullets, numbering and indents. Describe why some computer users may have difficulty in sending and receiving e-mails with attachments.
You should also ensure that your evidence covers a selection of level 1 skills such as: Sending emails with attachments Using an email address book
Word processing If you select a task using word processing, you MUST: ECDL module 3 (level 2) Produce information that communicates clearly and accurately with the audience, where and when it is needed. Proof read the document to check that text looks professional Check that line, paragraph and page breaks fall in appropriate places, and check that headings, subheadings and other formatting techniques are used appropriately Use appropriate templates, eg company memo, fax header etc
ECDL/ITQ/Guide/Mandatory Unit Guide Level 1, 2 & 3/0305/1.1
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Set up shortcuts, eg, desktop shortcuts to word processing files or folders or storing a file/template on the intranet or shared area for all to access/use
You should also ensure that your evidence covers at least 2 of the level 2 skills such as: Spreadsheets If you select a task using a spreadsheet, you MUST: ECDL module 4 (level 2) Produce information that communicates clearly and accurately with the audience, where and when it is needed. Use suitable methods for analysing more complex data. Check that page breaks fall in appropriate places and that the formatting is appropriate Check the accuracy of results and sort out any errors in formula Set up shortcuts, eg, desktop shortcuts to spreadsheet files or folders or storing a file/template on the intranet or shared area for all to access/use Link information within the same type of software Mail merge Tabs Headers and footers Tables Styles
You should also ensure that your evidence covers at least 2 of the level 2 skills such as: MIN and MAX Functions Absolute and relative cell references SUM and AVERAGE Function Charts COUNT and IF Functions
Databases If you select a task using databases, you MUST: ECDL module 5 (level 2) Set up shortcuts, eg, creating queries, forms and reports that can be used repeatedly without re-creation, desktop shortcuts to database files or storing a database on the intranet or shared area for all to access/use
Describe why it is important to maintain data integrity. What methods should be used to maintain data integrity in a simple (eg single-table, non-relational) database?
You should also ensure that your evidence covers at least 2 of the level 2 skills such as: Multiple criterion queries Reports Forms
IT Presentations If you select a task using presentations, you MUST: ECDL module 6 (level 2) Produce information that communicates clearly and accurately with the audience, where and when it is needed. Chose an appropriate method and presentation style to suit audience needs Proof read the presentation to check that text and images look professional
ECDL/ITQ/Guide/Mandatory Unit Guide Level 1, 2 & 3/0305/1.1
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Check text formatting techniques are used appropriately Check images and other objects are positioned and edited appropriately Insert and position objects, eg images
Link information within the same type of software
You should also ensure that your evidence covers at least 2 of the level 2 skills such as: Apply design templates Use animation effects Transition
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ECDL/ITQ/Guide/Mandatory Unit Guide Level 1, 2 & 3/0305/1.1