Long Awaited Update

With much happening, there has not been much opportunity to provide an update in the last months. Many items of work have been completed and many serious obstacles have been encountered with regard to workload and personal health.

To begin with however, is what has been covered to date. Since half term the Multimedia unit has been started with significant delay in both lectures and assignments proving to be a very uneventful and frankly dull unit so far and fast becoming my least favourite to date although assignment one has now been completed and assignment two is due to be set soon.

This has however, provided me with a major opportunity to seriously prioritise the course content. With the slow moving nature of multimedia, efforts have been more focused on the two units where work has been moving at a more acceptable rate. This has meant that work has been submitted and completed for networking and databases at a high standard with good results. However, this has also presented major problems to me personally and my personal health as a result of workload and short amounts of time between launch of an assignment and the first submission deadline for exceptionally large assignments meaning some work has not been completed to my personally desired standards.

This has resulted in a significant stress level resulting in some work falling behind schedule. In order to counter this, many prioritising lists have been drawn up on a regular basis identifying what work is due and when to help with time management. This has so far proved successful and has helped to reduce stress levels helping me to focus on pieces of work due in with a pressing deadline.

Despite this negative phase I am having, some good has come about from the much disrupted Web Design unit which has been marked to a Distinction which is much desired and a very pleasing result. Databases and Networks is not far behind this with a similar outcome expected after final marking.

Another Half Term...

The course is now moving faster having gained much momentum in the last few weeks. Many assignments have been set and reviewed with several deadlines fast approaching. At this point, the state of play is now as follows:

• Networks Assignment 1 Handed in
• Databases Assignment 1 Handed in
• Web Design Assignment 2 Handed in
• Networks Assignments 2 and 3 set
• Databases Assignment 2 set
• EPD Assignment 1 Due at half term
• Web Design Assignment 1 resub due at half term

Much has been covered and learned since the last post ranging from the OSI model in networks and associated networking protocol to the normalisation process in databases.

It has become apparent that I have not successfully managed my time in the last few days resulting in myself being overtired and unable to concentrate. This will be something that I will review after 1/2 term to ensure it is not likely to happen again.

Progress on databases is coming along nicely with the planning and designing stages of a database well under way and due ontime.

Networks has not had much attention paid to it lately as far as assignment work goes in order to help prioritise the more pressing deadlines. Being the stronger of the subjects, I do not see myself having problems keeping up with this and submitting it on time.

Web design has been completed successfully and now awaiting the final results for both assignments.

New Term Update

Much progression has been made since the last entry on this blog and a few problems have arisen which have required attention to help prevent hindrance to course progression and assignment hand ins.

Lets start with what has been done and a working update. Firstly, Computer Systems has been completed successfully to Distinction standards following much in depth research on the third assignment which involved specifying the required components for a computer system.

Having successfully achieved Merit standard on the first assignment, the focus of assignment three was to achieve Pass and Distinction criteria. This was successfully done on the first attempt but a resubmission of assignment two was prepared and submitted to ensure the criteria were achieved - with a successful outcome.

The Procedural Programming unit has had all first submissions marked and returned and to great success for an area of computing I have not touched upon for a few years. Some modification has been required to confirm a Pass grade which has only required a few minor changes to the second assignment. The results of resubmissions will hopefully confirm a Merit grade with minor alteration required to achieve this on top of the Pass.

Web Design somewhat ground to a halt in the run up to Christmas, due mainly to lecturer absence resulting in being unable to progress beyond the initial design stage as approval for the designs was required. However, the unit has since gathered momentum after Christmas and progress is rapidly being made on the website and its creation. The unit has been extended in order to allow extra time to complete which will be used to every advantage to ensure it is finished to required standards.

Progress on the EPD unit has been somewhat slow with the majority of time spent on the other units with closer and more pressing deadlines. Progress on this unit is now moving at a good rate with the first assignment due shortly.

With the new term, new units have started with progress being exceptional to date These two units being Network Technologies and Database Design Concepts. Much is to be studied in these, once again building on level three knowledge.

First assignments are due with Networks handed in last week on time. Databases has had an extension to help ease work flow and pressures from other looming deadlines. This is due to be handed in on time.

Following this, an assessment on the status of the individual units is to be made to help with effective planning for the rest of the half term before the new Multimedia unit starts.

So close yet so far...

Much further progress has been made with deadlines altered and extended to take account of changing circumstances.

Web Development has seen much about CSS learnt in recent weeks including the different identifiers and codes dependent up on what is required of the code. In addition, linking to a web server has also been revisited including how to set up the connection and how to maintain it.

Programming has seen a number of developments made on manipulating different loops and statements such as if and for statements. In addition, practice on functions and procedures has lead to a better understanding on how to create and call functions in addition to passing different parameters.

Progress

Having returned to college after a weeks break, the pace has suddenly quickened and much has been discussed and learnt. All three units are now in full swing and much has been studied in the last two weeks including:

• Computer Systems
• Computer storage - different types and different configurations e.g. RAID
• Procedural Programming
• Program Development
• Different methods of designing a program
• Jackson Structure Charts
• Flowcharts
• Pseudocode
• Website Management
• Revisiting Rollovers
• Expanding on CSS knowledge - how to lay out CSS and how to apply to websites
• Different Image Types
• How saving in different formats to the original changes the quality of the image

Half Term

Having now gotten through the first half term of the course and now towards the end of the week away from college, it's time to reflect upon the recent developments on the course.

There hve been several hours of hard work put into assignments in the days up to the end of college in order to meet the deadlines required which were met with work being handed in early relieving alot of preassure and allowing for work to be focussed on what is required for the next deadline just after college recommences.

Having attended many lectures, much has been learnt in the first few weeks of the course including the following areas:

• History of computers
• The different configuration tools that can be utilised in computer systems
• Installation of two different operatnig systems side by side on the same computer
• How a processor works and what is contained within the processor chip
• The different types of processors available
• The layout of the motherboad
• The different bus types and their roles
• Principles of procedural programming
• The different data types that can be used in programming
• The different statements, functions and procedures that can be utilised in programming
• Why different programming languages maybe used for specific jobs
• The different website evaluation tools that are available
• The ways in which websites can be improved
• The features of websites
• Accesibility, legal and guideline requirements of websites to ensure user friendliness

Out of these topics, the website development related topics have been possibly the trickiest to get around bu and good attempt has been made to keep the work up to standard for every assignment and topic that has been covered.

A Month In

It has been about a month since the start of the course and it hasn't been a particularly easy start. A lot more difficult than I was prepared for but much has been learnt and discussed within lectures.

There have been several topics covered within the Computer Systems unit including the different components that make up a processor and the different types available on the market as well as the many differences and uses.

With regard to the Procedural Programming unit, many programming concepts have been practiced including loops and arrays which has been a nice refresher of a previous course I did a few years ago in programming. It has quickly become a favourite unit of mine and very interesting.

As far as the Web Development unit goes, not much has been started mainly due to issues with lectures and ill lecturers however, progress has started on the first assignment and many websites have been investigated as well as the tools that can be used to help evaluate websites.