Candidates must make effective and responsible use of hardware devices and software applications, demonstrating due attention to other users.
When extracting and presenting information from an electronic data source, candidates may use either local or remote data sources, eg cloud-based systems/websites. The data source should require several straightforward choices, or have a less obvious structure, or more complex inter-relationships.
Information may be textual, numerical, graphical, audio etc. Candidates should be discerning in their choice of websites, having regard for factors such as reliability, currency, authority, bias etc.
It may be appropriate for you to gather written evidence produced by the candidates while carrying out the practical tasks. However, written evidence is not essential for this Unit and is inappropriate if it disadvantages the candidates.
You may wish instead to observe the candidates carrying out a task and use oral questioning. This requires you to create and complete a record of questions asked and candidate responses.
From the candidate’s point of view, it is useful to have the means of keeping all the work of this Unit together. You can help here by creating and providing a workbook that includes all the evidence-gathering items. An alternative would be to provide worksheets that can be made into a portfolio or e
portfolio.
If you have chosen to integrate the ICT work with other Units being undertaken by the candidates, it may be possible to assess the ICT as part of a larger single activity. In this case you must keep separate records for this Unit.
You should try to identify naturally occurring opportunities for assessment where possible. Some of the exemplars in this pack could be used or contextualised for this purpose.
The assessment process is likely to involve one or more of the following:
When assessing by observation, you must keep a detailed checklist. Similarly, if you use oral questioning, you must keep a record of both the questions and the candidate responses. All evidence, whether produced by the candidate or a record made by yourself, must be retained, signed, and dated by you.
You should work out where opportunities for meeting the Unit standards are likely to arise. Where possible, these should be built into the assessment process.
You should explain and discuss this assessment process with the candidates so that they are clear about what is expected of them.