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Research skills
Developing research skills is obviously vital in your approach to off-campus learning.
Conducting research is central to preparing your response to assessment. Research exposes you to other perspectives, and helps you to develop and clarify your own reflections and ideas. It is then possible to support your argument by integrating the work of others into your assignments.
You may consider improving your academic outcomes by working on your research skills.
- How do I research for my assignments?
- How do I conduct research?
- How can I organise my research?
- How can I integrate the work of others?
Information literacy
The Library online tutorials 
cover the skills you need for searching and finding information. But in a world rich with information, the most important dimension to academic research is not just finding, but analysing and evaluating what you find.
The tutorial on How to identify academic resources is an example of how you can determine whether a source is appropriate for use in the academic context, and explains the difference between scholarly journals and popular magazines, including a useful checklist and a tool to check whether journals are peer-reviewed.
There is also a Library tutorial to help you evaluate what you find on the Internet. The QuickRef on Evaluating web pages in Language and Learning Online looks at ways of thinking critically about material found on the World Wide Web.
Check out the topics discussed in Improve your academic outcomes for further guidance and discussion on critical thinking.
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