This course is designed to build upon a learner's search skills and expertise in the information literacy concepts that underpin scholarship at college or university. This badge incentivizes them to continue improving their information literacy competencies over their academic and workplace career. By participating in this course, one can use these advanced search skills to save time conducting literature reviews, efficiently gather and organize information, ethically use sources, and protect their own intellectual property.
This course is part of the Applied Digital Literacy Specialization
Offered By


About this Course
What you will learn
Articulate an information need.
Identify quality information sources.
Effectively and ethically use diverse information sources.
Skills you will gain
Offered by

The State University of New York
The State University of New York, with 64 unique institutions, is the largest comprehensive system of higher education in the United States. Educating nearly 468,000 students in more than 7,500 degree and certificate programs both on campus and online, SUNY has nearly 3 million alumni around the globe.
Syllabus - What you will learn from this course
Understand various forms and expertise of scholarship
This module includes the course welcome. It also covers the concept of formal and informal information sources in an open scholarship environment (ie. alternative publishing platforms, open access, and paid/proprietary subscriptions). Students will understand the economic and political realities of disseminating information at the federal and global levels. They will also evaluate the information sources they consult for currency, relevancy, authority, accuracy, and bias.
Cite scholarship to give proper attribution
Information has value, therefore, it must be properly cited to avoid plagiarism. Students learn how to organize their project’s references, and properly employ citation conventions using citation management tools and style manuals to avoid plagiarizing. Students learn how multimedia is licensed for reuse with varying degrees of restriction using Creative Commons licensing. They learn how to provide attribution to various scholarly multimedia (images, audio records, and videos) they consult, as well as how to license their own work.
Strategically explore the information landscape
This module covers brainstorming your initial project idea to create a compelling and manageable research statement. Students will then learn to identify keywords from the statement for purposes of searching and expand upon those words using synonyms. Advanced Boolean, truncation, wildcard, and phrasal searching will also be covered.
Map the information landscape
In this module you will employ the search strategies you have developed in module three and search relevant information sources (databases, organizational websites, government repositories, and alternative platforms) using advanced database search tools such as controlled vocabulary, cited references, and bibliography mining. You will use the citation management tool of your choice from module two.
About the Applied Digital Literacy Specialization
This Specialization is intended for anyone seeking to develop online, internet researching skills along with advanced knowledge of multimedia for the creation of digital objects such as presentations, infographics, posters, commercials, podcasts, and movies. Through these three courses, learners will cover how to identify their information need, understand which tools to use when fulfilling that need, employ advanced search techniques and tools in various type of information platforms (databases, websites, government repositories, and libraries to name a few), and how to organize the information they find using open data management tools like Endnote and Zotero. In addition, learners explore not only finding and ethically using multimedia but also how to create visually compelling digital artifacts for their personal and professional use. All of these skills will prepare them to conduct effective research (business, academic, and personal) and present it to appropriate audiences using aesthetically impactful media.

Frequently Asked Questions
When will I have access to the lectures and assignments?
What will I get if I subscribe to this Specialization?
Is financial aid available?
More questions? Visit the Learner Help Center.