Our Academic and Research Services team can work with you to embed information and research training within your modules. We also offer our core sessions as open workshops throughout the year that you could direct your students to. These sessions are designed to help students develop their information and digital literacy skills, and become confident Library users.
Through the range of teaching that we offer, students become equipped with both an awareness of relevant information resources, and the skills to evaluate and use those resources effectively and responsibly. This enables them to succeed in their studies and beyond.
A menu of workshop sessions that we offer can be found below. Please contact your Academic Liaison Librarian to discuss your requirements, and to arrange teaching sessions or other support.
We offer a range of instruction and support for new starters at Essex to help students become familiar with online and physical Library resources. This instruction can be offered as live taught sessions and activities, or as asynchronous learning content. Our Academic and Research Services team can work with you to embed taught sessions and/or asynchronous materials within your modules.
To arrange an induction, see our Request a Teaching Session page.
Inductions Offer
The Introduction to the Library session is recommended for all new starters at Essex, and is regularly offered as part of our open workshops programme. The standard format of this session is a 20 minute presentation, which covers the following basic information skills outlined in our Library Teaching: Skills Recommendation document:
This session can be offered in person or online and adapted to the below options to fit your students' needs:
To arrange an induction, submit the form on our Request a Teaching Session page.
Arranging October inductions: October inductions are scheduled on a first come, first served basis. Although we try to accommodate all requests, we recommend booking October Library sessions 4 weeks in advance to avoid disappointment.
In-Person Teaching & Activities
Teaching sessions are scheduled on a first come, first served basis, and we recommend 4 weeks notice for arranging in-person teaching and guided activities.
Colchester
The Albert Sloman Library at Colchester Campus is able to accommodate groups of up to 20 students for in-person teaching sessions and activities. Available options for in-person activities include:
Southend & Loughton
In Loughton we can accommodate groups of up to 25 and inductions will be held in the Library. At Southend we can accommodate most group sizes but a suitable room will need to be booked with your department’s timetabling officer. Rooms should preferably be booked in the Forum to allow us to incorporate a tour of the Learning Hub and Library spaces into the induction. Available options for in-person activities at Southend and Loughton include:
Online Teaching & Activities
Live online teaching sessions are scheduled on a first come, first served basis, and we recommend 3 weeks notice for arranging online sessions and activities.
Our online sessions are delivered via Zoom, and can be paired with a self-guided online activity. For Introduction to the Library sessions, we recommend the below self-guided tours of our online resources and/or the libraries at Colchester and Southend Campuses depending on where your students are based. We also have a variety of other online tutorials and activities available, designed to help students develop their information and digital literacy skills. You can find more details on the Online Resources page.
Available options for online induction activities include:
*For online sessions, we generally recommend students complete the a self-guided tour of our online resources within the session, and are then encouraged to complete the campus-based part of the self-guided tour in their own time
We have a variety of online resources available, designed to help students develop their information and digital literacy skills and become confident Library users. These resources can be embedded in your module on Moodle and used in support of your teaching. For new starters, we recommend the below activities to help them become familiar with the support the Library offers and how to find resources.
A list of our online resources and what they cover can be found on the Online Resources page, and students can also access these materials via our Skills at Library page.
This 45 minute workshop provides an interactive introduction to the Library and the resources we offer. If you are new to using academic libraries, or simply new to Essex, this session is for you! Come along to learn how you can get the most out of the Library and develop information literacy skills for academic study.
This 1 hour workshop covers how to organise information for your course and research. In this session, you will learn how to create a search strategy to keep you organised throughout your research, maximise time, avoid errors, and reduce stress. We'll also give examples of how you might use AI tools to improve on your search strategy. Organisation skills are important for all levels of study and research, so this session is open to everyone! Come along to practice skills, learn alongside your peers, and get instructor feedback.
This 1 hour workshop covers different methods for combining the keywords identified in your search strategy and gives a practical introduction to advanced techniques that can be used when researching for an assignment or finding sources. Advanced search techniques will help make your searches more efficient and lead you to the most relevant information. These techniques can be used across many different databases, so no matter where you are conducting your search, you can use advanced search skills.
Sometimes there are barriers to accessing information. You might be asked to pay to read the full text of an article, or find a particular online reading platform difficult to use because of the way text displays on your screen. Fortunately, there are usually ways around these barriers. This 1 hour workshop will give you the keys for unlocking information so that you can access the full text and view the content in a format that suits your learning style.
This 1 hour workshop covers fact checking and evaluating skills that will help you avoid unreliable sources and build your views and arguments on solid evidence. Being able to critically evaluate information is an important life skill and essential for academic and professional success. This session is relevant to all information consumers.
Key areas covered:
Come along to learn what academic integrity means in a UK Higher Education context and how to use information and artificial intelligence ethically to avoid plagiarism and other academic offences. You will also learn why referencing is important, what needs to be referenced, and where to go for help and support. The session will provide practical tips and strategies for avoiding academic misconduct, how to construct your references, and explain how the University detects plagiarism.
Key areas covered:
How to reference properly is something that causes students a lot of stress – but it doesn’t need to be difficult. This session will introduce you to different referencing tools and software that can help you save time, avoid common mistakes with referencing, and allow you to make the most of your sources. We will also cover the practicalities of referencing AI use.
Have you ever considered whose voices can and cannot be heard in your assignments and research? Or what impact referencing has on the people you are citing? This interactive session is designed to demonstrate the value of good information-sharing principles in both academia and your personal life for the purposes of promoting marginalised voices and making information more accessible. We will reflect on how you engage with information and help you find ways to share your work according to best information-sharing practice.
News & media sources can be incredibly useful across many areas of the social sciences & humanities, whether for current or historical research topics. This session will share with some of the key resources available and how they might be relevant to your students.
50 minutes
This session is aimed at students on modules involving study of news and media, or undertaking research requiring knowledge of news and media sources. It can be adapted for undergraduate or postgraduate level.
This session provides an introduction to special collections and archives, and how they may be useful in an academic context. We can provide tailored sessions, so please do contact us with your requirements and we will do our best to accommodate them!
2 hours
This session is recommended for any level of study.
As well as delivering teaching, we provide additional support to help students develop their skills, and make the most of the Library and its resources.
We have a variety of online resources designed to help students develop their information and digital literacy skills. You can direct your students to these and can easily link to them via your Moodle page.
Subject Guides are a collection of resources put together by your Academic Liaison Librarian. The guides are designed to help students with specific subjects and topics they may want to explore.
If students have reviewed these materials and need any additional help or have specific questions about the topics/skills, they can Book a Librarian for a group or 1-to-1 session with their dedicated Academic Liaison Librarian.
If you have any additional questions or would like to discuss ways that you would like to collaborate with the Library on your module or programme, please contact your Academic Liaison Librarian .
