3 Key skills assessment units This section gives advice and guidance to help you compile and present a portfolio of selected work. You are strongly advised to read through this section so that you have an idea of what is expected. The key skills assessment units provide an opportunity for you to integrate your development of key skills with your work or study. You may choose to concentrate on skills that you need to develop and improve for your job, for a new course, or personally to help you keep abreast of new dev
2 Sources of help This assessment unit is designed to be self-contained. However you might like to access the following sources for support and guidance if you need it. These sources include:
U529_1 Key skills – making a difference: This OpenLearn unit is designed to complement the assessment units. It provides detailed guidance and activities to help you work on your key skills, gives examples of key skills work from students, and helps you prepare an
9 Notes to help you complete your assessment To complete your portfolio, you must include a contents page indicating how your reflective commentary in Part A and your evidence in Part B are related. Figure 1 (PDF, 1 page, 0.1MB) 5 Effective use of information literacy skills The purpose of this assessment unit is for you to create a portfolio of your work that shows you can improve your information literacy skills and apply them within your study or work activities. A central aim is for you to use the process to support your learning and improve your performance overall. You will need to show that you can search for, select and critically evaluate information. Using information literacy skills effectively involves applying your skills appropriately in diffe Acknowledgements The content acknowledged below is Proprietary (see terms and conditions) and is used under licence. All other materials included in this unit are derived from content originated at the Open University. 9 Notes to help you complete your assessment To complete your assessment portfolio you must include a contents page indicating how your reflective commentary in Part A and your evidence in Part B are related. An example of a suitable format for the contents page is in Figure 1 below. Figure 1 (PDF, 1 page, 0.1MB) 8.3 Synthesis Your synthesis of what you have learned needs to show you can comment critically and reflectively on the ways of learning you have used. Think about what you had to learn, how you learned it and make an assessment of how well you learned it. On reflection, would you change anything? If so, what would you do differently? Your synthesis does not have to be long (e.g. one side of an A4 page), but it does need to show you can think critically about your learning, relate it to specific work (that 7.2 Developing a strategy Present notes/records to show you have planned to use skills to improve your learning and performance. Include: A review of your current capabilities and your goals over an extended period of time (at least three months). Indicate how your goals relate to the context in which you are working and your current capabilities. Your evidence could include a skills audit based on the key skills criteria and other criteria given as part of your course Introduction This key skill is about helping you understand how you learn; think about how you can improve your own learning and performance, and consider how you might generalise the principles and processes for future learning. Improving your learning and performance could be considered to be a ‘meta-skill’, that is the skill of learning how to learn. This unit, then, is a little different from the other skills units because improving your own learning and performance is not a separate option 1.1.5 Clearing the previous calculation To clear the previous calculation, click the ‘C’ button. Provided that no operation has been performed on an entered number, an incorrect entry can be deleted one digit at a time by clicking the ‘Backspace’ button. (This is labelled ‘Back’ on some versions of the Windows calculator.) 1.1.1 Operating the Windows calculator The Windows calculator is supplied with the Windows operating system. This section provides you with basic instructions for its use, and a few practice activities. The Windows calculator also provides a help menu that you can use. 8 Technical glossary This glossary is intended to provide a basic explanation of how a number of common mathematical terms are used. Definitions can be very slippery and confusing and at worst can replace one difficult term with a large number of other puzzling concepts. Therefore, where an easy definition is available it is provided here, where this has not been possible an example is used. If you require more detailed or complete definitions, you should refer to one of the very good mathematical dictionaries th 7.4 Spread So far in this section, you have seen that the mean, median and mode can all give a useful typical value of a set of data. However, there is further information that you can get from a set of data which can help to complete the picture. Consider the following two sets of data. Data set C: 113, 48, 26, 99, 64 The number of runs scored by 5.2.1 Discrete variables The charts about different modes of transport and that on attendance figures at a range of cultural events all use what might be called ‘word categories’. Each category (e.g. bus, rail, cycle, and walk) is quite distinct from any other in the set of categories. Such distinct categories are known in mathematics as ‘discrete variables’. Word categories are not the only type of variable that is discrete; numbers can also be discrete. For example, at the beginning of this section, w 4.3.1 Pie charts A pie chart is a diagram in the form of a circle, with proportions of the circle clearly marked. A pie chart is a good method of representation if we wish to compare a part of a group with the whole group. It gives an immediate idea of the relative sizes of the shares. So, for example, it can be used to consider advertising income. It can also be used to look at, say, shares of market for different brands, or different types of sandwiches sold by a store. 4.1 Reading data from tables Tables are used as a way of describing what you are talking about in a structured format. They tend to be used to present figures, either as a summary or as a starting point for discussion. Tables are also probably the most common way of presenting data in educational courses. Tables have always been compiled by someone. In doing so, the compiler may have selected data and they will have chosen a particular format, either of which may influence the reader. You need to be aware of the co Make your conference work You can make a big difference to the effectiveness of any conference, and to your tutor group conference in particular. We are going to discuss in turn the four main ways that you can help a conference work well: get involved; help people to get to know you; construct clear messages; take some responsibility. To get the most out of conferencing on your course, get involved 3.1 Introduction One of the most useful and rewarding things you can do with your computer is use it to communicate with your tutor, other students, and course staff. If you like exchanging ideas and information, sharing support with other students, asking questions and getting feedback from your tutor, then online communication can add a whole new dimension to your learning: “Email from another student really kept me going 2.3 Learning more Consider your main use for the PC, and check that you have the skills or knowledge you need. Although some students use spreadsheets and databases, the key skills for most students are: word processing study notes and assignments; searching for information on the web; using conferencing and email. If you feel you need to know more about using your computer there are a number of options open to you. 2.2 Reading diagrams When you're studying, following the sense of a piece of text may not be straightforward. Often, you'll need to rewrite the text as notes or a diagram. Equally, some diagrams will need careful reading, and you'll have to make notes or draw other diagrams. So, how can we read different types of diagrams?
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7.4.1 Range and inter-quartile range
