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Health Sciences - Complementary Medicine: Advanced Information Literacy

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Advanced information literacy aims to help students develop advanced skills in processing and using data, information, media, and digital content. It's about learning how to ethically and legally navigate technology while applying these skills. Information literacy is important because it forms the foundation for lifelong learning. It means you can use what you know now, learn new things, and use those skills in different areas of your studies and future work.

This information literacy module helps students improve their skills in using information effectively. It builds on what they learned in Part 1 of the module:

  1. Assessing Knowledge: Students will identify what they know and find any gaps in their field of study.
  2. Evaluating Information: Students will learn how to judge whether information is credible or not based on certain criteria.
  3. Research Strategies: Students will learn how to plan and find information using more advanced methods.
  4. Applying and Synthesising Information: Students will learn how to use and combine new and existing information to create new knowledge. They will avoid repeating what's already known.
  5. Ethical Use of Information: Students will learn about ethical issues like self-plagiarism and how to use information responsibly and legally.
  6. Advanced Referencing Skills: Students will learn how to organise their information and references better using tools like Mendeley and Refworks,
  7. By finishing this module, students will get better at using information for their studies and future work.

Unit 1

In this unit, you will acquire the skills to enhance your ability to navigate, evaluate and use digital information effectively and responsibly.

In this unit, you will learn the importance of academic integrity and the ethical reasons behind citing sources.

On completion of this unit, you should:

  • Learn how to effectively navigate complex databases, digital libraries, academic journals, and other repositories of information.

  • Develop strategies to refine your search queries, use advanced search operators, and apply filters to narrow down the results to the most relevant and trustworthy sources.

  • On completion of this Unit, you should be able to formulate clear and concise research questions which will guide you to find information that directly addresses these research questions.
  • Use research strategies to inform the development of search strategies and search strategies supporting the implementation of the overall research strategy.

On completion of this Unit, you should be able to:

  • Identify search strategies to identify specific information to answers research questions.
  • Employ advanced search techniques to optimise the retrieval of information.
  • Locate relevante information that is aligned the research objectives.

On completion of this Unit, you should be able to:

  • Develop an understanding of the ethical considerations and responsibilities associated with accessing, using and sharing information in the digital age.