Advanced ICT

ICT3 Project

You have a choice from two set projects or you may select your own project but you will need to discuss it first and get approval from your ICT teacher. The set choices are given below.

You are given basic requirements from the end-user. These are (deliberately) imprecise and it is your job firstly to consider and then generate detailed qualitative and quantitative requirements. Higher scoring students will produce solutions that perform a specific task completely, with no omissions, using a range of the advanced functions with which you have already been familiarised.

It is very much in your interests to generate detailed requirements before you start to design your system. It is the fulfilment of these requirements that will lead to high marks. It is also very important that you design your system before you start to produce it. This means that you hand-prepare plans showing the following:

  • Visual layout (with details of how multiple worksheets are related)
  • Interface design (especially indication as to where data is input by the user prior to processing)
  • Formulae and other numericalfunction and Excel facility details (such as lookup tables, if and paste special)
  • Validation details
  • Cell Protection
  • Macros

Remember that in previous years, students have developed superb solutions but have subsequently scored low marks. The single explanation for this is that they have applied a disproportionate amount of time to the development of the system and then very little time or thought to the report. Remember that the examiner only sees your report and not the working solution!

Option 1

A school subject department needs to develop a solution that will enable it to record the attainment of its GCSE students and enable predictions to be made as to the likely final grade of each student. The GCSE course comprises coursework units that total a possible 100 marks. The students also take a written examination which is marked out of 100. There is a 60/40 weighting towards the coursework.

The following information is given:

There are nine coursework units. The maximum possible mark for each unit is given below:

P1 / 10 marks / P4 / 20 marks / P7 / 10 marks
P2 / 10 marks / P5 / 10 marks / P8 / 5 marks
P3 / 10 marks / P6 / 20 marks / P9 / 5 marks

These are known as the 'P' unit marks.

Grades

The GCSE grade boundaries are as follows:

A* / 77% / C / 55% / F / 32%
A / 70% / D / 47% / G / 26%
B / 62% / E / 40% / U / 20%

A key indicator of a student's likely GCSE grade is her Year 9 End of Key Stage Test scores (English, Maths and Science). Students' scores and expected GCSE grades are given below:

Key Stage 3 average score / Expected GCSE grade
Less than 4 / Less than D
4 / D
5 / C
6 / B
Higher than 7 / A or A*

Another useful indicator which is used to predict a student's likely GCSE outcome is a measure called VRQ. A VRQ value is applied to a student in years 7 to 9. A value of 100 is normal and thus the student should attain a GCSE grade C. The full range is given below:

VRQ score / Expected GCSE grade
Less than 100 / Less than D
100 / C
110 / B
120 / A
Higher than 127 / A*

Ideally, the Head of department would like the new system to show a student's predicted GCSE grade after the first project has been completed - every student will have scored a particular mark for each of the 'P' units.

The combination of the total 'P' unit marks with a student's Key Stage 3 average score and their VRQ score should be able to show where a student is on-target, over-achieving or underachieving. A particularly well designed system should also be able to show how many marks in total a student needs to score to achieve their predicted grade.

The finished system should let the Head of department and other teachers search and sort students by various criteria tutor group, sex etc. The system should be easy to use, difficult to break and effective in preventing data entry errors. Teachers are busy and do not have much time to spend in navigating interfaces (particularly those that are poorly designed). Ideally, the solution should also be automatically able to output and individual student's details to a word-processed report.

If you follow another course, you could choose to develop a system for that subject.

Option 2

In the school there a three places where sales take place. They are:

  • The school stationery shop (standard items)
  • The ICT department (diskettes, diskette carriers, CD-Rs, colour printing paper, acetate)
  • The canteen

The staff who operate these facilities each require a solution which records sales transaction and adjusts stock levels for all stock items. The sales transaction facility should only rely on product data input by the staff member via a product code and a given quantity. Each sales transaction must adjust the recorded stock level. Indication of low stock would is desirable. Some method of recording and storing each individual transaction would be very useful for financial auditing reasons.

The system must rely on a simple interface which reduces the possibility of data entry error. Only the staff member in charge (not an assistant) should be able to alter stock item data. Staff should be required to do no manual calculation which, in combination with other features to be designed by you, should allow the rapid 'through-put' of customers.


ICT3 Project Choices.doc