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It will provide you with an understanding of how we can use the web during this course.  It will also fulfill a useful function in this instance in allowing us to provide you with information on how the course will run.

A web page is programmed in Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML). You will see that a web page has underlined text.  This text is called a hyper link.  By clicking on a hyper link you may jump to another place on this web page, perhaps to another web page within our own web site and in some instances even to a remote web server (this can be anywhere in the world and may even connect us to web sites in America or Australia).  

The access to the Internet from the college is via Janet a fast academic network provided for educational institutions.  However even using our fast network facilities the access can grind to a virtual halt when running video and music or when using international sites at peak times.  The large amount of data required for video and music being transferred across the Internet uses up all of the available bandwidth and slows down the web and in worst case scenarios completely blocks the networks.

You will be practicing web access and using it extensively for research during this course.
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As you are studying ICT, you will be using computers and the college networks to a much greater extent than students on other courses. Because you are allocated much greater access to computers you are expected to use them strictly for course related work.  Therefore, under no circumstances will you load or play games, surf the web, use chat groups, download material from the web, store non course related files on the network or reconfigure any college equipment (this includes customizing computer settings or installing screen savers) and only access e-mails from your tutors in class.  Class room computers are provided purely for course work.  If you need to to do anything in this line you should do this in your own time either on your own computer or at a Cyber Cafe.  As in business you are expected to use the resources wisely and effectively for the intended purpose. 

Similarly, for us to meet our objectives in helping you to be successful on your chosen course we need your full commitment so that we are all working towards the same objectives.  Don't be misled, GNVQ courses mean a lot of hard work as past students will testify.  A substantial portfolio needs to be developed to achieve success.  In the last intake of students 57% achieved merit and distinction grades and over 70% were successful.  The course team's objectives are to improve on these figures and we hope that you will be one of the high end achievers.

We therefore need you to indicate your agreement and commitment to meet these targets.
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You will also be responsible for submitting all assignment work by the scheduled dates and ensuring that all fully completed and marked work is securely filed in your portfolio.  Your portfolio will be tracked and locked securely in a cupboard under the supervision of your LMT tutor.  As you progress your LMT tutor will identify from your tracked work anything that needs to be addressed.  It is essential that you keep up-to-date with your work and failure to do so will loose you grading..  If uncompleted work is allowed to build up you will find that it may be physically impossible to complete your work by the end of the course, so you must keep on top of your work at all times.  Failure to meet your commitment could affect you progressing onto the next level of study as a report goes to the new course leader indicating your self motivation, commitment, attendance as well as achievement.  Poor behavior could not only affect you on this course (in worst cases of commitment you will be dismissed from the course) but also affect progression onto other courses.  You are in adult education now and it is not a requirement that you come to college, so it is assumed that you wish to be here and you should treat your course as if you were in full time employment.  Your tutors welcome self motivated and keen students and get a great deal of job satisfaction in helping you achieve good grades.     

If you are worried in any aspects of the course do not hesitate to bring your concerns to the attention of your LMT tutor or course leader.  Our aim is to ensure that you not only meet the minimum requirements to pass the course but that you get good grades as well and towards that end we expect to work hard as a team to achieve this.  Remember, our objective is for you to succeed with good grades so we need you to work hard with us to achieve this target
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Two of the differences that you will experience will be your need to carry out research on your own and also you as a student  will be expected to take over responsibility for your own training. (it is no longer a case of 'you didn't tell me to' you will be expected to carry out research, evaluate and use your judgment in many assignments).

You need to, and will be encouraged to, pursue information sources. The College provides modern and up-to-date Resource Centres with Internet/Intranet facilities which you will be shown how to use. There is also a Links Centre where students can work on weaknesses in Key Skill areas (this is in addition to scheduled course work). 

As you are studying ICT we use computers as a tool to produce work and to communicate through.  On-course communication will be taking place through netspace, the college intranet, this course web site and e-mail.  Of course the web is also an excellent research source for you to search.  Many industries now communicate with their workforce using Intranet and e-mail and you will be preparing yourself for work throughout this course.

Self directed study  You will need to book Resource Centre facilities (in slots in your timetable that are not scheduled for lessons) for on course communication and to complete your assignment work. Provision is built into your time table to allow you plenty of self study opportunities and you should utilise these slots fully, they are for you to organise. As a rough guide you are expected to do a minimum of 8 hours a week self study using the college resources, additional to scheduled class work.  

We have discussed two examples of you taking responsibility for your own studies and researching assignments.  These are to develop skills that are frequently required for both the work place and for further/higher education and therefore the sooner that you develop in these areas the more prepared you will be to progress on to them.  It is recognised that this can be a difficult transition for some people to make, and your LMT sessions are intended to help you through this process.
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Therefore the following standards will be expected to be met at all times:

• full attendance of all lessons ( you were asked at interview about your attendance and have assured us that you have an excellent record)
• punctuality (you again have assured us at interview that you will not have any problems in this area.
• planning and meeting deadlines
• follow and meet requested tasks and objectives
• use initiative and show self motivation
• Take responsibility for your studies (ensure that you have all handouts, assignments to work to, take notes, ask questions during input sessions, maintain a good study folder)
• carrying out thorough research
• maintaining course standards

REMEMBER:  What you get out of a course is directly related to how much you put in.

• attend all lessons
• arrive at lessons on time
• co-operate with your tutor
• not cause distraction in class, (a lesson slot seldom exceeds 90 minutes for which time you will be expected to concentrate and apply yourself to the tasks in progress. Many of which are of  a practical nature.
• be prepared for all lesson with basic materials (e.g.. Pen, pencil, ruler, eraser, notebook, folder for notes, recommended text books and, most importantly for IT, disks. You cannot study effectively without these items.)
•  take personal notes without instruction from your tutor.(It is essential that you do not try to commit things to memory and you will need your notes when revising for external tests. You are also strongly recommended to spend some time reading notes that you have taken on a daily basis  File and read any handouts that you may have been given daily.  If you find that you do not understand them at that time there is no way that you will magically understand them weeks later.  When reviewing your notes in this manner clear up any misunderstanding immediately, either by using your reference book or the query facility on this web site.  Do not let things build up hoping that the problems will go away.)
• provide all of the required evidence built into assignments. (assignments are usually integrated and designed to collect a range of evidence, showing your competence. This may include elements for mandatory/optional units and key skills that are required for you to obtain a pass in a GNVQ. Therefore you need to provide all of the requested information.)
• develop and maintain a portfolio of all completed assessment as evidence of competence for external verification (EV). It is important for you to put your full name on all disks, assignments and notes. Remember that we are working towards industry standards where ownership needs to clearly stated. Most employers will expect professionalism and not to receive anonymous or 'pen names' on communications and documentation. Neither can we submit such work as evidence to verifiers for the award body.
• return assignments on time, including a completed full set of assignment sheets.  (These need to be completed by your assessor to provide feedback and tracking information of your grades and are essential evidence in your portfolio which the external verifier(EV) inspects..  They must not be lost and you cannot work to assignments without your assignment sheets, it is like sitting an exam without the question paper. One copy will be provided for each student, duplicates will not be issued.)
• No plagiarism. All work needs to be authentic and copying will result in disciplinary action against all students involved
• No intimidation, or sex discrimination towards other students
• No mobile telephones in lecture rooms.
• No headphones to be worn in lecture rooms
• No walkman or pre recorded tapes to be played in lecture rooms.
• All course work must be saved in your allocated work area on the college network server (files should be stored in directories in your work area until the end of the course and backed up regularly onto floppy disks. There is no need to delete files as they form part of your evidence.  
• Only disks with students own backup course files to be brought into college there is no need for any other disks.
• You need to back up files onto disks and you need to retain all files as additional evidence lost disks, assignments, files etc. will not be acceptable and you will be expected to redo the work in your own time. You need to have the evidence in your portfolio.  File management on your disks will be your own responsibility and a correct directory structure should be maintained as required for IT keyskills.
• All files should be saved with correct, meaningful names an IT keyskill requirement.  You will find that you can automatically achieve a lot of your PCs by adopting good working practices from the start.  You only make it hard for yourself using non professional habits, no matter how cool that you may think they are.
• Students must not store their work on other student's disks.
• Pass words must not be divulged to anyone else
• Computers must be logged off when leaving a work station no matter how short the period.
• You must not access a computer using another student's security  area.
• You must not allow other students to access your area.
• No unauthorised accessing of college system or other students work areas.
• No customising college equipment (hardware or software), all set ups to be left according to college standards. ie.such things as installing games and screensavers. 
• No surfing web in lesson time unless instructed to do so by tutor
• No accessing e-mail in lessons unless instructed to do so by tutor
• No accessing pornographic, video, music web sites or downloading offensive material (these are public offences and you are considered to be responsible for the workstation that you are working on).
• No downloading of programs, executable files, games or any other non course related material.
• No storing of non course related files on college servers 
• No chat line or misuse of web access
• No using web/e-mail facilities for spamming or other illegal activities.
• No 'Hacking' i.e., unauthorised accessing of company sites or activities that are considered a criminal offence.
• No playing or installing of games.
• Reasonable dress standards in class and particularly on work placement (e.g.. no caps/head wear etc.) (some work placements are with banks, building societies, and supermarkets, all have high expectations of dress sense.  Also elements of your course expect you to understand the purpose of corporate image.  Failing to recognise these requirements may not only affect your own assessment on your work placement (also part of an optional unit) but can in in the worst case for the College result in the employer refusing to take future placements from us.  The better organisations often go out of their way to provide a range of experience in their organisation at their own expense.  We would not like to loose their support and co-operation.
• No misuse or damage to college resources and classroom fabric.
• Correct dress standards will be expected for presentations and interview role play

MANY OF THESE RULES A PART OF THE COMPUTER MISUSE ACT.  It is therefore not only a breach of GNVQ in ICT Course rules but is also breaking the law.  As a student studying ICT you are expected to  familiarize yourself and comply with all the legal requirements.  Other laws that govern IT are The Data Protection Act, Health & Safety at Work Act and The Copyright Act.

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Read and sign the printout below, then give a copy to your LMT tutor to be filed with your personal student profile.  You can also printout a copy to retain for yourself if you wish.

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When you enter employment, most large organisations have a clearly set out a list of rules which each employee is expected to follow.  This employment contract allows the organisation to run efficiently and in a manner that it wishes to operate.

The college is no different in needing a strict set of rules.  It is even more applicable to the course that you have chosen as it is heavily dependant upon Computers and IT.  Just as a supermarket cannot trade when its Electronic-point-of-sales terminals (EPOS) go down, similarly the college IT courses are heavily dependant on the computer resources being available at all times.

Some of the conditions we have outlined are illegal and the College cannot allow such activities on its equipment.  We cannot therefore allow any misuse of these facilities and would deal with any such occurrences in a very serious manner.

REMEMBER what one person may consider an inoffensive modification to the screen saver or screen layout may be highly irritating and very offensive to other users.  Computers are a common resource available to all students and customising workstations is not allowed.

Failure to comply with the rules results in delivery problems and a great deal of ineffective time for the tutors.

• Other students become frustrated when their learning is being interrupted.
• The college technicians become involved in extremely costly and time consuming work which is unnecessary and distracts them from their real role of maintaining the college resources in serviceable condition for everyone to use.
• If a computer is put out of action by someone's misuse it not only affects their own groups ability to complete work but also for those on other courses who have been scheduled to use it. The College cannot afford to have any of it's equipment out of order.

• Adopt good working practices from the start
 
• Aim to provide the required evidence first time. GET IT RIGHT FIRST TIME This will save you an awful lot of unnecessary time and effort.  It is much harder later on.
 
• Listen carefully to your tutors, they are usually be giving you strong guidance hints on the evidence that they expect to see in your assignment. 
  
• Always read your assignment carefully and ensure that you interpret what is being asked.  Not matter how much material you include in an assignment it does not count unless it is relevant.
 
• Always take the opportunity to show your underpinning knowledge of a topic. Just vaguely referring to it, or throwing in the odd keyword is insufficient evidence, you need to clearly show a full understanding.