DiDA (Diploma in Digital Applications)
Exam board: EdExcel syllabus ref. also available CiDA and AiDA
Guthlaxton has enjoyed tremendous success in ICT over recent years. Success
with the GCSE ICT course led to the replacement of GCSE with the more demanding GNVQ ICT course 4 years ago. The GNVQ course is now being replaced by a radical new suite of qualifications called DiDA (Diploma in Digital Applications). This course is very much ‘hands on’ but by no means a soft option. It consists of modules, each module is worth a GCSE. It is our expectation that you will complete at least two modules over the two years that you study ICT, which will result in a Certificate in Digital Applications (CiDA = 2 GCSEs) If you work hard and your e-portfolios are all completed to a very high standard, you may be able to extend this to the Diploma in Digital Applications (DiDA = 4 GCSEs) Studying this new course will be a challenge and will require you to work hard. There are no exams for this course, instead you will first learn a series of skills. You will then be given a task set by the exam board and you will spend around 30 hours producing a project, which solves the task. The next step will be to produce a Summative Project Brief (SPB). Each SPB is published as a website and shows all the work you have completed to solve the task. Your SPB is also known as an Electronic Portfolio (e-portfolio), which is something you will come across more and more in years to come. The e-portfolio is firstly marked by your teacher and then by a moderator from the exam board (EDEXCEL). You will not be required to hand anything in on paper!
What grades can you get? The following table summarises the grades you can get and how they compare to GCSE. The work can be done at two different levels which will translate into different GCSE grades.
| GCSE Grade | DiDA Level 1 | DiDA Level 2 |
| A* | | Distinction |
| A | | Merit |
| B | | Credit |
| C | Distinction | Pass |
| D | Merit | |
| E | Credit | |
| F/G | Pass | |
Typical task and eportfolio
The following link takes you directly to the 2007 Summative Project Brief (SPB)
http://www1.edexcel.org.uk/dida-0906-d201/html/SPB201Index.htm
The entire task is described in the form of a website. There are a number of different aspects to each task, all of which must be completed to a high standard. You must in turn produce a website by at set deadline, which shows all your work. This is called an e-portfolio. This will have a home page from which all the work you have produced can be accessed.
