Academic Skills

INTRODUCTORY INFORMATION

During the course you reflect upon what it is to be a member of the academic community, either a student or a professor. You listen to scholars, read excerpts of scholarly literature and reflect upon these communications. You are asked to consider ethical aspects of their involvement with the academic community. You have a chance to improve specifically academic social skills. Finally you are given an opportunity to improve many specific academic skills, such as evaluating credibility of information, defining, categorizing, inferring causes, describing, balancing conflicting views.

PRELIMINARY REQUIREMENTS

The course is aimed at students. There are no special requirements. 

COURSE OBJECTIVES

You will:

• know how to seek trustworthy information on the topics within your academic specialty
• know how to effectively obtain reliable scientific information
• know how to study effectively and how to solve problems
• be able to collect, analyze, integrate information, draw conclusions and solve problems
• be able to define terms, categorize instances, describe categories of objects or events, draws causal inferences, balances conflicting arguments
• read and deeply understand academic texts

ISSUES DISCUSSED

MODULE 1

• Basics of academic knowledge

MODULE 2

• Research
• Academic institutions and community

MODULE 3

• Academic disciplines
• Ethical issues
• Entitlement
• Dishonesty
• Social dimension
• Motivation
• Prior knowledge

MODULE 4

• Failures of instruction

MODULE 5

• Reasoning
• Logical fallacies
• Motivated reasoning
• Credibility of information

MODULE 6

• Defining
• Categorization
• Description

MODULE 7

• Numerical reasoning
• Causal reasoning

MODULE 8

• Problem based learning
• Problem solving

MODULE 9

• Writing style

MODULE 10

• Arguments

CONDITIONS TO BE FULFILLED TO GET A PASS

To pass, you need to take the final test and obtain at least 60% correct answers. Evaluation weight for knowledge tests are 40% and for final test 60%. Tasks include: single-choice, multiple-choice tasks, tasks with drop-down list, nested tasks with drop-down list, nested task with a gap and drag&drop problems. Some of them are non-scored. You can answer each task twice (besides tasks that include only two possible answers, e.g. true/false tasks, to which You can answer once). Tests are placed after every lesson.

CONDITIONS TO BE FULFILLED TO RECEIVE A CERTIFICATE

To receive the certificate, you must pass the course. After clicking the "Finish the course" button, you will be redirected to the appropriate place and if you have received enough points, a certificate will be generated. Certificate will be also available in "My Courses" tab.

COURSE STAFF

Dr. Andrzej Tarłowski

Andrzej Tarłowski
is an assistant professor at the Institute of Psychology, University of Economics and Human Sciences in Warsaw.
His research concerns how early experiences with nature shape the development of biological knowledge.
He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Warsaw and held postdoc positions at Northwestern University and the University of the Basque Country.