§-Information Processes and Technology Q&A
NSW · NESA← Information Processes and Technology
Information Processes and Technology Q&A by dot point
A short Q&A bank for every NSW Information Processes and Technology syllabus dot point. Each question and answer is drawn directly from our worked dot-point page, so you can scan key concepts before opening the long-form answer.
Option: Automated Manufacturing Systems
Describe the characteristics of automated manufacturing systems, including the use of sensors, controllers and actuators, open and closed loop control, and the role of feedback
Describe how the information processes are carried out in automated manufacturing systems, including CAD and CAM, robotics, CNC machines and the integration of design and production
Describe the social and ethical issues raised by automated manufacturing systems, including the changing nature of work, retraining, safety and the environment, and emerging trends such as additive manufacturing and smart factories
Core: Communication Systems
Describe the functions performed within a communication system and the role of protocols and handshaking in transmitting and receiving data
Describe examples of communication systems, including email, instant messaging, the internet and the web, electronic data interchange and teleconferencing, and how each transmits and receives information
Describe the social and ethical issues raised by communication systems, including message security and encryption, privacy of communications, the effect on work and society, and the digital divide
Describe network topologies, network types and transmission media, and compare transmission methods used to carry data between devices
Describe the communication framework as the functions performed when transmitting and receiving data, including message creation, organisation, control, addressing, transmission, synchronisation, error detection and decoding
Option: Decision Support Systems
Describe data warehousing, data mining, online analytical processing, expert systems and group decision support systems, and how they analyse stored data to support decisions
Describe the characteristics of decision support systems, including modelling, what-if analysis and the tools used, and compare them with expert systems
Core: Information Systems and Databases
Describe how collecting, analysing and displaying are carried out in database information systems, including data validation, querying and reporting, and the hardware and software involved
Describe the organisation of a relational database into tables, records, fields, keys and relationships, and construct SQL queries to retrieve and manipulate data
Describe the social and ethical issues raised by database information systems, including privacy, data accuracy and quality, data ownership, control, and the impact of centralised data
Describe non-database methods of organising data, including flat files, hypermedia and free text retrieval, and the storage and retrieval methods used by information systems
Identify and describe the seven information processes (collecting, organising, analysing, storing and retrieving, processing, transmitting and receiving, displaying)
Describe the storing and retrieving information process, including online and offline storage, indexing, the role of the schema and data dictionary, backup procedures and encryption
Option: Multimedia Systems
Describe the characteristics of multimedia systems, including the media types (text, graphics, audio, video and animation), how each is represented digitally, and the role of interactivity
Describe how the information processes are carried out in multimedia systems, including capturing and digitising media, authoring, compression, storage and delivery
Describe the social and ethical issues raised by multimedia systems, including copyright and intellectual property, the merging of media, accessibility, and emerging trends such as virtual and augmented reality
Core: Project Management
Describe the social and ethical issues a project team must address, including privacy, security, accuracy, data quality, changing nature of work and the digital divide
Describe the traditional stages of the system development life cycle (understanding the problem, planning, designing, implementing, testing, evaluating and maintaining) and the approaches used to build new information systems
Describe the tools and techniques used to manage a project, including scheduling, communication and the roles within a development team
Option: Transaction Processing Systems
Describe the characteristics of transaction processing systems and compare batch processing with real time processing, including data integrity and recovery
Describe data integrity and concurrency control in transaction processing systems, and the social and ethical issues they raise, including bias in data, the changing nature of work and the move to online and data warehousing
Describe storing and retrieving in transaction processing systems, including the data storage hierarchy, updating master files from transaction files, backup and recovery, and processing logs