iSkills workshops

Build your confidence with the iSkills programme, a series of free workshops that empower students, researchers, and staff at the University of Oxford to develop essential skills in discovering, critically evaluating, managing, presenting and sharing information in an evolving digital and physical world.

Find a free workshop

Browse and book a place on our free workshops below. You will need an Oxford Single Sign-On (SSO) to book a course.

If you are an OUH staff member or a Bodleian Reader card holder, please email usered@bodleian.ox.ac.uk if you wish to attend any of our workshops.

 

While our workshops are designed with specific audiences in mind, anyone is welcome to attend if they feel the session is relevant and appropriate to their needs.

Themes

To help you navigate our workshops and choose the ones that are right for you, we've grouped them into helpful themes, which you can use to filter training in our course list. Here's a little more about what each theme covers:

We'll guide you through crafting effective search strategies and show you how to find and access a wide range of sources, from library catalogues and academic databases to archives, search engines, and helpful AI tools. Developing effective search strategies is key to successfully locating relevant information for your studies and research!

You'll learn to critically evaluate different types of information sources, identifying their credibility, relevance, and potential biases, including how to spot misinformation. We'll also encourage you to consider how historical circumstances and ethical issues influence how information is created, shared, valued, and even censored. Thinking critically about information is a vital skill for your academic journey and beyond.

Unlock the world of data! We'll show you how to find and access statistics and various data collections and help you understand your obligations when using them. You'll also learn how to create robust research data management plans, setting you up for success in your data-driven projects.

Proper referencing is essential for academic integrity and avoiding plagiarism. We'll equip you with the knowledge and tools to accurately cite your sources and make sure your academic work is always correctly attributed. You'll also get hands-on experience with reference management tools, making the process of organising your research and creating bibliographies much simpler.

This theme explores how to broaden the reach and impact of your research. You'll learn how to develop a strong professional profile and understand the importance of sharing your research outputs for maximum impact. We'll guide you on archiving and disseminating your work, as well as on using open research techniques to facilitate collaboration and enhance your analysis.

We'll delve into applying digital scholarship techniques with our library collections to support your work.

Workshop handouts and materials

Browse our workshop handouts, materials, recorded webinars and video tutorials for a course you may have already taken:

Contact

For questions and enquiries about Bodleian iSkills contact:

Information Skills Office
Email: usered@bodleian.ox.ac.uk
Telephone: 01865 (2)72841

Keep in touch

University members can sign up to our mailing list:

  1. Go to ‘My Details’ in your CoSy dashboard
  2. Select ‘Edit’
  3. Complete your details if they are not already filled in
  4. Under marketing preferences, select ‘Yes’ to receive emails about Bodleian Libraries courses and workshops
  5. Select ‘Save’

Subject specific workshops

Several subjects and divisions run their own dedicated training for students.