ICT (Single Award) AiDA
Level 2 Award in Digital Applications (Equivalent to one GCSE)

What are the Key Features?
Every day you are surrounded by information. Apart from face-to-face conversations, most of this information is available to you because of developments in ICT, including television broadcasts, text messages, photographs, news reports, emails, web pages and telephone calls. There is always more information than you need, so how do you know what to make use of and what to ignore? The aim of the AiDA is to equip you with the work based knowledge and skills you need to complete a wide variety of ICT projects independently.

How is the course taught?
Learning how to plan and manage a large project is one of the core aims of the course. You will learn how to choose between sources of information, carry out effective searches, judge the quality and reliability of the information you find and be selective about what you use. You will also learn how to gather and analyse data to produce meaningful information and how to store and handle structured data.

Once you are able to produce meaningful information, you will need to communicate it to others using appropriate methods. You will learn how to create effective paper-based publications such as reports and posters and screen-based publications such as presentations and websites. You will demonstrate your ability to use ICT effectively to plan, research, analyse and present information through your work on a major project set by Edexcel.

How is it assessed?
You will learn how to produce your own portfolio to display your achievements and provide evidence of your competence. The Summative Project Brief (SPB) is set by the exam board, Edexcel, and will state what you must submit in your portfolio. The AiDA is paperless. There are no examinations, your evidence in an eportfolio which is internally assessed and externally moderated.

This unit builds on the knowledge and skills developed by the Key Stage 3
programme of study for ICT.

The Qualification is awarded levels which are equivalent to GCSE points:
Level 2 AiDA Qualification Awards: Pass (36), Credit (48), Merit (60), Distinction (72), Maximum (84)

Why study this course?
Appropriate further education for those achieving a Level 2 qualification includes A Levels (offered in the Sixth Form) and BTEC Nationals. Appropriate training includes Modern Apprenticeships or NVQ’s in IT.