Oorala’s suite of instructional videos focus upon strengthening beginning student’s academic literacy skills and were created to provide authentic material for use by our First Nations students. Voiced by Aboriginal narrators, and including Australian First Nations content, these videos provide clear and simple scaffolding to support the student in developing key critical reading and writing skills to underpin their successful study at UNE.
They have been researched, storyboarded and implemented by Kate Carter, an academic and lecturer in the TRACKS programs here at Oorala.
Oorala Study Skills - How to read and take notes at university.
Everyday we're involved in some form of reading. Daily we are likely to go from reading social media posts to street signs to newspapers to food menus, but every day reading differs from the required reading of a university student. University students routinely read emails, timetables, research papers, textbook chapters and assignment instructions. Today, university students may read all of these plus Moodle announcements and discussion forums. Some of these may be unfamiliar and students will need a new skillset to approach them. Taking informative notes while reading is an important skill to develop early in a degree that will be beneficial for the duration of their study.
Oorala Study Skills - Constructing an Argument
An argument, a set of reasons which are given in support of an idea or theory which you might be writing about is usually presented in the form of an academic essay. As the essay is a commonly used form of assessment in university studies, constructing a well-structured argument is an important skill to develop early in a tertiary degree. This Oorala Study Skills video encourages critical thinking to come up with a set of useful statements that support an idea or theory, educating on how to sort out what is fact from what is fiction. This is the evidence needed to back up an academic argument, reinforced through referencing. These skills will help the production of maintaining a succinct, persuasive argument throughout an academic essay.
Oorala Study Skills - Referencing: what is that and how do I do it.
Referencing strengthens a statement or argument. Although it is common to casually reference in everyday conversation, referencing in an academic context requires stricter guidelines. Referencing is an important skill which shows teachers and markers that a student has done their research. It is important to value the work which others have done; this is shown through acknowledging their work in your work. When referencing another work, it is important to know who created the piece, when it was published, the title, how it was published and where you found this work. There are many referencing styles used at university so always check the preferred referencing style for each unit.
Oorala Study Skills - In-text referencing made easy
Referencing demonstrates your ability to research and provides support for your arguments, making it an invaluable skill in tertiary study. This Oorala Study Skills video will help you recognise how and where to reference in an academic essay, which is known as in-text referencing. In-text references help shape the supporting sentences in the body of an academic paragraph. As there are many referencing styles used at university, what goes into an in-text reference depends on the referencing style of the subject. A reference list must be included at the end of your work, which provides further citation details than the in-text references.
Oorala Study Skills - How to structure an academic paragraph.
Writing is a big part of studying at university. Often students are asked to demonstrate their learning through written assessment tasks. This writing might be in the form of an essay or a report – both of which require students to know how to write what we call academic paragraphs. This video will show you how easy it is to structure an academic paragraph. You will find that by using this structure your writing will become clear, well organised and analytical – exactly what your lecturers are looking for when you hand in those assessments!
Oorala Study Skills - How to write an introduction.
At university, we are often asked to present our ideas and arguments in the form of a written assignment – the most common example of this being an essay. All parts of an essay are important, but in this video today we are going to focus on how to write an introduction. The introduction is the first part of your essay that the marker sees – so you want to make a good first impression, give clear signals about what your essay will cover and show how you will answer the essay question. Follow this video to find out how to cover these three important points.
