Maths in Computing
I’ve previously mentioned issues surrounding maths within Computing qualifications. There are some long-term issues, such as the absence of maths as a mandatory component in HND Computer Science, but matters were brought to a head when the Maths team in SQA revised some units, generally lowering their level.
I’ve now formed a short-life working group (SLWG) to look into these issues. There are representatives of SQA, colleges and universities on the group. The group met last week. It was a productive meeting. We agreed that there is a need for two types of unit – one that simply seeks to deliver pure maths (this type is needed for articulation to some degree courses) and one that seeks to develop maths skills in the context of computing (this type is needed to carry out some computing tasks such as programming). The intention is to give QDTs a menu of units from which they can choose the one(s) that best fit their qualifications.
This is likely to involve some development work and the SLWG’s remit does not include this (its remit is limited to recommending changes) so any unit writing would take place in the next stage. It’s hard to predict how long this will take until I’m clear about what needs to be done. The SLWG’s work will be complete by the end of May. In the meantime, contact me if you want to know more about the work of this group.
1 Comment
I would be very interested in hearing the outcome of the SLWGs work.
Thanks
Ged