1. Foundation Portfolio – Improvement and evaluation Lesson Objectives: To identify targets to complete/improve your coursework. To understand how to produce a successful evaluation.

2. Deadline The final deadline for all coursework to be completed and handed in is 7/4/11. After this your work will be assessed and the grades sent for moderation. This gives you 6 weeks to complete the following tasks: Complete/improve your coursework (Research and Planning, and Production) Get audience feedback on your product. Complete your evaluation.

3. Complete/Improve Coursework Look at the comments on your Research and Planning and your Production. Make any improvements.

4. Get Audience Feedback Once you have completed your product you will need to get audience feedback on it. You can do this by creating a questionnaire on surveymonkey.com. You could also do a focus group with members of your target audience.

5. Evaluation Complete your evaluation. The deadline for your first draft of the evaluation is the 25th of March. Your evaluation is worth 20 marks. This is the difference between 2 grades.

6. Evaluation You can complete your evaluation as either a blog entry or a powerpoint. The recommended format is a blog entry. In your evaluation you must answer 7 set questions.

7. Evaluation The exam board say ‘candidates should be discouraged from seeing the evaluation as simply a written essay and the potential of the format chosen should be exploited through the use of images, audio, video and links to online resources.’ This means in order to achieve a Level 4 (A) you must make effective use of the format you use for your evaluation. Make sure you include lots of images, links, and where relevant video. It is not just a written evaluation, and you are assessed on your use of electronic media.

8. Evaluation Your evaluation must include some audience feedback on your finished product. This can take the form of your questionnaire results, results of your focus group.

9. Evaluation – Assessment Criteria Level 4 16–20 marks Excellent understanding of issues around audience, institution, technology, representation, forms and conventions in relation to production. Excellent ability to refer to the choices made and outcomes. Excellent understanding of their development from preliminary to full task. Excellent ability to communicate. Excellent skill in the use of digital technology or ICT in the evaluation

10. Evaluation Questions Your evaluation must address the following questions: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? How does your media product represent particular social groups? What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? Who would be the audience for your media product? How did you attract/address your audience? What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

11. Improving Research and Planning Make sure you have summarised your research into similar magazines, and your research into your target audience. Production plan Focus group – now would be a good time to do a focus group, or create a questionnaire to get some feedback from your target audience on the first draft of your magazine. Presentation – make sure all blog entries have clear and relevant headings, and all links work. Make sure any work that relates to the preliminary task is clearly labelled. Make sure all entries are accessible on the blog. Avoid linking to work – embed, copy and paste, upload as an image instead.

12. Improving Production Front covers – date, price. Contents pages – image of front cover Double page spread – page numbers

13. General Points Upload images of your original pictures to your blog. If there are additional images you took but did not use upload them as well. Make sure the front cover and contents page of the school magazine you completed for the preliminary task are on the blog and clearly labelled.

14. Where are you now? Look at the grade boundaries for your coursework on the next slide in relation to the mark you have currently achieved. There are 20 more marks available for your evaluation, plus additional marks you receive for any improvements you make to Research and Planning, or your product. Don’t forget that your AS coursework is worth 25% of your total A Level. The more marks you get now the easier it will be do well at A2.

15. Grade Boundaries