Paper 3 makes up the final 25% of a Higher Level student’s ITGS course, and is based on an annually issued case study. The case study for paper 3 in 2015 is Asociación de Supermercados Independientes – An investigation into Big Data. Students must investigate this case study over a series of months, understanding the underlying situation, the relevant technology, and the social and ethical issues raised by both the current system and the system the Asociación de Supermercados Independientes (ASI) intend to implement.
A key part of the case study process is performing primary research, which may be in the form of interviews, trips, or visiting speakers. However, before students can perform primary research they need a clear understanding of the case study situation and the underlying technologies. The following sites have very useful resources that can aid students in this initial secondary research:
Mr Stevenson’s ITGS class has links to a lot of useful videos covering the technology in the case study (strand 3), as well as videos explaining the more general uses of Big Data, like predicting crime. The site also has links to some very interesting courses on Big Data, which are free to take online (a good link to the Education strand of ITGS too).
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The teacher-run wiki ITGSopedia has a page dedicated to the 2015 case study. It contains a variety of secondary resources – mainly videos – that explain the concepts of Big Data and the issues related to loyalty cards. It also contains a link to the Case Study 2015 Facebook page where new resources are posted on a semi-regular basis.
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My ITGS textbook support website has a range of resources for this year’s case study, including lesson ideas, news articles, and secondary research links. The activities cover the various systems and issues that arise in the case study booklet, including system fundamentals, networks, loyalty cards and Big Data schemes, and many real-life examples.
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