Keep your evidence on your own device and practise on invented copies. You can prove your skills and get help without placing private school files or real people’s details in front of anyone else.
This lesson finishes practical workflow and software versions by joining everything together: your checklist, your found features and your verified exports become a record of the work.
What does good evidence look like?
Good evidence is small, labelled and in order. It answers “what did you do, and how do you know it worked?”
- Keep the original untouched in a source folder and work on a copy.
- Save short notes as you go: the step, the feature path and the software version.
- Capture key screens at the stages that prove a requirement: the formula, the setting, the result.
- Record your verification: what you reopened and what you compared.
- Name everything clearly, with the task number and a version.
Worked example
Invented case: a student, Student A (fictional), practises a membership task for the Lakeview Library Club (fictional). Instead of using the real class list from school, they create practice_members.csv with 5 made-up rows.
Evidence table:
| Evidence | File or note | What it proves |
|---|---|---|
| Plan | task_07_checklist.txt | Steps in order |
| Formula screen | task_07_formula.png | =B2*C2 entered and copied |
| Export | task_07_v1.csv | Format produced |
| Verification note | task_07_check.txt | 6 lines reopened: 1 header and 5 rows |
Counting rows: 1 header + 5 data rows = 6 lines. The note says so, and the reopened file agrees.
No real names appear anywhere. The practice file has the same columns, the same formulas and the same export step as the school task, so the skill carries across.
The mistake to watch for
A common slip is to share the real file in order to get a quick answer.
Mistaken approach: the student pastes the real class register into an online chat and asks, “why does my formula fail?” The register has names and contact details of other people.
The student only needed to share the structure, not the people.
The correction is to build a tiny invented copy with the same columns and the formula that fails, and share or test only that. The problem usually reproduces with 3 or 4 made-up rows.
Check yourself
1. Give two kinds of evidence that show you verified an export.
Show answer
For example a note of the row count and values compared after reopening, and a screenshot of the reopened file. Any record that shows what you checked is fine.
2. A practice file needs 8 data rows and a header. How many lines will its CSV have?
Show answer
9 lines: 1 header plus 8 data rows.
3. Why replace real names with Student A and Student B in a practice copy?
Show answer
It protects other people’s personal details while keeping the same structure, so you can practise the same skill without sharing anything private.
Where this leads next
You now have the full workflow: plan, find, separate, verify, record. Put it together in the practical workflow and software versions practice set. The ICT practical task and evidence checker lets you tick a checklist for your own files without uploading them.
For a teacher who can look at your invented practice files and give feedback, see online one-to-one ICT tuition.