Module BIC-0036:
Academic Skills

Module Facts

Run by Bangor University International College

20.000 Credits or 10.000 ECTS Credits

Semester 1 & 2

Organiser: Mr Nicholas Sargent-Small

Overall aims and purpose

This module is designed specifically for students who have limited or no experience of higher education academic study. The module introduces students to academic culture and the conventions of academic study. It focuses on the academic skills required for success on the Foundation Programme and on their degree programme at Bangor Business School.

Course content

This module is discipline specific. It uses the kind of genres that students are likely to encounter in a Business and Finance context. Students are taught the academic skills they need to understand and produce the kind of spoken and written texts they will encounter at the Business School.

Module content will include the following topics:

• Institutional culture, practices, norms and expectations • Academic style • Research skills • Reading and listening effectively • Taking good notes • Paraphrasing and summarising • Referencing and avoiding plagiarism • Academic discourse • Critical thinking • Academic writing and speaking • An academic skills portfolio

Assessment Criteria

C- to C+

Satisfactory (50 – 59% / C- to C+): Student demonstrates reasonably comprehensive coverage of learning outcomes, indicating generally accurate understanding, based on lecture material and some core readings. Some gaps in knowledge and/or understanding evident.

excellent

Excellent (70% + / A- to A*): Student has engaged consistently well with all aspects of the module and strong achievement in assessments indicates the ability to perform effectively at undergraduate degree level.

threshold

Threshold (40-49% / D- to D+): Student has made sufficient progress in the study of this module to achieve the lowest level of pass allowing for progression onto an undergraduate degree.

good

Good (60-69% / B- to B+): Student has displayed a sound basic knowledge and understanding of much of the material studied in this module and achieved a high enough grade to indicate a clear ability to cope with the demands of an undergraduate level degree.

Learning outcomes

  1. Know when and how to use academic style

  2. Build confidence in a higher education setting

  3. Produce an academic skills portfolio

  4. Demonstrate an understanding of academic culture and a university’s expectations of an undergraduate student

  5. Source and evaluate a range of academic sources

  6. Know how to paraphrase, summarise and reference

  7. Develop academic literacy and communication skills in order to communicate effectively

  8. Be able to take notes from written and spoken texts

  9. Demonstrate critical thinking skills in different academic contexts

Assessment Methods

Teaching and Learning Strategy

Hours
Private study

5 hours a week over 2 10 week terms

 100
Seminar

5 hours a week over 2 10 week terms

 100

Transferable skills

  • Literacy - Proficiency in reading and writing through a variety of media
  • Computer Literacy - Proficiency in using a varied range of computer software
  • Self-Management - Able to work unsupervised in an efficient, punctual and structured manner. To examine the outcomes of tasks and events, and judge levels of quality and importance
  • Exploring - Able to investigate, research and consider alternatives
  • Information retrieval - Able to access different and multiple sources of information
  • Inter-personal - Able to question, actively listen, examine given answers and interact sensitevely with others
  • Critical analysis & Problem Solving - Able to deconstruct and analyse problems or complex situations. To find solutions to problems through analyses and exploration of all possibilities using appropriate methods, rescources and creativity.
  • Presentation - Able to clearly present information and explanations to an audience. Through the written or oral mode of communication accurately and concisely.
  • Management - Able to utilise, coordinate and control resources (human, physical and/or financial)
  • Argument - Able to put forward, debate and justify an opinion or a course of action, with an individual or in a wider group setting
  • Self-awareness & Reflectivity - Having an awareness of your own strengths, weaknesses, aims and objectives. Able to regularly review, evaluate and reflect upon the performance of yourself and others

Subject specific skills

• Listening and responding to academic discourse • Oral communication – discussion, debate and presentations • Reading and making appropriate use of material derived from academic texts • Writing in an academic context – responses to questions, production of essays and reports

Resources

Reading list

Resources: Bedford, D. (2012) Study Skills for Foundation Degrees. Routledge: Abingdon.

Courses including this module

Compulsory in courses: