Information Skills

Information Skills (251 - 14359)
Study: Bachelor in Aerospace Engineering
Semester 1/Fall Semester
1ST Year Course/Lower Division

Competences and skills that will be acquired and learning results:

At the completion of this course, students will:

1. Understand the importance of resource-based learning and research.
2. Recognize information problems and develop effective strategies to solve them.
3. Become familiar with general and specialized information sources, and be able to determine their appropriateness for the task at hand.
4. Determine the reliability and quality of information and its sources.
5. Develop their information retrieval skills, improving the precision and efficiency of their searches.
6. Use information ethically, avoiding plagiarism, and following academic conventions and professional requirements.

Description of contents:
This course comprises the following contents:

UNIT 1. WHERE TO FIND RELIABLE INFORMATION

- 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 tools
- 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 practical skills and abilities (2 ECTS), through case-studies oriented to information seeking in web sources, analysis of these sources, evaluation of results, presentation and citation of content.

Student assignments will be done partly in a computers classroom with direct supervision of the teacher; and partly out of the classroom with the support and subsequent control of the teacher. These assignments will be in particular oriented on the acquisition and development of practical skills.

The days and hours of tutorship sessions for each group will be available in the course space in Aula Global.

Assessment System:

The course uses continuous assessment as the basis for determining the level of student performance, as well as class-based tests, according to the following parameters:

- Formative continuous assessment based on practical assignments, class-based tests and a group project: up to 60% of the final grade.
- Final theory and practice tests held on the last day of regular classes, during usual hours: up to 40% of the final grade.

Students who have participated in at least 30% of learning activities and ongoing evaluation and have not passed the subject, may recover it by the following compensatory activities:

- A practical project (50% of grade). The deadline for delivery of the work will be the date set for the retake test.
- Multiple choice test (50% of grade). This test will take place the day before the start of the extraordinary call. The teacher will notify in advance the classroom and time where the test will have place.

If the student satisfactorily completes the supplementary assessment, the record would be updated accordingly.

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:

BOBISH, G. y JACOBSON, T. (eds.). The Information Literacy User's Guide: An Open, Online Textbook. Geneseo, NY: State University of New York at Geneseo. 2014
BOTHMA, T., COSIJN, E., FOURIE, I y PENZHORN, C.. Navigating Information Literacy: Your Information Society Survival Toolkit. Cape Town: Pearson. 2008
HARVEY, G.. Writing with Sources: A Guide for Students. Indianapolis: Hackett. 1998
PACIOS LOZANO, A.R. (coord.). Técnicas de búsqueda y uso de la información. Madrid: Editorial Universitaria Ramón Areces. 2013