Six people from "IT Dojo" passed the IT Passport Exam!
notice
January 15, 2018
The "IT Dojo" study group, which was launched in May 2017 with the aim of improving the information processing skills of students at our university and its affiliated high school students, saw its first class of six students pass the IT Passport exam.
As of December 2017, a total of 95 students are registered at the IT Dojo, including 65 students from the first class and 30 students from the second class. They are working hard to acquire knowledge with a view to taking on the IT Passport, Fundamental Information Technology Engineer Examination, and Applied Information Technology Engineer Examination. This year in particular, we have held 16 two-and-a-half hour lectures so far, focusing on preparation for the IT Passport Examination, which certifies basic knowledge of IT, as well as a two-day intensive lecture during the summer vacation. As a result, not only have we produced first-time passers in the IT Passport Examination, but the pass rate has reached 85.7%. This is significantly higher than the published pass rate of 50.6% * this year and the pass rate of 43.6% * for university students.
In an effort to produce more successful candidates and increase the number of test takers, IT Dojo has hired "IT instructors" to support the lectures. The IT instructors are students who have already passed the IT Passport and Fundamental Information Technology Engineers Examinations, and they will support students to deepen their understanding by providing advice on things they did not understand in the lectures and on study methods. In the future, we will not only provide preparation for qualification exams, but also incorporate lectures on fields such as Bitcoin, big data, and artificial intelligence, in order to develop human resources who can respond to the rapid changes of the information society.
"IT Dojo" website: http://srg.pi.cuc.ac.jp/IT-dojo/
* Pass rate as of December 14, 2017, published by the Information-Technology Promotion Agency, Japan (IPA)
Teachers' comments
We were able to achieve a high pass rate in the IT Passport Exam. However, the number of students who actually took the exam was very low compared to the number of students who registered, which became a problem for the IT Dojo. To improve this, we introduced the IT instructor system. The most important thing when taking on a qualification exam is to maintain motivation. The support of the IT instructor allows them to notice things that are difficult to understand or easy to make mistakes in and provide guidance based on their own experience. We also hope that students will use their seniors who have passed the difficult exam as a concrete goal, which will encourage them to continue studying.
Jun Oyano, Dean and Professor Faculty of Policy and Information Studies