The DiDA (Diploma in Digital Applications)is an optional information and communication technology (ICT) course studied by Key Stage 4 or equivalent school students (aged 14-16) in England and Wales. The course was introduced in 2005 (after a pilot starting in 2004) by the Edexcel examination board and is being taken up by an increasing number of schools to replace their previous BTEC or GCSE courses in ICT.
The course consists of four units:
- Using ICT
- Multimedia
- Graphics
- ICT in Enterprise
Each module is assessed entirely using coursework.
Students who complete the Using ICT module alone receive an Award in Digital Applications (AiDA), which is equivalent to one GCSE or Standard Grade. Those who complete the Using ICT unit and any one of the other three units receive a Certificate in Digital Applications (CiDA), which is equivalent to two GCSEs or Standard Grades. Students who complete all four modules receive the full Diploma in Digital Applications (DiDA), which is equivalent to four GCSEs or Standard Grades.
Each module is stated to take approximately 90 guided learning hours to complete. Pupils completing any module of the DiDA course do so by reading an online web resource (see external links) and then independently completing a set number of tasks. These tasks, as well as the planning and design work, are presented in an e-portfolio to be marked.
The DiDA course is entirely paperless , with all work being created, stored, assessed and moderated digitally.
It has been known to be hard and for students just giving up due to the bordom that they suffer whilst doing the course on computers. We know that it is graded from only A*-C with anything below this being a G or a U making the marking system for this course complicated and harder for students to achieve there best, for example students who are expected to get an A are getting below this grade.
The course is being used throughtout schools in the UK and is not at all popular with students at Secondary Schools as i have seen for myself, i also have seen that many teachers are not helping students and also i have also seen that students just give up by giving in to the temptation to surf the internet.
There are also other issues with the DiDA course is that the exam board Edexcel do not accept students work that have been processed in Microsoft Word, meaning all word processed pieces of work need to be converted to a PDF file format which also is annoying for students to do.
External links
- Edexcel: DiDA
- Example DiDA online task
- DiDA on Windows Live Spaces
- Very useful website dedicated to the DiDA course (DIDACOURSE.COM)
P.S Tom Hostick is a legend