Syllabus Snapshot

by Amazing Brains

Exam Body: CCEA

Level: GCSE Subject: Digital Technologies

CCEAGCSEDigitalTechnologyfromSeptember2017

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2 Specification at a Glance

ThetablesanddiagramthatfollowsummarisethestructureofthisGCSEcourse.Unit1:DigitalTechnologyiscompulsoryforallstudents.StudentsalsofolloweitherRouteA:Multimedia(Units2and3)orRouteB:Programming(Units4and5).

Thequalificationtheyachieveiseither:

• GCSEDigitalTechnology(Multimedia);or• GCSEDigitalTechnology(Programming).

Route A: Multimedia

Content

Assessment

Weightings

Availability

Compulsory

coreunit

Unit1:DigitalTechnology

Externalwrittenexamination

1hour

30%

Summerfrom2018

Multimedia

units

Unit2:DigitalAuthoringConcepts

Externalwrittenexamination

1hour30mins

40%

Summerfrom2019

Unit3:DigitalAuthoringPractice

Controlledassessment

30%

Summerfrom2019

OR

Route B: Programming

Content

Assessment

Weightings

Availability

Compulsory

coreunit

Unit1:DigitalTechnology

Externalwrittenexamination

1hour

30%

Summerfrom2018

Programming

units

Unit4:DigitalDevelopmentConcepts

Externalwrittenexamination

1hour30mins

40%

Summerfrom2019

Unit5:DigitalDevelopmentPractice

Controlledassessment

30%

Summerfrom2019

Studentsmusttakeatleast40percentoftheassessment(basedonunitweightings)attheendofthecourseasterminalassessment.

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Unit3DigitalAuthoring

Practice

MultimediaRoute

Unit5DigitalDevelopment

Practice

GCSEDigitalTechnology

(Multimedia)GCSEDigitalTechnology

(Programming)

Unit1(CompulsoryCore)

DigitalTechnology

ProgrammingRoute

OR

Unit2DigitalAuthoring

Concepts

Unit4DigitalDevelopment

Concepts

CCEAGCSEDigitalTechnologyfromSeptember2017

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3 Subject Content

StudentsmuststudyUnit1.TheyalsostudyeitherUnits2and3orUnits4and5.Thecontentofeachunitandtherespectivelearningoutcomesappearbelow.

3.1 Unit 1: Digital Technology

Inthisunit,studentsexplorearangeofdigitaltechnologiesavailablefordatastorage,manipulation,presentationandtransfer.Theyalsoevaluatetheimportanceofdatasecurityanddatalegislation.

Content

LearningOutcomes

Digitaldata

Representing

data

Studentsshouldbeableto:

• describethedifferencebetweeninformationanddata;• describehowdataisstoredinthefollowingunits:– bit;– nibble;– byte;– kilobyte;– megabyte;– gigabyte;and– terabyte;

• identifythefollowingdatatypes:numeric(integerandreal),date/time,characterandstring;

Representing

images

• demonstrateunderstandingofhowpixelsareusedinimagerepresentation;

• demonstrateunderstandingofhowimageresolutionaffectsfilesize;

• describehowvector-basedgraphicsandbitmapgraphicsarestored;

• describethedifferencebetweenvector-basedandbitmapgraphics;and

• demonstrateunderstandingofhowbufferingandstreamingareusedtosupportthetransferofmovingimagefiles.

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Content

LearningOutcomes

Representing

sound

Studentsshouldbeableto:

• describefactorsthataffectsoundqualitywhenrecordingsound,includingsamplerate,bitdepthandbitrate;

• explaintheneedforanalogue-to-digitalconversioninsoundrecording;

Data

portability

• demonstrateunderstandingofdataportabilityandthefollowingfileformatsthatsupportit:jpeg,tiff,png,pict,gif,txt,csv,rtf,mp3,mp4,midi,mpeg,avi,pdf,wavandwma;

• demonstrateunderstandingoftheneedfordatacompression;

Software • describethefunctionsofsystemsoftware,referringtoallocatingthefollowing:– memory;– storage;and– processingtime;

• describethefollowingmodesofprocessing:real-time,batchandmulti-user;

• describethefollowingtaskscarriedoutbytheutilityapplications:diskdefragmenting,taskscheduling,backupandrestoringdata;

• describetheroleofantivirussoftwareandtheimportanceofregularupdates;

Database

applications

• demonstrateunderstandingofandexplainbasicdatabaseconceptssuchastable,record,field,keyfield,query,form,report,macro,relationshipandimportingdata;

• identifyanduseappropriatedatatypeswhencreatingadatabasestructure;and

• demonstrateunderstandingoftheneedfordatavalidation.

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Content

LearningOutcomes

Database

applications

(cont.)

Studentsshouldbeableto:

• describethefollowingtypesofvalidationchecks:presence,length,type,formatandrange;

• extractdatafromadatabasestructureusingsimplequerystructuresandusingthefollowinglogicaloperators:<,>,=,<=,>=,AND,ORandBETWEEN;

• demonstrateunderstandingofbigdata,referringtovolume,velocityandvariety;

• demonstrateunderstandingoftheneedfordataanalyticstointerpretbigdata;

Spreadsheet

applications

• describethefollowingbasicstructuresofspreadsheetsoftware:cells,rowsandcolumns;

• describeandusethefollowingfeaturesofspreadsheetsoftware:– datatypes;– templates,headersandfooters,conditionalformatting,validation,andimportingdata;

– enteringtext,numbersandformulae;– formattingcells,rowsandcolumns;– creatingandreplicatingformulae;– creatingasimpletemplateforotherstouse;and– usingsimplefunctions,relativeandabsolutecellreferencing,IFstatementsandVLOOKUPs;

• useaspreadsheetfordatamodelling;• create,labelandformatcharts;• selectareasofaspreadsheetforprinting;and• createsimplemacros.

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Content

LearningOutcomes

Computer

hardware

Studentsshouldbeableto:

• explainthepurposeofthecentralprocessingunit(CPU);• describetheroleofthefollowingcomponentsoftheCPU:thearithmeticlogicunit(ALU),controlunitandimmediate-accessstore;

• describetherolethefollowingplayinthefetch-executecycle:programcounter,memoryaddressregister(MAR),memorydataregister(MDR),instructionaddressregister(IAR)andALU;

• describetheimpactofclockspeed,cachesize,andnumberofcoresonCPUperformance;

• describethecharacteristics,typicaluses,andadvantagesanddisadvantagesofthefollowinginput,outputandstoragedevices:– microphone;– mouse;– graphicsdigitiser;– touchscreens;– speakers;– printers(laserand3D);– harddiscdrive(HDD);– highdefinition(HD)storagemedia;and– solidstatedrive(SSD);

• explainthepurposeofrandomaccessmemory(RAM),readonlymemory(ROM)andcache;

Network

technologies

• describethemainfeaturesofalocalareanetwork(LAN)andawideareanetwork(WAN);

• describethedifferencebetweentheWorldWideWeb,theInternetofThingsandintranets;and

• describeandevaluatetheeffectivenessofthefollowingnetworkcommunicationstechnologies:Wi-Fi,Bluetooth,opticalfibre,andmobilecommunicationtechnology(4Gand5G).

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Content

LearningOutcomes

Network

technologies

(cont.)

Studentsshouldbeableto:

• describethefunctionofthefollowingnetworkresources:networkinterfacecard,networkcables,switchandrouter;

• describethefollowingnetworktopologies:Bus,StarandRing;

• describetheadvantagesanddisadvantagesofusinganetworkinanorganisation;

Cyberspace,

networksecurity

anddatatransfer

• definethetermcybercrimeandgiveexamplesofthreatstocybersecurity,including:– hacking;– pornography;– cyberstalking;– datatheft;– denialofservice;– digitalforgery;– cyberdefamation;– spamming;and– phishing;

• definethetermmalwareanddescribethefollowingformsofmalware:virus,Trojanhorse,worm,keyloggerandspyware;

• explainhownetworksanddatacanbeprotectedusingencryption,passwords,levelsofaccess,backupandfirewalls;

• describetheroleofaprotocolindatatransfer;and

• describethepurposeofthefollowingprotocols:FileTransferProtocol(FTP),HyperTextTransferProtocol(HTTP)andHyperTextTransferProtocolSecure(HTTPS).

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Content

LearningOutcomes

Cloudtechnology

Implementation

andapplication,

security,and

impactonlocal

systems

Studentsshouldbeableto:

• definethetermcloudcomputing;• describetheadvantagesanddisadvantagesofcloudcomputingforanorganisation;

• describetheimpactofcloudcomputingongaming,filestorageandsharing(includingcollaborativetools);

Ethical,legaland

environmental

impactofdigital

technologyon

widersociety

Legislation

• demonstrateknowledgeandunderstandingof:– theConsumerContracts(Information,CancellationandAdditionalCharges)Regulations2013;

– theCopyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988;– theDataProtectionAct1998;and– theComputerMisuseAct1990;

• identifytypicalbreachesoftheCopyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988,includingsoftwarepiracyandsoftwarelicensinginfringements;

• demonstrateandapplyknowledgeandunderstandingof:– theeightprinciplesoftheDataProtectionAct1998;and– therightsofthedatasubjectandtheresponsibilitiesofthedatacontrollerandInformationCommissionerinensuringtheDataProtectionAct1998isenforced;

• describethetermshacker,virusandspywareandhowtheserelatetotheComputerMisuseAct1990;and

Moraland

ethical

considerations

• describetheethicalimpactoftechnologyonsociety,referringtothefollowing:– internetmisuse;– accesstopersonalinformation;– socialmediamisuse;– theimplicationsofglobalpositioningsystem(GPS)andtracking;and

– concernsaboutthesecurityofpersonaldata.

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Content

LearningOutcomes

Changesin

employment

opportunities,

skills

requirements

andwork

practices

Studentsshouldbeableto:

• describetheimpactofdigitaltechnologyonemployment,including:– increasedjobopportunitiesinthedigitaltechnologyandcomputingsector;

– jobdisplacement;– changesinworkpatterns;and– theneedforupskilling;

Healthand

safety

• demonstrateunderstandingofdigitaltechnologyrelatedhealthandsafetyissues,includingrepetitivestraininjury(RSI),backstrainandeyestrain;

• identifythemeasuresthatboththeemployeeandemployershouldtaketopromotegoodhealthandsafetypracticeintheworkplace;

Digital

applications

• describethemainfeaturesofgamingapplications,simulationsandmobilephoneapplicationsandhowtheycanbeusedtosupportthefollowing:– educationandtraining;– socialinteractions;and– workpractices;and

• evaluatetheimpactofthefollowingdigitalapplicationsonoureverydaylives:onlinebanking,onlinetrainingande-commerce.

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3.2 Unit 2: Digital Authoring Concepts Inthisunit,studentsdevelopunderstandingoftheconceptsinvolvedinthedevelopmentofdigitalsystems.

Content

LearningOutcomes

Designing

solutions

Studentsshouldbeableto:

• describeanenduser’srolewhendevelopingaprototypeforadigitalsystem;

• demonstrateknowledgeandunderstandingofthepurposeofthefollowingelementsofmultimediadesigndocumentation:– targetaudienceanduserrequirements;– navigationstructuredesign;– storyboard;– imagesources;– movietimeline;and– descriptionsofanyscriptedelementsofthesolutionandthesourceofthescript;

• demonstrateknowledgeandunderstandingofthepurposeofthefollowingelementsofdatabasedesigndocumentation:– datadictionary;– formandreportwireframes;– navigationalstructurediagram;and– entity-relationshipdiagram(ERD);

Digital

development

considerations

• describeandevaluatethefollowinginterfacesforoperatingdigitallydevelopedpackages:– graphicaluserinterface(GUI);– naturallanguageinterface;– motiontrackinginterface;and– touchscreen;

• describeissuesassociatedwithaccessibledesignwhendevelopingadigitalapplication;and

• describeissuesassociatedwithdevelopingdigitalpackagesthatarecompatibleacrossavarietyofplatforms.

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Content

LearningOutcomes

Digital

development

considerations

(cont.)

Studentsshouldbeableto:

• describehoweachofthefollowingimprovescross-platformcompatibility:plugins,portabledocumentformats(PDFs)andoptimisedfileformats;

Multimedia

applications

• identifyandevaluatekeymultimediaandinteractivefeaturesusedin:– websitessupportinge-commerce;– socialmedia;and– gaming;

Multimedia

authoring

• definethetermmultimediaauthoring;• demonstrateunderstandingofthefollowingfeaturesandtheirroleinmultimediaauthoring:– hypertext;– video;– animation;– sound;and– scripting;

• usescriptingtoimplementsequencing,selection,repetition,andeventprogramminginmultimediaauthoringsoftware;and

• demonstrateunderstandingofhowHyperTextMark-upLanguage(HTML)tagsareusedtomanagethefollowingelementsinwebsitecreation:– titles;and– pagebody,includingthefollowing:

coloursandfonts;headers;linesoftext;paragraphs;images;sound;video;tables;links;andlists.

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Content

LearningOutcomes

Multimedia

authoring(cont.)

Studentsshouldbeableto:

• interpretlogicbehindashortextractofHTMLcode;

• demonstrateunderstandingofhowfolderscanassistinassetmanagement;

• createandusethefollowingmediatypes:video,animationandsound;

• integratedifferenttypesofoptimisedmediaintoamultimediasolution,includinganimation,video,sound,imagesandtext;

• describetheimpactofnon-optimisedresourcesonmultimediapackageperformance;

Database

development

• developadatabasesolutiontoagivenproblembyapplyingappropriaterelationships,suchasone-to-oneandone-to-many,withinthedatabasestructure;

• createcomplexqueriesthat:– usetwoormorecriteria;– incorporatecalculations,selectingandsorting;and– useSELECT,FROMandWHEREstructuredquerylanguage(SQL)statements;

• createcomplexreportsusingfeaturessuchasgrouping,sorting,headersandfooters,andcalculations;

• usemailmergingtoselectandsequencerecipients;• createmacrostoautomatetasksinadatabasesolution;• describehowrelationaldatabasesreducedataredundancyandincreasedataintegrity;

Significanceof

testingand

developing

appropriatetest

plans

• explaintheroleoftestinginthedevelopmentprocess,includinganiterativeapproach;and

• describethefeaturesofaneffectivetestplan.

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Content

LearningOutcomes

Significanceof

testingand

developingof

appropriatetest

plans(cont.)

Studentsshouldbeableto:

• explainthefollowingapproachestotesting:– whitebox;– blackbox;– system;– alpha;– beta;and– A/B;

• describehowtotestthefollowinginamultimediapackage:navigation,multimediaassetoperation,loadtimesandscripttesting;and

Evaluationof

digitallyauthored

systemsagainsta

setofuser

requirements

• explainhowtouseanevaluationtoensurethatasolution:– meetstheoriginaldesignspecification;– isafullandcompletesolution;– isanefficientsolution;and– operatesonanappropriateplatform.

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3.3 Unit 3: Digital Authoring Practice

Inthisunit,studentsdesign,developandtestdigitalmultimediasystems.

Content

LearningOutcomes

Designing

solutionsusing

appropriatetools

Studentsshouldbeableto:

• specifytheuserrequirementsandtargetaudiencetodesignasolutiontoagivenproblem;

• usestoryboardsandprototypingtodesignasolutiontoagivenproblemusingsuitableinput,output,processing,dataandnavigationdesign;

• refineandevaluatethedesignsolution;

• usesuitabletestingmethods,forexampleA/Btesting,toensurethedesignsolutionmeetsuserrequirements,afterconsideringenduserfeedback;and

Buildinga

solution

• usethefollowingfeaturesofamultimediaauthoringpackagetosupportthecreationofaninteractivesolutionfromadesigndocument:– templates;– hypertextthatsupportsinternalandexternalnavigationallinks;

– optimisedmediatypes,whichshouldinclude:anoriginalvideo;anoriginalanimation;andappropriatesound;

– scriptedelementsthatenhancetheinteractivityofthepackage;and

– arangeofaccessibilityelements.

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Content

LearningOutcomes

Buildinga

solution(cont.)

Studentsshouldbeableto:

• usethefollowingfeaturesofadatabaseapplicationtosupporttheimplementationofasolutionfromadesigndocument:– relationships;– simpleandcomplexqueries;– menusandmacros;– validation;– lookuplists;– inputmasks;– formsandsubforms;and– reports(incorporatinggrouping,sorting,calculations,andheadersandfooters);

Testingasolution • createatestplanthat:– ispresentedintabularformat;– testsallnavigationalelements,allinteractiveelementsandtheloadtimeofanyassetsusedinthesolution;

– teststheaccessibilityelementsoftheapplication;– usesappropriatetestdata;– showsexpectedoutput;– identifieserrorsandperformanceissues;– reflectsthegeneralrobustnessofthesystem;and– measurestheextenttowhichthesolutionmeetstheuserrequirements;

• testthesolutionusingthetestplananddocumenttheobservedoutcomesfromeachtest;and

Evaluatinga

solution

• evaluatethesolution,referringtothefollowing:– userrequirements;– performanceandrobustnessduringtesting;– refinementsrequiredfollowingtesting;and– possibleimprovementstothesolution.

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3.4 Unit 4: Digital Development Concepts

Inthisunit,studentsanalysetrendsinsoftwaredevelopmentandtheconceptsinvolvedindesigningandbuildingdigitalsystemsusingcodedsolutions.

Content

LearningOutcomes

Contemporary

trendsin

software

development

Studentsshouldbeableto:

• describethefollowingprogrammingparadigms:– proceduralprogramming;and– object-orientedprogramming;

• explainthesignificanceofthefollowingaspectsofsoftwaredevelopmentenvironments:– editingfeatures;and– high-levelcodetranslationandexecution;

Digitaldata

• describehowanumberisconvertedtoabinarypatternforstorageinacomputer;

• demonstrateunderstandingofthefollowingunitsofdata:– bit;– nibble;– byte;– kilobyte;– megabyte;– gigbyte;and– terabyte;

• demonstrateunderstandingofthefollowingtypesofcharacterrepresentation:– ASCII(7-bitand8-bit);and– Unicode;

• demonstrateunderstandingofandusenumberrepresentationandconvertbetweendenary,binaryandhexadecimal;

• performtheadditionoftwobytesandexplainthemeaningofoverflow;and

• describeanduseappropriatelythefollowingdatatypes:numeric(integerandreal),date/time,characterandstring.

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Content

LearningOutcomes

Digitaldata

(cont.)

Studentsshouldbeableto:

• demonstrateunderstandingofanduseBooleanoperators(AND,ORandNOT)andtruthtables;

Digitaldesign

principles

• explaininsimpletermstheunderlyingconceptsofcomputationalthinking–abstractionanddecomposition;

• designsolutionsusingalgorithms,flowdiagramsandpseudo-code;

• createandevaluatealgorithms,includingthoseforbasicsortingandsearching;

• refineasolutiontoaproblemduringdesign;• identifydatarequirementsforasolutionanddevelopanappropriateuserinterface;

• useadryruntotestasolution;and

Programming

constructs

• demonstrateunderstandingofandusethefunctionalityofthefollowingconstructsinaprogramminglanguage:– variables,constants,andBooleanandarithmeticoperators;

– input,outputandassignmentstatements;– one-dimensionalarraystructures;– simplesortingtechniquessuchasthebubblesortandtheinsertionsort;

– simplesearchingtechniquessuchaslinearandbinarysearching;

– stringmanipulationfunctions,includingsplitting,concatenating,charactersearchingandsubstringsearching;

– controllingtheflowofaprogramthroughsequence,selectionanditeration;

– buildingreusablecodethatutilisesuser-definedfunctionsormethods;and

– basicfilehandling.

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Content

LearningOutcomes

Simpleerror

handling

techniques

Studentsshouldbeableto:

• demonstrateunderstandingofandusethefollowing:– datavalidation,includingpresence,length,typeandformatchecks;

– detectionandcorrectiontechniquesforsyntax,executionandlogicerrors;and

– simpleerrortrappingtechniques;

Developingtest

plansandtesting

asolution

• explainthefollowingiterativeapproachestotesting:– whitebox;– blackbox;and– system,unitandintegrationtesting;

• createanduseatestplanthatidentifiestestproceduresforuseduringandafterdevelopmenttocheckasystemagainstsuccesscriteria;

• deviseandusethefollowingtypesoftestdata:valid,invalidandextreme;and

Evaluationof

digitallyauthored

systemsagainsta

setofuser

requirements

• explainhowevaluationisusedtoensurethatasolution:– meetstheoriginaldesigncriteria;– isafullandcompletesolution;– isanefficientsolution;and– isarobustsolution.

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3.5 Unit 5: Digital Development Practice

Inthisunit,studentsdesign,developandtestcodedsolutionswhencreatingdigitalsystems.Studentsmustuseoneofthefollowinglanguagesintheircompletedsolution:Python,JavaorC#.

Content

LearningOutcomes

Designing

solutionsusing

appropriatetools

Studentsshouldbeableto:

• usealgorithmstodesignafullydecomposedsolutiontoagivenproblem;

• specifythedatarequirementsforaproposedsolution;• includesuitableinput,outputandnavigationdesigntoenableausertousethesystemsuccessfully;

• usevalidationanderrortrappingproposalsinthedesigntoimprovethepotentialrobustnessofthesystem;

• usedryrunstoevaluateasolutiontoensurethatitwillmeetitsoriginaldesigncriteria;

• refinethedesignsolutionbasedonissuesidentifiedduringthedesignprocess;and

Buildinga

solution

• usethefollowingfeaturesofanintegrateddevelopmentenvironment(IDE)tosupportthecreationofasolutionfromastructureddesign:– codeeditor;– simpledebuggingtools;– compiler;– errordiagnostics;– run-timeenvironment;and– graphicaluserinterface(GUI)whereappropriate.

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Content

LearningOutcomes

Buildinga

solution(cont.)

Studentsshouldbeableto:

• usethefollowingfeaturesofaprogramminglanguagetobuildasolutionfromastructureddesign:– datatypes:

numeric;character;string;Boolean;anddate/time;

– controlstructures:conditionalexecutionif;conditionalexecutionwithalternativeifelse;andlooping:for,whileandrepeat;

– functions:user-definedfunctions;in-builtfunctions;andmathematicalfunctions;

– datastructures:arrays;andwritingtotextfiles;

– stringhandling(usingsimplestringhandlingfunctions);– basicarithmetic:

addition,subtraction,multiplicationanddivision; powers;and moduloarithmetic;and– logicalandrelationaloperators(andcomplexcombinationsofthese):equaltoornotequalto;<,>,<=and>=;andlogicalAND,ORandNOT;

Testingasolution • createatestplanthat:– ispresentedintabularformat;– incorporatesblackboxandwhiteboxtesting;– usesappropriatetestdata;– showsexpectedoutput;– identifiesrun-timeandlogicerrors;– reflectsthegeneralrobustnessofthesystem;and– measurestheextenttowhichthesolutionmeetstheuserrequirements;and

• testthesolutionusingthetestplananddocumenttheobservedoutcomesfromeachtest.

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Content

LearningOutcomes

Evaluatinga

system

Studentsshouldbeableto:

• evaluatethesolution,referringtothefollowing:– userrequirements;– performanceandrobustnessduringtesting;and– refinementsrequiredfollowingtesting;and

• makerecommendationsforimprovingthesystem.