TAS

Design and Technology – Major design project

An overview of the 2020 project and folio marking process with discussion points for the teacher.

An in-class presentation for students (with teacher present) to look at updated marking criteria for folios and the opportunities opened by COVID-19 for folio production. A detailed description of updated requirements from NESA regarding multimedia inclusion and extra pages for 2020 HSC. An overview of the 2020 project and folio marking process. Discussion points available to teacher.

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Watch the design and technology 2020 folio video (31:21).

An overview of the 2020 project.

(soft music)

Speaker

Okay, welcome to the HSC Hub. This is part of the HSC on demand initiative for Design and Technology, 2020.

I would like to pay my respects and acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which this meeting is taking place and also pay respects to elders both past and present. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are advised that this video may contain images and voices of names of people who have passed away.

My name is Carl Doran. I'm a teacher of Design and Technology of over twenty years and I am going to present some pointers for you on how to get the best possible mark in this 2020 COVID-19 year. I'll also give quite a few pointers and generally or general pointers on how you get the best mark in any year. NESA has made some changes, but in reality, not many changes. I'll go through those and how best you can exploit those changes for your best advantage. I'll try to, nowhere in this video are we making any suggestions that should cost you any more time. I know a lot of you are panicking out there and thinking I don't have time to do anything different. Any suggestions I make may even cost you less time, may be easier for you to do, so don't worry about that. Many of the students who've had to work disrupted, many of you haven't at all. The impact varies in classes and varies between schools. Some things have changed in the marking projects, but not that much. And after this video, you should be able to understand the changes on how to take advantage of these changes and get the best mark for your project.

A few pointers, what I'm mainly saying is you don't have to be concerned at all, NESA has developed a system so no one should be disadvantaged by their own particular circumstances. And so in reality, very little has changed compared to previous years. The marking guidelines especially have not changed. The marking process has changed, but only slightly and we'll go through those changes. Just keep these three points in mind. There's no hidden tricks. Okay, so don't think we're out to get you somehow. No hidden tricks just because there's been an unusual academic year. So there's no need to be negative at all. You should have to make only slight changes to your folio. There may be multiple changes to your folio, but all of those should be very minor. And keep all of your folio real, don't pretend, don't pretend because your system or your process has been messed up, that you're going to somehow change your whole folio. You don't have to do that. That takes a lot more time and effort than you would normally put in.

Okay, so four points here, your teacher will make some marks, some of the sections of NESA marking and I'll go through that later on. Final hand in date been changed to the tenth of September, 2020, which you probably know that by now. NESA markers will not come around to your school to mark the projects. They’ll be sitting a central venue somewhere in Sydney, probably. And your folio will be sent to NESA where most parts will be marked externally by NESA HSC markers. In the presentation I'll explain the modified marking guidelines, the four different sections. First section, the modified marking guidelines, the requirement to the multimedia inclusion, how best to approach the extra four pages you're allowed this year and how the project marking will be undertaken. And like I said before, I'll also give just general pointers in how to get the best mark possible for your folio.

A few things, first as I said before, don't think all these changes will mean extra time for you and don't think all the pointers I'll give you will mean extra time, it won't. You only get marked and what is outlined in the marking guidelines is generally no tricks. A lot of people think there is, but if you read the NESA guidelines, that's what you'll be marked on. So don't think there's sort of some secret markers agenda and because people are marking out there and they know how to mark and they know the special things that are marked, they're not. You should be able to read the guidelines. Your teacher should be able to read the guidelines and they should be able to work out how it's going to be marked or exactly how it's going to be marked. In fact, you should be able to look at the guidelines and work out just about what sort of mark or what range of mark you will get for your folio by reading the guidelines. You can only get marked on what is in the guidelines, follow the guidelines, be precise and to the point and work smarter, not harder.

The first section, as I said, is the modified guidelines. And as you know, those guidelines are divided into three sections. They're the project proposal and project management, the project development and realization and the third section, the evaluation. So I'll divide those up a little bit in the next few slides.

[Slide contains image of the marking guidelines]

This is the first section, it's called the project proposal and project management or PP and M for short. And it will be marked by external NESA markers. And probably for most of you, you've already had this done. In fact, you may have even had it done last year in term four. They should be evaluated as an ongoing process. So you should have them all laid out, all printed out, you should be going back to them all the time and evaluating them. And that evaluation could be very formal evaluations, or it could be even scribbles on your timelines, but you should be telling us what you're doing differently to what you propose way back in year eleven or the beginning of year twelve. This year there may be more amendments because of COVID-19 disruptions, there may not be. You need to remember that when you wrote these down, these were only plans and very little ever follows the plan exactly. So don't try and pretend that you decided on a plan way back four or five months ago, and you've stuck to it exactly. A lot of you would have had to make changes all the way along. It's very obvious when a candidate tries to pretend that it is a plan that was actually written and after the project's been made. It's so obvious, so don't do that. Things like you may have drastically underestimated some of the time things take, that's fine. Write it in the plan, messed up your process along the way, you changed other things, write it in your plan. That's part of the evaluation.

Okay, it should be a real working document, not a pretend one. If you think something's going to take six weeks, you write down six weeks if you think something's going to cost you $50 to buy and it actually cost you forty dollars or thirty dollars to buy, you write down as you thought it was going to cost fifty dollars, but you had to change it because it came more expensive or more of less expensive, that's fine.

[Slide reads:

Due to the Covid-19 disruptions:

  • The ‘Need’ should not have changed
  • There may be some slight changes to “Area of investigation’
  • ‘Criteria to evaluate success’ generally should not change, however changes may be necessary when referring to it in the evaluation section
  • The initial “Action, time and finance plans’ should not change but during their evaluations, any necessary COVID 19 changes should be indicated on the plan
  • A new additional plan could possibly be added due to the COVID-19 disruptions and changes, though you should still include the original plans.]

First up, due to the COVID-19 disruptions, the need should not have changed at all. You started out with an idea, a problem and what we call a need, that should not change. There may be some slight changes to the areas of investigation, but only slight. Generally, the criteria to evaluate success should not change. But when you're evaluating a project, there might be some slight changes in your evaluation. And the initial action time and finance plans, it does say plans here, there's three plans should not change, but during their evaluations, any necessary COVID-19 changes should be indicated on the plans. And you may wish to put in a new additional plan. You might find there's so many disruptions, there's so many changes to your time plan that you need to put an amendment or a new plan, that's fine, keep your old one and put your new one in and write a little note on why you've had to put a new one in, okay.

General note, the PP and M, the project proposal should not be completed and then forgotten. You know, so don't put it away, it should be referred to all the time, especially the need, everything you do, your investigations, your creativity, your conclusions, your evaluation, you should go back to the need. What was I trying to do? Have I achieved it? If you haven't achieved it, or you've changed things along the way, let us know. And I've got a little example there, which I'll read out. “You may have planned to complete the major project of a product during the early parts of term two, but you're unable to complete it because you couldn't get access to the school equipment”. That's happened to a lot of you I know, you certainly thought I'm going to do all this in term two, week one, two and three, and then suddenly you're shut out and you couldn't do it. “Because of this, you need to replace some of the prototype testing with online research or visits to a local factory”. So you couldn't test things out at school, you have to go back and do maybe online research, see how other people have done it. That's fine, note it down. All those points are probably fairly obvious.

The top range marks, there'll be considerable preplanning, you won’t just rush into something and then start planning. There'll be genuine application of the plans, recording of changes made to the plan, including some changes necessary due to 2020 disruptions and clear evaluations of the three plans and the reasons you gave. And once again, the plan should be real working documents, not a pretend thing you're trying to make up just for your folio. Should be something you made up and intended to follow and have tried to follow.

Right, the second section is the ‘modified’ marking guidelines of the project development and realization or the PDR. First up, the existing marking guidelines will be still used, they haven't changed. The available thirty-five marks will be divided into two sections. The teacher will have four parts to mark and they'll have twenty marks to give out and external NESA markers will have three parts to mark and they'll give fifteen marks out. This is the part your teachers will mark, the consideration the design factors, identification, justification of ideas and resources, application and conclusions and your practical skills. Your teacher has been trained by NESA and they will have a whole bunch of previous MDPs from previous years and now match yours against those MDPs to work out the marks. She or he will go through the process with you and discuss with you any disadvantages, if any you face because of the school lockdown. They will take notes and maybe photograph your work before the marks is submitted to NESA and the parts of your design process to be marked by external markers will then be undertaken independently of your teacher or school.

[Slide reads:

The teacher’s marks will be sent to NESA and combined with the externally marked sections to work out your final mark.

Also, from the NESA website: ‘Teachers will use a specifically developed Marking Support Park to mark each student’s projects.’

‘If, due to the impact of COVID-19, student’s work is incomplete or has been disrupted, the teacher may estimate a mark. The estimated mark will be based on their professional judgement about what a student is likely to have achieved if 2020 had proceeded without COVID-19]

In other words the teacher will mark the four sections, they will send the mark away to NESA, independently, other external markers will mark the other three sections. These are from NESA, the NESA website and I recommend you get into the NESA website, it's changing fairly regularly, obviously, so go and find out the new information. You also should go to the NESA website and have a look at the notes from the marking centre, and you can get the notes from the marking centre from last year's HSC 2019, you can get it from 2018 and 2016, you should go through all those notes and see what people do wrong every year with their folios and what people do right every year with their folios.

The external NESA markers will mark these three sections, the evidence of creativity, research experimentation and testing and communication. I'll try and go through those especially the evidence of the creativity and the communication section.

[Slide reads:

In the ‘creativity’ section (marked externally), the projects that gain the top range of marks usually (but not always):

  • Are innovative and/or highly creative idea
  • Have many high quality sketches with the ideas explored and developed
  • Show the final design reflecting significant changes]

Right in the creativity section, which is marked externally, what is marked is the way the design is modified and grows to a finished design and should be clearly outlined in the folio. Most important to go through all areas of your design process like a journey which develops as the story goes on. Maximize the development of the design and should show evidence of the evolution of the product system or environment and it should be seen in the creativity by sketching, model making, testing, experiments and other areas. And try to relate all of these once again, relate it back to the need as you go. A lot of people say, I can't sketch, a lot of students, I can't sketch, it doesn't matter. A good high-quality sketch is one that is clear and you can make it clear by doing annotations. You can make it clear by doing three or four sketches with arrows and pointers. And once again, outlining what you're trying to do rather than don't do the sketches because you say, I'm not a very good sketcher. All of those things will lead to marks. And it says there once again, the sketches and the final design should be annotated to explain the creative process undertaken. And when evaluating other design similar to yours, show positive and negative aspects of both your design and others, don't try and pretend yours is perfect and all the rest are no good. Just show the good bits, the bad bits of all of them. The ones you looked at, you are going to pick the good bits out of those, the bad bits, yup, not going to leave those behind, okay? And if you're making any mistakes along the way, tell us about them, don't try and pretend they weren't mistakes, or they're not there. All the way along your sketches and models and flow charts, mind maps, they're all helpful. Put annotations under all of them.

Right, the research area and it says the better research area shows clear relationship to the project proposal, especially the need once again and displays a range of sources and appropriate methods used. This area could change considerably because of COVID-19 disruptions. Clearly indicate all changes that were necessary. Also note them in your action time finance plans when necessary. Relate all your research to your project proposal and make sure you do both successes and failures, don't leave out the failures, put them all in and evaluate them.

[Slide reads:

  • The better research, experimentation and testing
  • shows a clear relationship to The Project Proposal especially ‘The Need’
  • displays a range of sources and appropriate methods used.

An example of a possible Covid-19 necessary change.

This annotation that could be placed on a page of images of cardboard mock-ups.

‘At the start of term two, I planned to use the laser cutter at school to cut a series of accurate mock-ups as outlined in my time plan. I couldn’t get to school. I needed the mock-ups to progress my design at that time, so I cut them out with scissors and a utility knife and also tried to do accurate 3D Sketchup drawings of them, though I’m not very good at using Sketchup.’]

An example of a possible COVID-19 necessary change. Okay, at the start of term two, I plan to use the laser cutter at school to cut a series of accurate mock-ups as outlined in my time plan. I couldn't get access to the school so I needed to make mock-ups to progress my design at home. Because I couldn't get access to the high-quality laser cutters, I've decided to use Stanley knife and scissors to cut out my models and maybe even draw them in a SketchUp with 3D, even though I'm not particularly good at them.

If that's the case, write it in, That's one part of your evaluation along the way. A little note there, you should still produce mock-ups or models or prototypes. Now these won't be sent to the external markers as they would have in previous years, but you should still make them, photograph them, annotate them along the way. A bunch of mock-ups, a bunch of models are a lot more valuable to you as far as marks go, than pages and pages of text .

With communication, it's not as distinct little area. Communication's marked all through the project. It could be marked in your proposal, it could be marked with your multimedia presentation. It could be marked with your sketches, it could be marked with your text, how you've written it, how you've laid it out. They're all part of the communication. You can have a little section to outline what you've communicated and why, but you don't have to.

[Slide reads:

Communication is marked throughout all 3 sections of the folio. Like most of the other areas, it is not a distinct little section worth a certain amount of marks.

Sketches, mind maps, images and charts can nearly always be improved with short annotations and headings.

At all times, try and connect the images to the ’Need’ and other areas of the Project Proposal and Project Management.

Simple annotations can show, ongoing evaluation, development of your design, creativity etc. and is good communication. It can also give lead in to other design areas like testing and research.]

So, I've said there are sketches, mind maps, images, charts can nearly always be improved with short annotations. I'll say that over and over again, I'll give you a few examples later on. And at all times, try and connect the images to the need and other areas of the project proposal. So, pages and pages of texts, generally means not good communication. You've probably been told that by your teacher, but a lot of you still want to sit there and type out computers to think maybe I can spend the next half hour doing a whole series of sketches probably far more valuable or all series of mind maps.

The next slide we just have a look at a couple of annotations. This is the dress that came from shape last year which some of you may have seen. And I've written a little note there, it's not the students’ real annotations, but you can see the one on the left there and this is really common. It says, this is a photo of my dress. Now the markers obviously know it's a photo, obviously know it's a dress, so you don't have to tell us. Whereas the annotation on the right is very good. It says this is my completed spring outfit, it drapes the way I had hoped, even though it uses a variety of unusual textiles, decorative techniques and non-fibrous materials. Now, a few things about that annotation. It probably only took a few minutes to write up, but it links everything back to the need more than likely. It also uses technical words because they're using technical words and linking, it's almost analysis in three or four lines. So, try and put good quality annotations all the way through your work.

This is the project evaluation section, the third section and the external NESA markers will mark this section. It has recording and application of ongoing evaluation procedures, which is just your ongoing evaluation you should be doing all of the time. Functional and aesthetic aspects and the impacts on individual society and the environment and the relationship of your project or your finished project to your project proposal. Before I go any further, just a few pointers. As in all areas, the markers will allocate marks into the ranges by comparing your work to the statements on their marking guidelines and it's often called a flipper card, I'll just show you one.

[Presented holds up a double-sided sheet of paper with a marking grid printed on both sides]

The markers will use this on the first project they mark and they'll go through it and they'll be using it on the last project they mark. So, two or three weeks after the markers start maybe marking their 150th to 200th project they will still be looking through those guidelines and trying to match your project up to where it fits. Now that can be found on the NESA website. You should be looking at your project and saying, where does mine fit? Am I explaining something or am I analysing something? And have a look at those words and try and work out how much analysis you put in your project, how much explanation you put in your project, or whether you just list things. And you should be able to work out the mark range that you're going to get by the markers.

Analysis is the verb used in most high range categories so I've used it often. And generally, analysis means you link things together and you show a depth of knowledge and linking things together are a good way of finding if you think you really linked things together, are you using linking words? Do you use words like, because, therefore, in case of, as a result of, despite, this leads to? All those sort of linking words and if you use quite a few of those in a sentence, you have probably done analysis, but if you find you don't use those sort of linking words, you haven't link one thing to the next thing, to the next thing, way back to your need, you probably haven't analysed. So, go back and check that out all through your project.

The better projects. Make your evaluations real, don't pretend that things are better than they are and drastic example would be a student making a, or set out to make a desk and in the end they don't really have a desk, they have three or four bits of wood lying on the ground. That sounds silly, but I know it does happen. Then they try to pretend the desk was exactly the way they wanted it, worked really well, when obviously it doesn't. So if something doesn't work out, something's had to change, something was almost a disaster, let the markers know, that's a good evaluation.

[Slide reads:

Your Evaluations should be real. If something is good say it is good. If it is bad, say so.

· If your PSE is unfinished due to COVID-19 disruptions, (or even for other reasons), don’t pretend in your evaluations that it is finished. Evaluate it up to the stage it is at when handed in and indicate this on your timeline.

· You may ‘project’ an evaluation for the finished product, but state clearly it is an educated guess and it is not an evaluation of the finished product. Make it brief.

· A multimedia presentation is often a good way of evaluating a project. This is especially relevant to 2020 as the markers will not be able to touch or use your PSE.]

The better projects, minimize wordiness, as I've said many times and maximize the evaluation statements. That's almost like having dot points, just nice concise statements. In recording evaluation, that's the first section which we call sort of ongoing evaluation. State clearly how COVID-19 disruptions have altered the design process and effected your progress. Highlight the causes and effects of the implications of the project’s development as much as possible. This happened, so this happened, I did this because of that. So, you always, always should have a cause and effect there.

Link all of your evaluations back to your proposal, especially the need where possible. And unless your project or your system or your environment is perfect, try and put the bad points about the design as it shows you are being realistic and critical and you can see that word critical in the high range, mark area. Be succinct and offer information that relates directly to solving the problem you started with. If you didn't solve the problem, or you had problems along the way, which changed the problem, let the markers know. Ensure that your folio tells a story of your progress and how you tried to solve the need that you started with. For example, you have designed a basic electronic game for young children. You could use a brief video of the children playing the game and them telling you what is good and what is bad about the game. You could then do a voiceover to be critical of your project and outline the technical and aesthetic changes you could have made to the game, if you were to do it again or changes you should have made because your progress was disrupted in 2020. Be succinct, offering information that relates directly to solving the problem and ensure that folio tells us the story of your progress. If your progress was held back by a COVID-19 disruption, mention it.

Okay, the multimedia inclusion. It's not compulsory to submit a multimedia presentation, but it's often a very good idea. This is especially true for 2020, as explained earlier. In general, the external markers cannot touch or use your PSE as in other years. You cannot submit 3D models, prototypes or mock-ups. A multimedia presentation can often be used rather than lots of typed written pages. And this year in 2020, you won't be able to put on a big display of your project as that often happens. The markers will be sitting there with probably your folio and probably a computer screen in front of them. So, my recommendation in 2020, is put a bit of time and effort into a good quality multimedia presentation. It doesn't necessarily mean extra work or extra time and can gain you marks in areas such as practical skills, communication and evaluation. So, if you do a multimedia presentation, it may mean less typing, less text and less time used.

An example, if you design and make a table for your dining room, similar to the other one, film your family sitting around it and interview your mum and family as to what they think about it and encourage them to be realistic and even critical. That is a lot of your evaluation section done in sixty seconds of video. The multimedia inclusion. A long and boring repetitious video can be bad communication. By repetitious I mean, if you put in a multimedia inclusion, what you've already told us in the folio, well, that's repetition. And unnecessary presentation that tells a marker little or nothing can also be detrimental to your project, so don't submit a video just for the sake of it, don't think you have to put a video in. The short sharp three or four-minute multimedia presentation can deliver a lot of message and a good multimedia presentation can add to the MDP in many areas, such as the practical skills, communication, creativity, as well as elaborate processes in testing and research. A short well-made multimedia presentation can also often take less time than pages of text. The marker would generally have the multimedia running as they mark the folio. They'll stop and look at it when it's necessary, but they won't allow a distinct six minutes to sit and watch it by itself.

For 2020, NESA has allowed an extra six images, they have done this because the markers will not be able to see your practical work, your project, they won't be able to see your mock-ups, et cetera, so it gives them more context when they're marking the project. And this is from the NESA guidelines on the NESA website.

[Slide reads:

Extra 4 pages of photos: The best approach
From the NESA site:

· This year, students can submit images of their project to provide context to the markers. This includes students who have been unable to complete their project due to school disruptions.

· Students can submit an additional six images on a maximum of four A4 pages (or two A3 pages). These may have simple annotations and should be positioned at the beginning of the folio.

· Students who were not able to complete their project due to school disruptions may include images of the partially completed design and/or drawings of the intended final design.

Remember, these photos will not be marked or counted in your folio page limit.]

They're allowing an extra six photos over four A4 pages. Don't miss the opportunity, make them quality photos and don't rush them at the last minute. Down the bottom there remember, these photos will not be marked or counted in your folio page limit. Probably the markers will have them in front of them and as they go through the folio, will keep them looking back at them, as though they're trying to look at a bit of practical work or some other area of your process. Once again, the external markers cannot hold your finished project. So having photos of different angles or perspectives of your project may help. You're allowed to briefly annotate these photos. So give each an explanatory heading, use the annotation to highlight the features and expand the message, not repeat it.

[Slide shows annotated images of students major work]

And there's a couple of examples. The left photo, there has a picture of a wood cradle by the look of it and the annotation says, the wood cradle is part of a wood splitting storage system, as part of my PSE. It is made in a rustic style to suit the rest of my mum's furniture. That's good annotation, explains it, explains what they've tried to do in the start and what they're probably finished up with. The other one here has another picture of the same wood cradle and it's got old railway plates are used with rough welding and finish and a little additional one there, once again, simple annotation, solid square steel used rather than hollow section steel. It has sharp corners and is used as a heat bank effect. So simple little annotations can really add to those photos and any photos that you put through the project.

The marking process for 2020.

[Slide reads:

What your teacher will mark

From The NESA website:

· Design and Technology: Twenty (the fifteen marks for development and realisation will continue to be externally marked as part of the folio)

· If, due to the impact of COVID-19, student's work is incomplete or has been disrupted, the teacher may estimate a mark. The estimated mark will be based on their professional judgement about what a student is likely to have achieved if 2020 had proceeded without COVID-19. NESA will provide advice to teachers on accurately estimating a mark.

Your teacher has received a package from NESA on how to mark with standards and benchmark project examples.

An explanation of this should be given in class but you won’t be told your marks.]

Once again from the website and I think we've shown that slide before, but it's worth having a quick look at it again. Your teacher will have received a well thought out package that outlines how to mark the four sections that they are going to mark. It includes benchmark projects, as I said before and these are projects that are marked by experienced NESA markers using the 2020 guidelines. Your teacher will line up your project with these, so marks are consistent across the state. And external markers, our regular teachers of design and technology who undergo training each year on how to mark the projects. Some will be marking for the first time. Some will be marking for 10 years or more, as well as the extensive normal training they get every year, this year they will also have special training on how to mark the projects produced during the disrupted 2020 year.

On the desk in front of the marker, they will have your folio, your extra images if submitted, a computer and your multimedia on a USB drive if you submitted it. The project will probably not have your school or name on it, but it will have your centre number and your candidate number. Remember the marker doesn't know you or the process you have undertaken at all. You have to communicate the entire process to them by your submission and by your folio. If multimedia is presented, the markers will probably have it running at the same time as they are marking the folio.

And on the slide, you can see they're a repeat. We've got fifteen marks for the PPand M, fifteen marks for the PDR and ten marks for the evaluation. They are the marks that the external marker will give out. And this year the markers will not be traveling to your school and mark the projects at the hall, they were sit at a table in a central venue and mark the projects from all over New South Wales, individually. All externally assessed components will be double marked and sometimes they're even triple marked or marked for a third time. So make sure your folio is easy to handle and follow as possible.

My suggestions and are only suggestions for your submitted folio this year. Remember there'll be no big display of presentations as in previous years, so make your folio easy to handle. Folios that have easy to turn pages means making the message in your folio more easily accessible and assessed. You can submit a combination of A4 and A3 pages, but be careful as they sometimes get confusing to follow. The eighty page limit needs to be strictly followed. All pages will be counted, excluding the extra images allowed for 2020, the counted pages include, pages such as the title page, the bibliography and survey results. Many high range marks only have folios in the seventies or even the sixties. And don't fill up the eighty pages just because you think you have to fill up eighty pages, make each page full of mark-only message.

Follow the headings, in order as outlined in the marking guidelines. Attach the six extra pages allowed this year to the front so they’ll be easily referred to during the marking. If you submit a multimedia file, put it on a USB drive and make sure it is the only file on that drive. It must be plug and play and easily loaded on to a PC. Make sure the file works without the help of specialist knowledge. NESA has outlined the file formats on their site. Write your candidate number on the outside of the USB drive. Each folio page should have a footer with a student number and page number Y of X pages, an example, page three of seventy seven.

Main point summary, in 2020 some things will be a little bit different, but most things will be the same. The marking guidelines are still the same and they'll be followed by your teacher and with the external markers. Clear and precise communications is even more paramount this year, as you won't be able to present your project to the markers as a whole. Too many words are poor communication. Images, annotations, graphs, charts, et cetera, often communicate far more effectively than text. Follow the marking guidelines in order in your folio, make your folio easy to handle and easy to follow. A multimedia presentation is often good communication especially this year, you can save your time and gain marks in many areas. Put some thought and effort into the six images allowed this year. Sell your product or your system or environment and the process you have undertaken. Over eighty pages and or over six minutes is a breach of subject rules and may cost you marks, best not to go over the limits. Take photos of all stages of your project. They can be discarded later if needed and it's hard to backtrack. In other words, as you do things to take a photo, get a friend to take a photo. Next day, you're doing it again, take a photo. The NESA verbs will be used extensively to work out the range of marks for each guideline. Know what they mean and check all parts of your folio against them.

The last words. The markers will always try to find marks, they will never be looking for ways to take marks away. Be positive, plan your time, follow the guidelines, use the NESA verbs and work smarter, not harder. Thanks for being with me. Hopefully I've helped you out in some way, maybe a lot, and all the best for 2020 and the future.

(soft music)

[End of Transcript]

This resource was created in 2020 – some resources may contain references to 2020 conditions and dates. Please check NESA HSC key dates and exam timetables.

Syllabus

Please note:

Syllabus outcomes and content descriptors from Design and Technology Stage 6 Syllabus (2013) © NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) for and on behalf of the Crown in right of the State of New South Wales, 2021.

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