Information Skills

Information Skills
Basic Core
ECTS Credits : 3.0
Semester : 1
Course : 1

COMPETENCES AND SKILLS THAT WILL BE ACQUIRED AND LEARNING RESULTS. The main goal of the course is helping students to develop key competences on the management of information,
which be extremely useful no only for the good course of their studies but also for their future professional activity. The students will gain the resources and resorts to develop autonomous and lifelong learning skills, one of the main foundations of the European Space of Higher Education.

To achieve this purpose, the students must obtain the following learning skills concerning the following
competences:

1. General competences
- Recognize their information needs in different situations.
- Know the main sources of information, both general and specialized in his subject.
- Learn the main techniques to perform good search strategies in order to obtain information from any source,
adapting their strategies to specific tools.
- Be aware of the appropriate uses of the retrieved information.
- Have the ability to gather and interpret relevant data (usually within their field of study) to produce informed judgments that include reflection on relevant social, scientific or ethical issues.
- Have learning skills needed to undertake further study with a high degree of autonomy.

2. Specific competences
2.1. Cognitive
- Decide which is the information that the student really needs to execute a task.
- Find the possible sources of information (search engines, databases, other informative resources) and evaluate which are the most appropriate for an specific information need.

2.2 Instrumental
- Distinguish and optimize the main information seeking strategies using some chosen sources.
- Access the sources, and obtain the necessary information provided in these sources.
- Understand the information obtained and select what is needed.
- Synthetize, organize and present the information in a clear, precise and readable form.
- Regularly use citations and software for creating bibliographies, and understand the importance of this activity for themselves and their colleagues.
- Use of efficient ICT media to write technical and project reports on their subject area of knowledge and activity, and prepare quality presentations.

2.3. Attitudinal
- Critically evaluate the effectiveness, efficiency and quality of the search process performance and the obtained content, in order to get feedback that could allow the search refinement, if needed.
- Optimize information searches: reducing the time spent in searching, collecting and presenting the results.
- Work in teams: share tasks, trust on the peers work, and accomplish the assumed responsibilities.
- Ethical use of information: make an appropriate, responsible and legal use of the information that we use and produce.
- Maintain an appropriate level of quality in the delivery of their work assignments: acquire some basic guidelines for submission, and respect the deadlines.

DESCRIPTION OF CONTENTS: PROGRAMME

UNIT 1. WHERE TO FIND RELIABLE INFORMATION
- Information Society and Knowledge Society
- Data, information and knowledge
- Information skills
- Information sources: typology and searching

UNIT 2. ETHICAL USE OF INFORMATION: CITATION AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Ethics and intellectual property rights
- The academic essay without plagiarism
- Citing and referencing bibliographies
- How to present and organize bibliographic references
- Reference and bibliography management software

UNIT 3. INFORMATION RETRIEVAL IN DIGITAL ENVIRONMENTS: GENERAL RESOURCES
- Basic concepts
- Search processes of digital information
- Multidisicplinary databases
- Internet search tolos
- Information resources assessment

UNIT 4. INFORMATION RETRIEVAL IN DIGITAL ENVIRONMENTS: SPECIALIZED RESOURCES
- Specialized portals and databases
- Selecting information resources on the Web
- New spaces for knowledge interaction

LEARNING ACTIVITIES AND METHODOLOGY
Acquisition of theoretical knowledge (1 ECTS), through lectures, teaching materials prepared by the teacher, online tutorials, specialized reading, and the students' personal study, related to theoretical competences.
Acquisition of skills and abilities (2 ECTS), through case-studies oriented to information seeking in web sources, analysis of these sources, evaluation of the results, presentation and citation of content.
Some of the student assignments will be done in the informatics classroom with direct supervision of the teacher.
Others could be done on outside regular classes, with the support and control of the teacher. These are in particular oriented on the acquisition and development of practical skills. The tutorships schedule will be available on the respective space at Aula Global.

ASSESSMENT SYSTEM
The continuous assessment overall grade will be calculated in accordance with the following scale:
- Formative assessment based on self-assessment exercises to measure the acquisition of theoretical
knowledge, and practical activities and exercises: up to 60% of the final grade.

- Final test held on the last day of classes, during usual hours and in a classroom to be determined: up to 40% of the final grade.
This course has only a single examination session, there is no extraordinary session. In case of failing, the student
must do a new inscription in the following course year.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: As in all your work, no copying or plagiarism is allowed. If such is detected, no credit for the activity will be given.

BASIC BIBLIOGRAPHY
- CODINA, L. "Motores de búsqueda de información científica y académica", Hipertext.Net 5 (2007). Disponible
en: http://www.hipertext.net/web/pag273.htm.
Página 2 de 3
- ESTEBAN, I. "Gestores de Referencias Bibliográficas: grandes aliados", @Bsysnet.com (2007). Disponible en:
http://www.absysnet.com/tema/tema66.html.
- "Como elaborar un trabajo académico". Material de Autoformación Biblioteca Universidad Carlos III de Madrid.,
Disponible en: http://www.uc3m.es/portal/page/portal/biblioteca/aprende_usar/autoformacion .
- CORDÓN GARCÍA, J.A. et al. "Las nuevas fuentes de información. Información y búsqueda documental en el
contexto de la web 2.0", Madrid: Pirámide, 2010.
- PINTO MOLINA, M. (coord.) "Calidad y evaluación de los contenidos electrónicos". E-coms. Electronic Contents
Management Skills (Fecha actualización 13/4/2011). , Disponible en: http://www.mariapinto.es/ecoms/
eva_con_elec.htm#e6 .
- JEANNENEY, J. N. "Google desafía a Europa: el mito del conocimiento universal", Valencia: Universitat de
València, 2007.
- MATA Y MARTÍN, R.M. (dir.) "La propiedad intelectual en la Era Digital. Límites e infracciones a los derechos de
autor en Internet", Madrid: La Ley, 2011.
- ABADAL, E.; CODINA, L. "Bases de Datos documentales: Características, funciones y método". José López
Yepes (coord.)., Madrid: Síntesis, 2005.
- MALDONADO, A.; RODRÍGUEZ, L. (coords.) "La información especializada en Internet: directorio de recursos
de interés académico y profesional". 2ª ed., Madrid: CSIC, 2006.
- BECK, S. E. "The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: or, Why It's a Good Idea to Evaluate Web Sources", New Mexico
State University Library, rev. April 2009. Available at: http://lib.nmsu.edu/instruction/evalcrit.html [Accessed:
15/05/2012].
- null "Critically Analyzing Information Sources", Cornell University Library,
http://olinuris.library.cornell.edu/ref/resear [Accessed: 15/5/2012]
- BECK, S. E. "The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: or, Why It's a Good Idea to Evaluate Web Sources", New Mexico
State University Library, rev, April 2009. Available at: http://lib.nmsu.edu/instruction/evalcrit.html [Accessed:
15/05/2012]
- null "Critically Analyzing Information Sources", Cornell University Library, .
http://olinuris.library.cornell.edu/ref/resear [Accessed: 15/5/2012]
- ARGUDO, S. y PONS, A. Mejorar las búsquedas de información, Barcelona: Editorial UOC, 2012
- DÍEZ CARRERA, C. "La biblioteca digital", Gijón: Trea, 2013
- Bobish, Greg y Jacobson, Trudi (ed.) "The Information Literacy User¿s Guide: An Open, Online Textbook",
Geneseo, NY: State University of New York at Geneseo, 2014, 2014Disponible en:
http://opensuny.org/omp/index.php/SUNYOpenTextbooks/catalog/book/170
- BOBISH, Greg y JACOBSON, Trudi (ed.) "The Information Literacy User¿s Guide: An Open, Online Textbook",
Geneseo, NY: State University of New York at Geneseo, 2014, 2014Disponible en:
http://opensuny.org/omp/index.php/SUNYOpenTextbooks/catalog/book/170
- PACIOS LOZANO, Ana R. (coord.) "Técnicas de búsqueda y uso de la información", Madrid: Editorial
Universitaria Ramón Areces, 2013
- CORDÓN GARCÍA, J.A. et al. Las nuevas fuentes de información. Información y búsqueda documental en el
contexto de la web 2.0, Madrid: Pirámide, 2010.
- CORDÓN GARCÍA, J.A. et al. Las nuevas fuentes de información. Información y búsqueda documental en el
contexto de la web 2.0, Madrid: Pirámide, 2010.
ADITIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHY
- HARVEY, G. "Writing with Sources: A Guide for Students", Indianapolis: Hackett Pub. Co. Inc., 1998.
- BURKE, M.E.; HALL, H. "Navigating business information sources: a practical guide for information managers",
London: Library Association Publishing, 1998 .
- BOTHMA, T.; COSIJN, E.; FOURIE, I.; PENZHORN, C. "Navigating Information Literacy: Your Information
Society Survival Toolkit", Cape Town: Pearson, 2008.
- LIU, Z. "Perceptions of credibility of scholarly information on the web"., Information Processing and Management,
2004, vol. 40, pp. 1027-1038..
- CHOWDHURY, G.G. "Introduction to modern information retrieval"., London: Facet, 2010..
- OAKES, E.H.; KUPILIK, M.H. "Social science resources in the electronic age" (Vol. 4 - Economics)., London:
Greenwood Press, 2004. .