The specification - 'Course Companion'
Your scheme of work should be based on the 'What you need to learn', 'Managing your project' and 'The ICT skills you will need' sections for the unit you are teaching.

Assessment guidance
There's a separate assessment guidance document for each unit and level. It provides essential information about how to assess a student's eportfolio.  Each DiDA unit is marked out of 42 and has six assessment strands. You should adopt a holistic approach to marking each strand.  Use the appropriate "Assessment Guidance" documents (on the DiDA Documents page) to help you.

Chief Moderator's report
At the end of each moderation series, the Chief Moderator produces a detailed report. It provides a useful source of information about learners' performance - what they do well and what they do not so well - and provides pointers for maximising learners' achievements.

Summative Project Briefs (SPBs)
These are assessment instruments, not teaching tools. Make sure you familiarise yourself with the requirements of the SPB your students will be tackling. There's a set of Support Notes for Teachers for each brief and a 'walk-through' form. Use the 'walk-through' to keep an ongoing record of each student's progress and as a vehicle for providing formative feedback.

Getting the standard right
Make sure you know what the standard is. Use the example eportfolios on this website to inform your assessment. Register for OSCA to see even more eportfolios and hone your assessment skills.

The Moderator's Toolkit
Familiarise yourself with the Moderator's Toolkit. Set up a stand-alone or virtual computer in your classroom with just the Moderator's Toolkit installed. Get your students into the habit of using it to test their eportfolios.

Information Manual
To make the most of DiDA's flexibility, you need to get to grips with the admin. There's a special section of the information manual for DiDA. Make sure you have access to Edexcel Online so that you can submit registrations, entries, cash-ins and marks and access your moderator reports and results.

Email alerts
Sign up for the DiDA email alerts (coming soon) which will keep you informed of anything new we put on this site.