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.
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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) 7.3 Monitoring your progress Use your records or logbook to help you provide a reflective commentary on: what you did to help you set up and use IT methods and techniques to achieve your goals; for example, what you did to:  search for information and explore alternative lines of enquiry; exchange information to meet your purpose (e.g. email, computer conferencing, video conferencing, web pages, document sharing 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 8.2 Extended written communication Your example needs to show you can: communicate relevant information with accuracy, e.g. use a spell check/dictionary, cite references correctly, proofread so that there are minimal errors and the meaning is clear, and use a form, structure and style that suits the purpose, e.g. making use of specialist vocabulary where appropriate; respond to contributions from others to improve the overall quality, e.g. discussions, feedback comment 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 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 Introduction This key skill focuses on the ways in which you receive and respond to information and communicate with other people in your work, study and everyday life. Communication skills include speaking, listening, reading and writing for different purposes. Techniques such as note taking and writing summaries are important, but so, too, are the techniques of evaluation and application, such as evaluating the relevance and quality of information. Communication is part of everyone's life and impr 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 7.3 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. 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 Acknowledgements Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following source for permission to reproduce material within this unit Figure 3 Source: National Statistics website:
Crown copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO Except for third party materials and otherwise stated 1.1.7 Using the memory buttons Calculations involving several operations can also be carried out in stages. One way to do this is to use the ‘=’ key part way through the calculation. You can also use the calculator's memory. The Windows calculator has a number of memory buttons, shown in Figure 2, to hel 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.) 1.1.2 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 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. Learning outcomes After finishing this unit you should be able to: use the Windows calculator to carry out basic operations and calculate percentages; interpret and use information presented in tables and charts; be able to round numbers appropriately. 9.1 Further reading
*The Good Study Guide by Andrew Northedge, published by The Open University, 1990, ISBN 0 7492 00448. Chapter 4 is entitled ‘Working with numbers’ Other chapters are entitled: ‘Reading and note taking’, ‘Other ways of studying’, ‘What is good writing?’, ‘How to write essays’, ‘Preparing for examinations’.
The Sciences Good Study Guide by Andrew Northedge, Jeff Thomas, Andrew Lane, Alice 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
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7.4.1 Range and inter-quartile range
