1.1b Introduction to Example Essay Question

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From the course by The University of Sydney

Information & Digital Literacy for University Success

23 ratings

The University of Sydney

Information & Digital Literacy for University Success

23 ratings

Course 1 of 5 in the Specialization Academic Skills for University Success

This Specialization is aimed at preparing students for undergraduate study in an English-speaking university. The course equips you for full participation and engagement with your studies by building awareness and understanding of the core values and expectations of academic culture, and providing you with practical strategies to apply to your studies. In this course, you will learn how to develop your Information & Digital Literacy Skills to help you achieve success in your university studies. After completing this course, you will be able to: 1. Access and search for information efficiently and effectively using a variety of digital tools. 2. Critically evaluate the reliability of sources for an academic context. 3. Filter, manage and organize information from a wide variety of sources for use in academic study. 4. Demonstrate awareness of ethical issues related to academic integrity surrounding the access and use of information. 5. Understand how to use digital tools for referencing and attribution in order to avoid plagiarism. 6. Understand how to disseminate and communicate information in a professional way, including managing digital identity and building networks for learning and research.

From the lesson

Introduction to Information & Digital Literacy at University

After this module you will be able to (1). Understand the structure and expectations of the course (2). Understand expectations about information and digital literacy within academic culture (3). Articulate the skills & dispositions needed to function effectively in the digital space (4). Demonstrate awareness of ethical issues related to academic integrity surrounding the access and use of information

1.1a Welcome and Course Information4:44

1.1b Introduction to Example Essay Question4:01

Meet the Instructors

Katherine Olston
Deputy Director (Digital Learning)
University of Sydney Centre for English Teaching

[MUSIC]

Hi, I'm Jess, and I'm one of the learning designers for this MOOC.

I'll be going through some examples and showing you how

you can apply the knowledge and skills covered in the lessons.

In this short lesson,

I'll introduce you to an example university assignment question.

We'll use this example assignment question throughout the whole course in order to

illustrate various skills and how to apply them.

This is our example essay question here.

Academic essay questions, like this one,

are often quite specific in vocabulary choice and style.

This is different to some of the more basic types of questions that you may have

encountered during school, which might look something more like this one here.

How will artificial intelligence impact jobs and employment in the future?

The answers to both questions are in fact remarkably similar.

However, the specific format and vocabulary choice for

the academic question tells you how a lecture or tutor wants you to answer it,

the particular aspects or depth required in your analysis.

Today, I'll help you unpack this question and give you some pointers on how to break

down other university questions you will encounter.

Let's start by looking at the question format.

Academic questions are often in two parts.

The first part is usually a quote or a statement that is meant to prime or

set the stage for the question.

These statements or quotes are used to activate your knowledge and

opinion on the topic.

Here, we have a quote from Khosla.

Sometimes primers like this one present one perspective or point of view.

It's important to note that you do not have to agree with this perspective.

Other times, they indicate the topics or

ideas your lecturer wants you to address in your essay.

Your response to the initial primer will usually form the basis for your research.

Of course, your opinion might change depending on what you read.

The real question is actually that second statement,

discuss the implications of artificial intelligence doing traditional human tasks

from technical, social, and economic perspectives.

The first word in a question is discuss.

These words, discuss, examine, define, and

more, are all question words that tell us to do something specific.

When we want to discuss, for example, we need to provide both sides,

the positives and negatives, or the benefits and drawbacks.

So our broad topic is the implications of AI.

Now, we aren't just going to discuss the implications of artificial intelligence,

but specifically, the implications of artificial intelligence doing

traditionally human tasks.

This means that we don't really want to look at religious,

psychological, or ethical implications of artificial intelligence.

Moreover, even within this subtopic, we're focusing on technical, social,

and economic perspectives,

meaning that we wouldn't focus on the environmental or military implications.

Nor would we look at organizational implications of artificial intelligence.

As you can see, by using specific vocabulary in formatting of the question,

lecturers can let you know what to focus on in your assignments.

This is really important for us because it tells us what we should focus on when

researching our assignments, which we will look at in more detail in module two.

[MUSIC]

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