Information Processes and Technology

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Information Processes and Technology (IPT) is the study of information systems and the processes and technology involved in them. IPT is also a subject offered to senior high school students in Australia in university entrance exams such as the HSC. It focuses on giving the student an understanding of information technology; the skills to create information systems and some basic programming skills. Some of the social and ethical issues of computer systems may also be included in the course of the subject.

[edit] New South Wales

In New South Wales, IPT is separated into the Preliminary (Year 11) and HSC (Year 12) courses. A prerequisite for the HSC Course is successful completion of the Preliminary Course. The course in NSW is set out in the NSW Board of Studies HSC information processes and technology syllabus document.

Topics studied in the Preliminary Course are:

Introduction to Information Skills and Systems

Tools for Information Processes, (which includes Seven Information Processes: Collecting, Organising, Analysing, Storage and Retrieval, Transmitting and Receiving, Processing, and Displaying).
Planning, Designing and Implementing
Personal and Group Systems and Projects

In the HSC IPT core topics studied are:

The HSC (Year 12) component of IPT also involves a number of option topics, usually of which two are chosen (usually by the school or teacher). These include:

Transaction Processing Systems
Multimedia Systems
Automated Manufacturing Systems
Decision Support Systems

Other computing based courses offered in the HSC include Software Design & Development and Information Technology.

[edit] Queensland

In Queensland, the information processes and technology course is defined in the Queensland Studies Authority Senior Certificate Information Processing and Technology document. The Senior IPT subject has four core topics, which are:

Information and Intelligent Systems (IIS) worth 30% of the assessment
Software and System Engineering (SSE) worth 30% of the assessment
Social and Ethical Issues (SEI) worth 10% of the assessment
Human Computer Interaction (HCI) worth 10% of the assessment

The SEI and HCI topics, although each allocated 10% of course time, are not treated as separate topics but are instead integrated into the other two topics, IIS and SSE. The remaining 20% of the assessment comes from extension coursework, which comes from the core subjects Information and Intelligent Systems and or Software and System Engineering and is supposed to broaden the scope of learning or the depth of learning in the subject.