ITACA

IT ADMINISTRATOR COMPETENCES
DEVELOPMENT AND ACKNOWLEDGE
LIFELONG LEARNING PROGRAMME
LEONARDO DA VINCI - TRANSFER OF INNOVATION
2012-1-IT1-LEO05-02806

D.7-2
ITACA LEARNING
PATH FOR STUDENTS
IN HUNGARY

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This plan reflects the views only of the author, and the
Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein

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ITACA Project site

http://www.itaca-project.eu

2012-1-IT1-LEO05-02806

Document Title

Hungarian Courses for Teachers

Author(s):

Mria Hartynyi (Prompt), Ildik Balassa (Szmalk), Dr.

Lszl Papcsi (GAK)

Confidentiality Status:

Public

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ITACA Project site

http://www.itaca-project.eu

2012-1-IT1-LEO05-02806

INDEX

1. The Project.............................................................................................................................4
1.1 Training activities .............................................................................................................4
1.2 ITACA Objectives from Hungarian point of view .............................................................4
1.3 Partners in Hungary ........................................................................................................5
2. Students Training in Hungary ..............................................................................................6
2.1 ITACA Work Phases ........................................................................................................6
2.2 Summary of the pilot ........................................................................................................6
3. Experiences, conclusions in SZMALK High School .......................................................7
3.1 Analysis of the results of the official ITAF exams............................................................7
4. IT Administrator learning path for students .....................................................................11
5. Adaptation of EUCIP resources for students ...................................................................11
5.1 IT Administrator Fundamental practicing test for the students pilot .............................11
5.2 Hungarian tools for the VALIDATION: ITAF QTB (Question Test Base): 300 questions
+ answers, documents for the paper-based exams ......................................................12

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ITACA Project site

2012-1-IT1-LEO05-02806

http://www.itaca-project.eu

1. THE PROJECT
1.1 Training activities
The following image shows the training activities scheduled for the ITACA Project. The grey boxes
refer to the activities for teachers, the lobster-colored to the activities addressed to the students.

1.2 ITACA Objectives from Hungarian point of view

In Hungary a modernization process of the vocational educational system started in 2012 with the
main objectives as follows:

transparency, transferability and comparability of national qualifications;

support lifelong learning;
reinforce the use of learning outcomes in standard-setting, curricula and assessment;
to make Hungarian qualifications easier to understand abroad and make them more
comparable, more transparent;
to improve the relevance of qualifications in the labour market;
to support the career orientation and counselling system.

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ITACA Project site

2012-1-IT1-LEO05-02806

http://www.itaca-project.eu

As a results the ongoing developments in the Hungarian VET are:

Renewing the National Qualification Registry.
Develop learning outcome oriented, modularised syllabuses.
Development of Hungarian Qualification Framework (MKKR).
Establish more and more dual VET system (like in Germany.
Introduce ECVET system (presently only in HE).
Establish comprehensive QM systems in IVET and CVET.
These aims were highly represented in ITACA project aims and objectives:
"ITACA promotes the adoption by the schools of the EUCIP IT ADMINISTRATOR competence and
certification system as a tool and opportunity to:
1. overcome self-referring to meet standards established in the market and an external
certification;
2. provide transparency and recognition to training paths by specifying them in terms of
"learning outcomes;
3. adopt teaching methods in which the acquisition of knowledge and skills takes place in
project activities and work-based learning to develop real expertise.
The correlation between the Hungarian and ITACA aims helped the Hungarian partners to be
deeply involved into the two years long collaboration, and to exploit the results not only during but
also after the project period.

1.3 Partners in Hungary

The Hungarian partnership involved partners the formal vocational educational system and from
the adult education providing certificates on the field of IT as well. Hungarian ITACA partners:
Hungarian vocational training centre in the informatics field: Szmalk-Szalzi Vocational
Educational Highschool.
PROMPT-H Prompt-H IT Training, Trade and Service Limited, a Hungarian organization
specialized in IT training and certifications (ECDL Test Centre).
GAK, Hungarian organization founded to offer services to companies in the agro-industrial
sector. While Assintel has a systemic vision of the informatics professional profiles, CNA
Lombardy and GAK provide the project with a broad view of the needs of all those small
businesses that require people able to manage their computer system, which is precisely
the function of an IT Administrator.

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ITACA Project site

http://www.itaca-project.eu

2012-1-IT1-LEO05-02806

2. STUDENTS TRAINING IN HUNGARY

2.1 ITACA Work Phases
According to the ITACA workplan the main tasks of the Hungarian partners were related to the
work packages as follows:

WP5 Hungarian Adaptation

WP7 Teachers
training in Hungary
WP8 Training
for Students

2.2 Summary of the pilot

The Hungarian teachers taking part in the cascade ITACA pilot carried out a survey with their
students to learn how far they were interested in obtaining an EU level recognised IT certification,
and the result was highly inspiring: most of them answered: YES. The idea of the teachers was,
that the students who are attending IT oriented curriculums in the Hungarian vocational
educational system, could be prepared for one of the EUCIP exams if they followed a learning path
which extends their IT studies with the knowledge and competences defined in the EUCIP
syllabuses.
After agreed the reviewed Hungarian versions of the EUCIP ITAF practicing tests Prompts trainers
implemented it on the Hungarian ITACA platform and the teachers started ITAF consultations with
their students. 96 students were enrolled to the pilot, and 92 students took part in the official,
paper based ITAF test. In both cases the students could choose Hungarian or English language for
testing.
The first Hungarian pilot with the practicing test was disappointing in April, May 2014: only very few
students were able to pass the test at the first attempt. After the exam the teachers asked the
students experiences and the difficulties they faced answering the questions. The most problems
occurred with the questions on IT Security, and on the Linux OS, and they claimed that the
Hungarian translation of the questions might be sometimes not clear for them.
As meanwhile the online platform was open for the students, they started to make more and more
practice guided by their teachers. The official, paper based ITAF exam was arranged on 29th of
May and on 12 of June 2014.

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ITACA Project site

http://www.itaca-project.eu

2012-1-IT1-LEO05-02806

The Hungarian ITACA partners could be satisfied with the final results: 52 Hungarian
candidates 15 teachers and 37 students were successful and will get the EUCIP ITAF
certificate.

3. EXPERIENCES,
SCHOOL

CONCLUSIONS

IN

SZMALK HIGH

There were differences in the previous studies between the candidates. Some of the students
(from class 9th and 10th) hadnt learnt every topics covered by the exam test, but they were
interested in the pilot, and they wanted to test their knowledge. There were some graduated
students, who had prior knowledge about the following topics: ICT fundamentals, operating
systems, electronics, computer networks, programming, software development and databases.
During the test exams in most cases the students were able to interpret correctly the questions and
found the correct answers. Topics related to out-dated software versions caused serious problems,
the percentage of the incorrect answers were here higher. The scores of the graduating students
were higher and more consistent, than VET students of IT orientation. Graduating students are
younger and better informed in this topic.
After the test exam the students (even the VET students) felt, that to take part in the ITACA pilot
was a very good opportunity and challenge for them. They thought that the topics were necessary
for computer experts, but the very specific questions were hard to answer. Their conclusion was
that the knowledge defined by ITAF syllabus and represented by the test was useful and
necessary, but preparation is needed for the successful exam. Most of the questions are topical
and up-to-date. They had difficulties interpreting the text in English, and they stated that the reason
was not only their weak language skill.

3.1 Analysis of the results of the official ITAF exams

The teachers did not organise an extra course for the preparation. They collected the questions
and important topics, which were especially difficult to answer in the test exam and discussed with
the students. During the discussions the students got a picture of missing or problematic themes,
which werent at the curriculum yet.
Ratio of correct answers
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60

The students found that at the final exams questions were more clear and evident than the
questions of the test exam. If we watch and compare the results we get some new information from
them. The first diagram shows the number of the candidates according to reached points. The
curve shows that the most of the candidates didnt reached the minimum point for graduating.

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ITACA Project site

http://www.itaca-project.eu

2012-1-IT1-LEO05-02806
Reached points - Number of the candidates
(1st exam)
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60

At the second exam there were 42 students, most of them failed on the first exam and tried it
again. After the first exam they got an image about the depth and the structure of the questions.
The second diagram shows the number of the candidates according to the reached points. The
curve moved rightwards, that shows that the students reached higher points, it also due to better
preparedness.
Reached points - Number of the candidates
(2nd exam)
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60

We examined each answers to the questions, its important to mark that there were questions that
which just received some good answers. Some of these questions need knowledge which were not
included in the curriculum (mostly at class 9th and 10th), or this was due the lack of practice (e.g.:
question about low-level formatting).

At SZMALK-Szalzi Vocational School we teach post-gradute students. Members of the first-year

system administrator class took part in the exams. It has to be emphasized because according to
the new curriculum, during the first year they learn the basics. Taking this into consideration, all
students from the first year could have taken part, but after writing the pilot tests it became clear
that the term administrator was meant for system administrator. This assumption was proven by
the first exam.
In point of efficiency it is an important aspect that our students specialized in IT system
administration already learnt some special knowledge in advance during the second term,
regarding Linux and Windows servers. That was the reason why we chose this group of students.

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ITACA Project site

2012-1-IT1-LEO05-02806

http://www.itaca-project.eu

32 examinees took part in the exams altogether. 8 of them attend evening courses, 24 of them are
full-time students. After the second exam 18 students got the qualification. 7 of them attend
evening school and 11 of them are full-time students. This rate can be explained by the larger
experience and higher motivation of the students taking the evening courses.
Regarding the language of the exam: 11 students took the exam in English, 21 in Hungarian. 8 of
them passed in English and 11 in Hungarian. It can be stated that the ones who understand ESP
were more successful. Their advantage is that they can gain more updated special knowledge than
those who can get information only in Hungarian. The Hungarian translation of the tests was
correct so it did not influence the results.

3.1 Hardware
There were 14 questions in the tests regarding this topic. Our students result was 56% and 50%.
Many of the questions contained knowledge from CISCO IT Essentials. Our students were pretty
good at answering them correctly. Questions about the latest technologies, such as UEFI (test 1,
Q3) and about special settings (test 2, Q3) appeared to be too difficult. Just like questions about
old technologies SCSI (test 1 and 2 Q9). Nowadays it is really rare. Questions regarding special
graphic features of monitors (test 1 and 2 Q13) also caused difficulties. Our students cannot yet
see the relationship clearly between terms like system clock and bandwidth (test 2 Q7). They
couldnt either answer the question containing special theoretical knowledge about cache
management (test 1 Q6). Questions about rarely used operations such as low level format (test2
Q12) were rarely answered correctly. The reason might be the lack of practice.

3.2 Operating systems

The result of our students in this topic was 67% in the first and 74% in the second test.
Not only knowledge traditionally taught about operating systems was required in the exam, but also
about the usage and running of Linux and Windows operating systems. There were many
questions that our students have already learnt about so their result was pretty good, over 90%.
Despite the advanced professional knowledge there were quite a lot of questions that our students
have not learnt about yet. Questions 22, 26, 28, 30, 31, 32, 33 in test 1, and 18, 21, 29 and 30 in
test 2. This topic already indicates that the test should be scheduled during a later period of their
studies.

3.3 Networks
The result of our students in this topic was 52% in the first, 63% in the second test. The questions
were about network protocols and server-client issues.
Every single student failed Q35 in test 1. Probably the question itself suggested the wrong answer.
Digital information means information that always takes two values (true -1, false 0) and is coded
in bits, and as this was the first answer, almost everybody picked this one. The question cannot be
asked in a different way, but it might help if the first answer was not about the definition of digital
information.
Questions about network protocol were answered at an average level. Although they have some
theoretical knowledge regarding protocols, this is the subject that can be hardly experienced in
practice.
Q35 in test 2, which was about ring topology, was not obvious either. The correct answer suggests
that two network connections are required, but modern technology requires just one network
card. The classical Token Ring is a closed standard already, so in recent installations it does not
occur, and in Hungary it is not even used. And FDDI requires four connections on a network card.
So this question in this way is not adequate any more.
Q36 in test 2 about CIDR is quite similar. According to standards answers A and B are also
correct!

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ITACA Project site

2012-1-IT1-LEO05-02806

http://www.itaca-project.eu

Questions 45, 47 and 48 in test 1, and questions 38, 39 and 44 in test 2 refer to knowledge that will
be taught later.

3.4 IT security
The result of this topic was 56% in the first and 49% in the second test.
The curriculum of IT Essentials partly contains knowledge about security, and it was answered by
our students at an appropriate level. But 5 or 7 out of 12 questions required knowledge that they
will study later.
The question about PING command was answered correctly by 91% in test 1 (Q49) and by 0% in
test 2 (Q47). It definitely warns us that their knowledge is not yet intense.

From the result of the modules we can tell that in the subjects of operating systems and networks
they performed far better. It can be explained by the fact that mainly these two subjects were close
to their studies during this term, so after gaining experience from the first exam they could prepare
for the second one. Their results did not change a lot in the subjects of hardware and IT security.

Observing the results we can state that we have chosen the right target group, but they did not get
far enough in their studies, so they do not have all the necessary knowledge. So the right time for
system administrators to get this qualification is about the middle or the end of the last term of their
studies.
The well-composed curriculum and the summary of subject material are great help for students in
order to pass the exam in the future.

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ITACA Project site

2012-1-IT1-LEO05-02806

http://www.itaca-project.eu

4. IT ADMINISTRATOR LEARNING PATH FOR STUDENTS

The final versions of the learning path are available in the Google table:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0ApTLkuPtoWOdHAzUVctVWVUclc1TXdOTVpaUHIxMGc&usp=drive_web#gid=0

5. ADAPTATION OF EUCIP RESOURCES FOR STUDENTS

5.1 IT Administrator Fundamental practicing test for the students pilot
As a part of the pilot course of students the ITAF practicing tests were translated from Italian into
English and Hungarian: 4x60 questions+answers. One example test is available in English and in
Hungarian for the student.
http://oktatas.itstudy.hu/course/view.php?id=16
http://oktatas.itstudy.hu/course/view.php?id=17
user: hustudent, password: hustudent

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ITACA Project site

2012-1-IT1-LEO05-02806

http://www.itaca-project.eu

5.2 Hungarian tools for the VALIDATION: ITAF QTB (Question Test
Base): 300 questions + answers, documents for the paper-based
exams

Instructions for the paper based exam:

The Hungarian versions of the official ITAF tests are managed by Prompt Ltd. according to the
rules of the Confidentiality Agreement between AICA and Prompt Ltd.
All the documents of the official paper-based exams and the copies of the certificates are
reserved by Prompt Ltd. according to the internal privacy rules of the company.

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