Internal documentation and testing strategies

2007
School-assessed Coursework
Report

As a general comment, tasks should clearly state what students must do and what they must do to be successful. This means identifying evidence associated with varying levels of performance.

While schools were not required to identify the type of programming language used by their students (40 per cent of schools were in this category), approximately 36 per cent used VB 6 or VB.NET, 18 per cent used PHP and 5 per cent used C#.

2007
School-assessed Coursework
Report

Task type options
Task 1: A software module, in response to a design specification (40 marks) Task 2: A written report or a test (10 marks)

A variety of design specifications were presented, though few were original. It is important to build into the scenario the fact that the module is for use in a mobile computing device. The key knowledge and skills were generally well covered in the tasks; however, careful
consideration needs to be given to the following areas:

GENERAL COMMENTS
Unit 4 Coursework
In general most schools were able to satisfy the requirements of the VCE Information Technology Study Design. Exemplary tasks typically included case studies developed for this current study design, rather than being adapted from case studies used for the previous study design, and were accompanied by clear instructions.

The ability for students to target specific identities in a case study or practices is important in real life and especially for the final exam. Teachers are encouraged to write questions so that the student must analyse the current situation as described in the case study. Systems analysis cannot be done with poor context.

Outcome 1
Apply the stages of software development to produce purpose-designed software that takes into account a networked information system objective and the needs of end-users.

Generally the instructions to students regarding internal documentation, validation and testing were of a high standard. Teachers in this subject have a solid understanding of programming structure and essentials and their depth and extent of their knowledge was reflected in the tasks. Especially well done was the use of algorithms and data tables. The purpose of data tables is to work out how much memory the program will use and to work out the choice of variables and when/where to declare them. Most teachers encouraged students to prepare such data tables.

Overall the tasks allowed students to demonstrate their skills in developing algorithms, data tables, validation rules, internal documentation and testing strategies. Some tasks did not allow students to demonstrate their knowledge of information system goals and objectives, due to limited information in the design brief. Without knowing the system objectives, it would have been extremely difficult for students to propose evaluation strategies and for them to discuss design and implementation consideration.

organistions responsible for developing it and end-users. This key skill has been in the previous two study designs yet some teachers included no hints at all in the design brief about ethical or legal dilemmas for programmers. When the task asks students to discuss ethical and legal problems in general this then makes it difficult for the students to achieve full marks when they do not know how to tailor their response.

The task must allow students to write user documentation relevant to the design brief. While the task mode can be a test or written report it is important that students are not just required to demonstrate their knowledge in a general sense – all or most questions must relate to the design brief.

2007
School-assessed Coursework
Report