15,000 students on their way to reliable sources with Compass
A milestone for the online training course Compass: 15,000 students from Utrecht University have worked on their information skills using the training course.
Information skills help you to search for and use scientific information for your essay, assignment or thesis. Since the advent of the internet, and certainly with the development of AI tools such as ChatGPT, you come across more and more information and therefore also mis- and disinformation. It is becoming increasingly important to train yourself to find and use reliable information.
It is also more complicated than it seems. After all, you know how to use Google and that Wikipedia isn't always reliable, right? But do you also know that scientific sources from your field can often be found in specific databases? How to choose between one source and the other? And that there is an easy way to manage all your sources and cite them?
The basics of information literacy
Compass provides the basics of information literacy skills. You will learn with the help of assignments how and where to search for scientific sources and how to access them. But also how you can determine whether these sources are relevant and reliable and how you can easily store and use them during your studies. The modules consist of learning material and assignments where you have to apply the material. "The assignments are fun and provide more practical insight," says one of the students who completed the module.
Super training! This year I started a second bachelor's and I wish we had this in my first year of psychology! It would have saved me a lot of hassling with search engines.
Fortunately, 15,000 students have already strengthened their information literacy skills with the training course. Are you one of them? Then you may want to deepen your knowledge with one of the Compass+ modules on systematically searching for literature or on the use of historical sources.
Is this the first time you have heard of Compass or information literacy? Time to get started with the Compass training course! You can find more information on the website of the University Library. In addition to the basic training, the experts from the library can help you with advice and support in the field of information literacy.