Workshops

An understanding of the various ways in which we as individuals learn, as well as how university teaching design draws upon these ideas can be extremely useful during your university study both as a means of developing the effectiveness of your independent study and recognising the different approaches to teaching you will encounter in lectures and seminars.

Whether they are held face-to-face or online, attending lectures, seminars and other forms of synchronous (e.g. real-time group based) learning sessions is an essential component of undergraduate university study. As well as providing essential opportunities for you to engage in valuable social learning experiences, your course contact time will map out the core knowledge, highlight the important academic debates and introduce the essential sources that define academic understanding of your subject area. Discover what you can expect and how you can make the most of the learning opportunities they offer in this workshop.

This workshop highlights the alignment that exists between module learning outcomes, assessment / marking criteria and lesson content. Understanding this alignment is valuable when planning and writing up assessment tasks, both as a means of better understanding what an assignment question is asking of you as well as ensuring your submitted work meets expected assessment criteria standards.

This workshop examines the intended purpose of assessment feedback, the common types of feedback encountered by undergraduates, before considering ways in which assessment feedback can be utilised as the basis of a targeted learning strategy with the aim of improving future assessment performance.

What is MetSearch? Why use MetSearch? How do I use MetSearch? All these questions and more will be answered in this workshop. Join us and discover the full functionality MetSearch has to offer and discover how to find quality academic sources with confidence.

This introduction to Cardiff Met's databases will give you the confidence to know when you need a database, how to identify the right ones for your for your research and how to use them to find the information you require for your assignments.

This Workshop focuses on the range of Journal Articles found published in Journals. Looking in detail at reading and using Research Articles (Research Papers). By the end of this workshop you will have an understanding of literature available from Journals and ways to use them in your research or studies.

Are you doing a literature review? Looking at Literature Searching? A brief introduction to the key features of a literature review, approaching a literature review and searching effectively in the research process.

Nearly every student - undergraduates and postgraduates - has had a moment of panic when it comes to referencing. In this workshop we'll look at why referencing is so important (not just in terms of its ethical significance), its purpose within a piece of work, and - most important of all - how to format references. The session will focus on author-date (or Harvard) referencing.

We all make mistakes in our writing, but can you spot where you make mistakes and - if so - how to put them right? In this workshop, we go through, one by one, what we've found to be the most common writing errors in student work. From comma splices to sentence structure, we'll look at errors that can undermine the impact of your writing or even change the meaning of what you're trying to say.

The ability to paraphrase is very important to your chances of finding academic success on your programme of study. It's a skill that not only helps you to demonstrate your understanding of key issues and ideas; it also plays a part in helping you to develop a more critical approach in your work. In this workshop, we'll look at what it is and why it's so important. We'll also give you some practical tips on how you can start to paraphrase with confidence.

Integrating the views you find in academic sources into your own writing isn't easy. By using the technique of 'voices' you can add greater depth to your argument and the points you're making. In addition, you will more easily develop a more critical approach to these sources. In this session, we'll explain the concept of 'voices' and look at how it works in various samples of writing.

Do you find it difficult to say exactly what you mean when you're writing? Does your writing just not look right? In this workshop, we'll look at a few techniques to help you write with clarity and precision. A workshop designed to help you write with clarity and precision, as you're required to do if you're going to be successful in your assessed work. It's not easy to get across exactly what you mean when writing. In this workshop, we'll not only look at the importance of writing clearly and precisely in assessment criteria; we'll explore techniques – such as sentence structure – that will help you to say what you mean.

This workshop considers the central role writing structure can play in firstly developing your academic understanding and argument in relation to a topic area and secondly communicating it clearly in written format by devleoping your comand of nuanced critical vocabulary and academic phraseology.

What are your concerns about writing for assessment? What feedback have you had about your own writing? In this workshop, we'll explore some of the key features of high quality writing. We'll also consider the purpose of writing, as seen through assessment criteria. Join us to revisit some of the key ideas about writing for assessment in light of any feedback you've received.

This workshop focuses on evaluating information sources for your assignments using handy tools to identify and check reliability. By the end of this workshop you will be identifying and evaluating academic sources using examples from MetSearch.

How effectively do you use in your work the academic sources you find? Have you had feedback suggesting that you're not critical enough? In this session, we'll open-up the idea of ‘being critical' by looking at exactly what it means. We'll also give you some guidance on how you can adopt a more critical approach to the sources you use in your own writing. Join us for an opportunity to take another look at the topic of ‘being critical' – making critical use of source material.

Whatever form it takes, the ability to present and speak publicly is both an essential academic practice and a valuable professional capability. This workshop examines both what to present in terms of ensuring your content is critical as well as how to go about communicating confidently with your audience in mind.

Reflective writing is a core part of many programmes at Cardiff Met. In this workshop, we will explore different models of reflection and look more closely at how a piece of reflective writing can be structured using one such model. By the end of the session, you will have a much clearer idea of what distinguishes reflective writing from more traditional 'academic writing'.

This workshop explores a range of strategic approaches and underpinning learning methodologies that can aid in more effective and efficient revision and exam preparation.

This workshop considers strategies and techniques for improving your performance in examinations. It includes a look at a range of practical tips for maximising your marks under exam conditions as well as methods for combatting amnd channeling 'exam nerves' to your advantage.

The session offers advice and tips in relation to choosing a topic or research question, planning your project, researching your sources and of course, the all important write up. All are welcome, be aware the session is broadly aimed at undergraduates and postgraduates who have not previously completed a dissertation or are returning to study.