Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is an INGOT?
2. How are INGOTs different from other available qualifications?
3. How are the INGOTs related to the UK National Qualifications Framework (NQF)?
4. What is the awarding body for INGOTs?
5. What do I have to do to become an INGOT assessor?
6. How is quality assurance guaranteed for the certification of the INGOTs?
7. How can those in countries around the world access the INGOTs?
8. How does certification take place?
9. Where can I find the details of the assessment requirements for the INGOTs?
10. How much work is involved for the Gold INGOT (Level 2)?
11. What facilities are there for students to store their work and develop their own e-portfolios?
12. I have to certificate lots of individuals, won't this cause me a lot of detailed administration?
13. Do I need to keep portfolios of paper based evidence?
14. Can students use Microsoft Office to achieve their INGOTs?
15. Do you have an INGOT certification for young children or those with learning disabilities?
16. How do I enable Javascript to use the Ingot Markbook?

1. What is an INGOT?

INGOTs are International Grades - Open Technologies. In English the word INGOT is associated with a metal bar of high value. The INGOT certificates provide a motivating progression route from complete beginner to professional level expertise for users of ICT in a wide range of contexts including commonly used productivity tools found in the modern workplace such as word processing, presenting and searching for information. More importantly they prepare the student for citizenship in a rapidly changing technological world by learning through community participation. There are currently qualifications available at Bronze 1, Bronze 2, Bronze 3, Silver, and Gold levels.

2. How are INGOTs different from other available qualifications?

INGOTs share some things in common with other qualifications but there is no other qualification that has all the characteristics of the INGOTs which are:

• They are competency based and outcome specific, not determined by any particular teaching course.
• They encourage assessment for learning with student self-assessment, peer assessment and mentoring as key aspects.
• They are designed to reduce bureaucracy and enhance the professional role of the teacher/assessor.
• They provide progression in both breadth and the demand in skills and knowledge through a structured system of certificates that correspond to Entry Levels 1, 2 and 3, Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 in the UK National Qualifications Framework (NQF) with direct links to the National Occupational Standards. (Level 3 to be developed soon)
• The certification can be easily and directly authenticated using theINGOTs.org web site.
• The certificates are independent of age and suitable for use with young children or mature adults based solely on their competence against the criteria.
• Assessment is appropriate for the skills and capabilities assessed. ie practical "doing" skills are assessed by practical tasks and direct observation, knowledge components by objective testing.
• INGOTs give credit for co-operative attitudes to work and encourage students to take part in productive projects to produce useful resources and support for others.
• The certification is low cost.
• INGOTs are not tied to proprietary software and can be achieved with entirely free and open digital resources.
  The INGOTS are vocationally related qualifications for anyone working in an office environment and for learning about the growing importance of open standards and open source software in the IT and IC industry sector.

3. How are the INGOTs related to the UK National Qualifications Framework (NQF)?

INGOT certificates are international and where relevant and there is demand, we will gain recognition from the National Regulatory Authorities in particular countries. The basic INGOT assessment criteria are universal. In the UK, they are mapped to the National Occupational Standards (NOS) at Level 1 and Level 2. They also cover large sections of the programmes of study associated with the UK National Curriculum and provide assessment opportunities fitting the National Curriculum assessment levels. The names of the INGOT certificates are consistent with the corresponding qualifications in the National Qualifications Framework. For example, the three Bronze INGOT certificates will be known as Entry Level Certificates in ICT Open Systems and Office Applications, The Silver INGOT will be known as Level 1 Certificate in ICT Open Systems and Office Applications and the Gold INGOT will be Level 2 Certificate in ICT Open Systems and Office Applications. This means that although the assessment criteria and assessor guides for all the INGOT certificates are common to all, in some regions or countries the assessment procedures might vary depending on what is culturally acceptable or required for particular national systems. The handbook is focused on the requirements of the UK Regulatory Authorities.

4. What is the awarding body for INGOTs?

The awarding body is The Learning Machine Ltd which is accredited by the UK Regulators. The INGOTs were originally developed in collaboration with members of the OpenOffice.org community, SchoolforgeUK, The Open Source Consortium, The Association for Free Software, and over 50 INGOT Academies in 10 different countries. The Chief Executive of The Learning Machine and lead designer of the INGOTs is Ian Lynch who was responsible for assessment as part of the team that set up the UK's first City Technology College. He has extensive experience of inspecting schools as a Registered Inspector accredited by the UK Office for Standards in Education and in needs assessment as an assessor for the UK National Professional Qualification for Headteachers. He also has a MSc in Education Management and he has provided extensive education support for the OpenOffice.org community worldwide. The Chief Moderator for the INGOTs is Joan Knott who is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Assessors and has extensive experience as Senior Moderator for Statistics for one of the largest Awarding Bodies in the UK and in commissioning commercial e-learning resources to support the schools' curriculum.

5. What do I have to do to become an INGOT assessor?

You need to attend a training course or be trained by an INGOT Assessor Trainer. The Learning Machine runs courses in the UK to train new assessors. Experienced people can become Assessor Trainers and therefore be provided with the authority to confer assessor status to other people in their organisation. (See the News section on the home page). Most assessors are qualified teachers but that is not mandatory. Those with less experience are likely to need more training than those with most experience.

6. How is quality assurance guaranteed for the certification of the INGOTs?

All accredited assessors will be trained either by an Assessor Trainer or trained staff from The Learning Machine and attached to an INGOT Centre or Academy. A senior member of the INGOT Centre or Academy will act as Principal Assessor, undertaking responsibility for standards within the Centre, and acting as the single point of contact for the Awarding Body through a named Account Manager. Moderation and quality assurance will take place by both systematic and random samples of the assessed work. Some of this moderation will take place internally under the direction of the Principal Assessor and some by an independent moderator, usually the Centre's Account Manager, appointed by The Learning Machine Ltd. The Centre must agree to participate in random sampling as determined by the Awarding Body. Certificates will only be authorised for printing when an agent of the Awarding Body, independent of the Centre judges that the criteria have been met. At a local level, the students and assessors must agree that the assessment criteria are matched before independent test or set tasks are undertaken under controlled conditions. This ensures that the assessment criteria have been covered during the programme of learning and that few candidates should fail to at least achieve a pass in the formal testing. We want to eliminate the situation where students are confronted with formal testing that destroys confidence by allowing a pass with substantially fewer than a majority of the marks being achieved. In addition, the Principal Assessor must ensure consistency within the Centre before awards can be made. All certificates awarded can be verified for authenticity at the Awarding Body's web site. The most experienced assessors for the lower level INGOTs will be invited to become assessors and assessor trainers for the higher level INGOTs. The assessment model is deliberately formative – assessment for learning using criteria matching and the outcomes of set tasks and tests to validate the assessors' judgements. Over time, assessors will improve the consistency of their judgements enhancing their professional capabilities. There will be regular training courses to further update assessors' skills. These will be voluntary for assessors where there are no issues and compulsory for those where there are problems of consistency or where a major change is taking place.

7. How can those in countries around the world access the INGOTs?

The same rules apply to anyone in any country. Anyone is free to use theINGOTs.org assessment criteria available in the handbook from the web site but to be officially certificated, the candidate must have been assessed by an accredited assessor registered with The Learning Machine Ltd. Furthermore, to obtain a certificate recognised by a country's Regulatory Authorities, certain aspects of the Quality Assurance procedures are mandatory. We will support training assessor trainers in any country in the World, normally free of charge if the country demonstrates it has a viable business plan to expand the INGOT programme and will support translation of the web site, certificates and the handbook into their language. If you can help in this respect, please contact us.

8. How does certification take place?

When the candidate has demonstrated competence against the criteria, the assessor uses the web site to enter the candidates' details and contacts the Account Manager who will make available any Awarding Body tests or tasks as necessary and ask for any moderation evidence. When the formal tests/tasks are completed satisfactorily the Account Manager will authorise printing the certificates from the web site. Unit certificates and certificates for the full awards are available in this way.

9. Where can I find the details of the assessment requirements for the INGOTs?

These in printed form in theINGOTS.org handbook.

10. How much work is involved for the Gold INGOT (Level 2)?

The basic Gold INGOT is 60 hours of work, 20 hours of work supporting basic general knowledge associated with Open Systems and Open Source Software, 20 hours on technical skills development in the most commonly used applications and 20 hours applying the skills and knowledge corresponding to at least Level 2 of the UK National Occupational Standards and the National Qualifications Framework in support of a community project.

11. What facilities are there for students to store their work and develop their own e-portfolios?

Students can set up accounts on the INGOT community web site at any time and use this to comment on their work, develop a dialogue with their assessor or their peers. The Level 1 qualification requires the student to set up a basic web based e-portfolio using the Awarding Body's community site. In the Level 2 qualification they will keep track of their community service projects using a BLOG (web log) on the INGOT community site which will provide a key part of the assessment. They are free to continue to maintain and enhance their portfolio as they see fit.

12. I have to certificate lots of individuals, won't this cause me a lot of detailed administration?

INGOTs are designed to reduce administration to an absolute minimum. If you have suggestions about how any aspect of the procedures can be improved, bring these up in the discussion forums or talk to us directly. In essence, certification is simply a matter of typing the names of students and their assessment details into a form on the website. There is a small overhead in administering tests required by the regulatory authorities but the intention is to use internet based assessment where it is valid to do so.

13. Do I need to keep portfolios of paper based evidence?

In most cases, candidates will have their work stored in their own user area on the Centre's network so there is no need to print to paper. The Principal Assessor is responsible for ensuring that students' work is secure through backups and appropriate network security. Stored student work will be required for moderation/verification and may be sent to the Awarding Body by E-mail, inspected at moderation visits or stored as file attachments up loaded to e-portfolios on the community site. Centres will also need to keep at least some samples for monitoring standards locally over time through local standardisation meetings led by the Principal Assessor. Specific requirements for assessment evidence are given in the assessors' guides in the handbook. Centres are expected to conduct at least one standardisation meeting per year led by the Principal Assessor to ensure expectations are consistent within the Centre.

14. Can students use Microsoft Office to achieve their INGOTs?

Yes, INGOTs are designed to be independent of particular software applications and so any professional standard office application can be used to demonstrate software operating skills. We want to encourage the use of Free and Open Source Software as part of our inclusion policy providing leadership in bridging the technology divide and promoting fully open standards. We accept that the practicalities of doing this will vary in different circumstances. All aspects of the certificates can be assessed with popular Open Source applications such as OpenOffice.org so our starting points are always to be sure our own systems are fully Open and the whole INGOT infrastructure including the production of handbook and certificates has been done entirely with free, open source software. In practice, OpenOffice.org, Star Office and MS Office are very similar. In general, candidates should be prepared for change, not fear of change, especially when change provides better value in the longer term for investing some learning time in the short term. If any of the criteria can not be satisfied using MS Office (or indeed any other software) the Centre can always install Open Source applications on as many machines as required at no charge, even if only for the particular aspect of the assessment. Students should compare tools. OpenOffice.org and MS Office can be run perfectly well alongside each other. OpenOffice can, for example, produce pdf files directly and it can import MS proprietary documents. So if there is a requirement to produce pdf files and MSO does not support that facility the student can open the MS file in OpenOffice and produce the pdf file without needing to buy any additional software. OpenOffice, Koffice, Google's Writely and a number of other applications support the ISO Open Document standard (ISO 26300). There is a world trade agreement to use ISO standards for government work where ever applicable and so we believe there is an obligation to educate for the use of this open standard. For community service aspects its likely that students will need to use open source resources in order to contribute but that can be done on an individual basis. Contributions by students to the Open Resources section of the web site are encouraged and should be in open formats unless there is a very good reason to use proprietary files. Students will gain marks for demonstrating an understanding of Open Standards and why they are important.

15. Do you have an INGOT certification for young children or those with learning disabilities?

INGOT certification is independent of age and we we have devised the Entry Level 1 certificate as part of our social inclusion aims to involve hard to reach groups and those who previously have not participated in an accreditation of their work. The certificate is called My First INGOT, Bronze 1, or Entry Level 1 Certificate in ICT Open Systems and Office Applications for the UK National Qualifications Framework. The context for learning will vary with different ages but the basic competencies are applicable to all. This certification can be linked to membership of Otto's club. Otto is the mascot of the OpenOffice.org schools project and Otto's club will be developed as a separate section of the web site with web based activities designed to develop learning but also to be fun. We want to increase the positive motivation for learning using rewards and incentives that are positive and attractive to young children as well as adults. We also want to provide leadership in the development of freely accessible, open, web based applications in keeping with the UK government's e-strategy. (See www.theINGOTs.org/Ottos_club for a preview) If most learning applications are transferred to the Open Internet it greatly reduces the administrative overhead of managing digital learning in schools. This is especially important in primary schools and for home access. Sustainable social inclusion requires fundamental change since technical support to maintain locally installed applications is not readily available and beyond the budgets of many individuals and small groups. Otto was designed by 16 year old Italian student Andrea Gabbiano as part of a competition run by the OpenOffice.org Schools project.

16. How do I enable Javascript to use the Ingot Markbook?

Follow the instructions on this page