3.2.5 Plan how these targets will be met You may be anxious to get on with achieving your targets but think first before you plunge in. In setting targets, think about how they will be achieved by identifying action points and deadlines, prioritising tasks and identifying resources and support from others. Include opportunities to discuss ideas/work with others and build in time to receive feedback and reflect on it. Planning how to achieve your targets involves all of the functions that take place before you start on the actual tas
3.2 Developing a strategy In developing a strategy for this key skill you need to: review your current capabilities and identify what you hope to achieve in the future; identify opportunities for using skills to improve your own learning and performance and the resources you might need, for example, training manuals and people; and draw up a plan of action.
2.3 The key skills framework In this unit each key skill section uses a common three-stage framework to help you develop your skills. The stages of this framework are:
developing a strategy for how you are going to tackle the key skill;
monitoring your progress as you develop your skills;
evaluating the strategy you have used and presenting outcomes of your work. But working on your skills and techniques i
2.1 A framework for learning This section introduces the key skills approach to learning, outlining a three-stage framework to support the development of your skills, and relating this framework to learning tasks you are likely to come across. All of us use key skills as part of our study and work. Working with others in teams, sharing ideas, solving problems, researching information and writing essays and reports are all activities using key skills. Developing our key skills is not about remembering facts – but
4 Structure of the assessment units This key skills assessment unit does not have specific questions with word limits and no statements indicating you include, say, an essay or a report. Instead, as you tackle the unit you need to ask yourself ‘Which pieces of work show my skills and capabilities to best advantage?’ When you have identified and selected evidence of your skills, you must then relate this evidence directly to the criteria. This method of building a portfolio is based not on providing right or wrong answ
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
Introduction This key skill focuses on developing your skills in Working with others and applying these skills in your studies, work or other activities over a period of time. To tackle all of this key skill you will need to plan your work over at least 3–4 months to give yourself enough time to practise and improve your skills, to seek feedback from others, and to monitor and evaluate your performance. A main purpose of this key skill is to guide you through the management of a group activity cul
7.3 Monitoring your progress Use your records or logbook to help you present a commentary that includes: The methods you used to work on the problem. A statement that shows how you have used your knowledge of problem-solving methods for selecting particular methods and reasons for the selection to achieve the standard of work required. The checking procedures you used for the problem, for example, interim checks, progress reports, feedback commen
7.3 Monitoring your progress Use your records or logbook to provide a reflective commentary on: what you did to help you set up and use numerical, graphical and algebraic methods and techniques to achieve your goals; for example, what you did to: Â evaluate information from different sources and develop alternative lines of enquiry; carry out calculations to appropriate levels of accuracy and draw on a range of nu
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 and selec
5 Effective use of information technology The purpose of this unit is for you to create a portfolio of your work to represent you as an effective user of information technology (IT) within your study or work activities. This will involve using criteria to help you select examples of your work that clearly show you can use and improve your IT skills. However, by far the most important aim is that you can use this assessment process to support your learning and improve your performance overall. Using information technology skills
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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. An example of a suitable format for the contents page is shown in Figure 1. Figure 1 (PDF, 1 page, 0.1MB). 7.4 Evaluating your strategy and assessing your work Present an evaluation that includes a summary of how effective your overall strategy has been in helping you use skills to improve your learning and performance, giving details of: those factors that worked well to help you improve and those that have worked less well; which factors had the greatest effect on your achievement of what you set out to do? an assessment, referring to your review and targets, of your own progress and perfo 7.3 Monitoring progress Present a reflective commentary that makes reference to your ongoing notes and records and includes: What you did to manage your time as you worked on your course or work activities, and your own assessment of the effectiveness of your time management. For example, the use you made of your planning schedules, any changes you made to your deadlines, what you did about unexpected priorities and whether you feel your time management is effective. 1 2.2 Reading a table Tables are a common way of presenting information. We use tables to display key information, usually numbers. Tables can form a summary of information, or they may be a starting point for a discussion. Tables can look quite formidable when a lot of information is presented all at once and finding your way around one can be difficult. So how do you interpret a table?
The Sciences Good Study Guide (Northedge et al., 1997) advises that you should ask yourself these ques 1.1.2 Launching the Windows scientific calculator From the Start menu on your Windows desktop choose ‘Programs’, then ‘Accessories’ and then ‘Calculator’ (if ‘Calculator’ doesn't appear on the menu, click the double down arrows at the bottom). If this is the first time you have used the Windows calculator then it is possible that only the standard view of the calculator will be displayed, but you will need to use the scientific view. To display this, click on the View menu in the calculator's menu bar and select ‘Scie 5.1.3 When is a bar chart not a good format to use? A bar chart is not the best way to show the link or mathematical relationship between two sets of data, for this you would use a line graph. 5.1.2 When are bar charts used? A bar chart is a good method of representation if you want to illustrate a set of data in a way that is as easy to understand as it is simple to read. In general, a bar chart should be used for data that can be counted so, for example, we could use a bar chart to show the number of families with 0, 1, 2 or more children. A bar chart could also be used to show how many people in one area use each of the different modes of transport to get to work. Bar charts are very useful for comparing 8.2 Writing in your own words Active reading, or reading and thinking, are bound up with writing in your own words. If you read materials in a passive way, you are much more likely to copy out chunks word for word when you are note taking, and in the process generate very long notes indeed! Similarly, if you do not spend time thinking about what you have read, asking questions and checking your understanding, you will be tempted to copy out difficult bits or simply try to reorder the author's words. In the latter case you
