The ICT Companion 04 is a major revision of the ICT Companion III. Extra topics have been added to cover new material in the 2005 subject specifications and the existing content has been revised to update it and improve coverage of the various subject specifications. Many other features such as the quiz module and worksheets have been significantly enhanced and new features such as a course selector and definitions scroller have been added.

Course Selector

	This completely new feature allows you to choose the exam board and course that you are studying.
	Traffic light indicators on each article page indicate whether or not the information on the page is required for the chosen course.
	The quiz module can automatically select only those questions that are relevant to the chosen course.
	Reduces the amount of time students spend studying material they will not be examined on.

Articles

	All of the topics have been updated for 2005 GCSE ICT specifications and to reflect changes in technology.
	Many new pages have been added to improve coverage of the different GCSE subject specifications.

Worksheets

	Worksheets can now be completed online as well as on paper. Student answers are stored in cookies or an Access database.
	Students can submit worksheets online and the teacher can mark and return them online.*
	The teacher can view student worksheet marks in an online markbook.*
	If required students can print a worksheet that was partially completed online to finish on paper.
	A workbook can be printed that contains all of the worksheets.
	The formatiing of the worksheets has been improved.

Quiz

	Over 150 new quiz questions.
	In conjunction with the course selector the quiz can ask only those questions that are relevant to the course a student is studying.
	Student quiz results are stored permanently.
	Star ratings are awarded for each topic based on factors including score, number of questions answered and how recently the topic was covered.
	Students have new options to takes quizzes on topics they have found hardest, done least recently and others.
	A review option at the end of a quiz lets students go back over questions they answered incorrectly.
	The teacher can view student quiz results online.*
	A quiz timer is displayed whilst a quiz is completed.

Management

	Worksheets can be submitted and marked online, with some questions being automatically marked.*
	Comments and correct answers can be added to worksheets before they are returned to students.*
	Information about student performance when completing worksheets and quizzes can be viewed.*
	Quiz ratings and worksheet marks can be printed or copied and pasted into a spreadsheet for further analysis.*
	The course that each group is following can be selected independently.

MyWork Organiser

	Students can start and continue worksheets and start quizzes from the "MyWork" organiser.
	Students can view their worksheet marks and quiz ratings.
	Students can view marked worksheets, returned by the teacher.*

Definitions Scroller

	The definitions scroller appears at the bottom of each article and summary page.
	It displays important definitions from the topic currently being studied.
	Clicking on a definition takes the user to the article that it comes from.

Navigation

	Contents pages have been enhanced to make it easier to locate articles.
	The Next and Prev Page navigation buttons now appear on the new definitions scroller so they are always on the screen.
	When working through an article the page number of the current subtopic is displayed on the definitions scroller.
	The navigation panel now makes better use of the available screen space, so more options can be seen on higher resolution displays.

Searching

	When used in conjunction with the course selector the search engine indicates which found articles are relevant to the course being followed.
	The cursor automatically appears when you load the search engine, so you don't have to click in the search field to enter the term to search for.

Printing

	Documents now print automatically. No need to click the web browser print icon after choosing an option from the print menu.
	A workbook containing all of the worksheets can be printed.
	There is improved pagination of printed booklets.

Note that features marked with an asterisk (*) are only available if the ICT Companion is used through an ASP web server such as Internet Information Services (IIS), provided free with Microsoft Server operating systems.

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(C) P Meakin 2004