Engineering:Information Processes and Technology

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 in New South Wales. It focuses on giving the student an understanding of information technology, information processes and 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.

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. In June 2009 the course for 2010 and beyond was detailed in the NSW Board of Studies' HSC Information Processes and Technology Syllabus. IPT is one of the HSC courses which may be accelerated – students in some schools have the option of completing it in Year 10.

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, Storing and Retrieving, Transmitting and Receiving, Processing and Displaying).
• Developing Information Systems

In the HSC IPT core topics studied are:

• Project Management
• Information Systems and Databases
• Communications

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 Computing Applications.

Queensland

In Queensland, the Information Processing 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.

External links

• NSW HSC Information Processes and Technology syllabus
• Updated HSC Syllabus for 2008 Preliminary students