This will take some time, but it would be nice to take you through all the detail of setting up atoms. I'll be starting by creating atoms for current, fixed content qualification, Unit 14 the Event Driven Programming by EdExcel. These are aPages that I need to produce over the next few months in any case, so I'll use this blog as a basis for producing the aPages on how to produce aPages! Got it? Good! The blog will also serve as a diary so that I (and anyone else who may be interested) can see how long it takes.
Later the process will be expanded for self-produced books.
As Mrs. Beaton said, "First catch your rabbit." In my case, my rabbits live down a hole at EdExcel. I teach programming on the level 3 Extended Diploma in IT, so I'll use their unit specification as an example. However, any qualification would do.
The first step is to download the unit specification from the EdExcel website. This comes as a PDF document which is awkward to edit, but it can be saved as a text file - and that can be manipulated. Open the document in Adobe's PDF Reader and click on File -> Save As Text as shown in the screen shot below. Save both the PDF and the text file in a new directory which can be used to house everything needed for this book.
Open the text document in any text editor. My favourite is NotePad++ in Windows, but you may prefer a different one. TextEdit works well if you are using Linux. Having opened the text file, save it under a new name so that you still have the original - just in case of accidents. In my case, I'll call the copy Unit-14-EDP.txt which is short and to the point. The top of the file looks like this :-
That unit - the smallest awardable item - becomes a book, in this case, Event Driven Programming. So, I would move that text to the top of the file - but in my case it is already there..
The next stage is to decide on the chapters. That is quite easy with an examining board like EdExcel because each criterion becomes a chapter. Therefore there might be a chapter called P1 - Key features. The next would be P2 - Using an event driven language and so on. This book would have six pass criterion chapters, four for the merits and two for the distinctions, making 12 chapters all together. Copy these criteria under each of the chapter titles you created and remove any line breaks as you go. Each criterion should be on one line only. Make sure they are in order right under the book title.
The next phase is to extract the content required for each criterion. This is rather important because this will determine how many atoms there are and therefore how many aPages we need in each chapter. EdExcel units have learning objectives, but these are not assigned to specific criteria. Therefore, you have to do that job. First, remove all the line breaks within the section on Learning Objectives. Each criterion should be on one line. Give each learning criterion a number, the first one under learning objective 1 would get the number 1.1, the second one 1.2 and so on. You can then cut/paste them under the relevant assessment criterion. This allows you to see what content is required for each assessment criterion.
You can then move each of these learning criteria to the applicable assessment criterion as in the screen shot above. In the case of EdExcel, these only apply to the pass criteria. The merit and distinction criteria apply to the depth and quality of the work produced by the student.
You should now have a text file with the title of the book at the top, followed by the chapters. Underneath each chapter should be a description of the content required.
The final stage of this task is to add the grading advice, if the awarding body gives it. EdExcel do give the advice so move the advice under each criterion. If a piece of advice refers to two or more criteria then copy it under each. So the same advice text would appear under P2 and P3 if, say, they had been bundled together.
You should now have a document that starts with the name of the unit. Under that would be each of the assessment criteria in their correct order, i.e. P1, followed by P2 and so on. Each assessment criterion would have a row for the text of the criterion, the learning objectives for that criterion (each as a separate row) and the grading advice as a separate row.
You can now delete the content you do not need below the final learning criterion. Save your work and you will have completed the first stage. You are on your way.
This idea of atomising learning is far from new. Good teachers and lecturers have always presented their materials in small chunks to make it easier for their charges. More recently, the Internet has encouraged information to be broken down because web pages are best kept small. The BBC started their BiteSize site in 1998, whilst YouTube (launched in 2005) has had a 15 minute maximum on video size until recently. However, both the emphasis on learning style independence and systematised content are quite novel.