Internet safety online group

There is an online group dedicated to supporting centres that offer the Internet Safety qualification. I would encourage you to join the group if you currently offer the award or are thinking about offering the unit in the future. The group will provide peer support and SQA staff are also members and willing to help - so please join!

One final thing...

If you attended the launch event and haven't yet completed the event evaluation survey, please do so now. It will only take you a minute and will help us improve future events. Click here to take survey. Thanks in anticipation.

All good things come to an end

My secondment to this project ends today and I return to my "real" job from this morning. That doesn't mean that there is no-one to help you with Internet Safety but it does mean that I'll have a lot more on my plate. I've thoroughly enjoyed the time on this project and I've learnt a great deal about e-learning and e-assessment. I've also enjoyed working with a large number of individuals who I met through this work (such as Rob Hay of Strathclyde Police). And special thanks to Derek who gave me a great deal of help and support throughout the project. From today, you should contact Tony for assistance.

You can keep up to date with Internet Safety developments via the SQA Computing blog so don't forget to visit this site from time to time to find out what's going on.

Launch event

The formal launch event was held this afternoon at the Teacher Building in Glasgow.

It went well. There was a good turn-out although there were a few empty seats, which was a pity since we had to turn down so many people who wanted to attend.

I commenced proceedings with a presentation [PPT] about the background to the project and the contents of the unit. Then Alan Patterson gave a presentation [PPT] about his experiences during the pilot. This was followed by Billy Graham of Strathclyde Police who expressed strong support for the award. Then Nick Morgan of Learning & Teaching Scotland spoke about Glow [PPT] and expressed his organisation's support for the qualification (it is going to be the first qualification to be offered via Glow). And finally John Thomson spoke [PPT] about his school's experience of delivering the qualification using mobile phones. I'm grateful to all of the speakers.

So, it was a good event but I'm glad to see the qualification formally get off the ground.

Updated FAQ

I've updated the Internet Safety FAQ. Version 2.0 includes the latest information about the qualification. You can download it here. A PDF version is available here.

Launch event update

The demand for places at next week's launch event has been great and the event is completely "sold out". In fact, we could have easily doubled the capacity and filled the venue. I'm sorry if you're one of the people unable to get a place but if you contact Derek he'll send you a comprehensive information pack (which includes the latest support materials) once the actual event is over.

For those who are attending, you can get a draft agenda here and a location map here . See you all next week.

Launch event

I sent a letter to centres on Wednesday with details about the public launch of the Internet Safety qualification, which will take place on Wednesday 20 June at 2pm in The Teachers' Centre in Glasgow.

The letter should be arriving in centres tomorrow or early next week. In the meantime, you can register for the event here.

Sunday Herald article

The Sunday Herald ran an article on the qualification while I was on leave. You can read it here.

Survey is closed

I closed the e-learning survey this morning. One thousand and twenty people had completed it - which probably represents the largest response to any survey that SQA has carried out. Thanks very much to everyone who took the time to complete it. The huge response means that SQA can have confidence in the results. I'll post a summary of the findings once the responses have been analysed.