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Researching and Referencing: Welcome

This guide provides support to staff and students on research skills, referencing, study and writing skills and digital literacy

About this Guide

This guide will help you with assignment research, referencing and evaluating information and more

Use the headings below or the page tabs above for help with:

Referencing 
What is a bibliography? What information do you need for your reference list? Find useful examples, tips and links to different referencing styles like APA and Harvard. Watch tutorials, see what books you can borrow to learn more

Smart searching 
Covers research skills resources, as well as search tips, locating information and critically evaluating resources found on the Internet

Study skills 
Improve your study skills with the useful online tutorials and links to relevant websites, find helpful library books on study skills, and discover more TAFE services for further help

Writing skills
Provides help to successfully put your assignment together: with the steps explained, web links to essay writing, grammar and spelling, report writing and general tutorials, a mindmap on YouTube, access to the Writer’s Reference Center and a list of useful eBooks

Presentations
Tips and resources for preparing and delivering presentations including online resources for ESL students, links to  free online courses on using PowerPoint via LinkedIn Learning and Microsoft

Digital Literacy

Provides help and links to improving your digital literacy skills in the online environment

 

For help with the information on this guide, please contact the staff at your local Library 

https://tafensw.libguides.com/contacts 

FAQ - Artificial Intelligence

COMING SOON!

Keep an eye on the Research and Referencing Support Guide for a new Artificial Intelligence page!

Generative Artificial Intelligence is a rapidly changing space and we recommend that you check this page regularly for any updates as the APA and Harvard have not confirmed a format for referencing content generated from AI tools. 

  

    “The ability of a digital computer or computer-controlled robot to perform tasks commonly associated with intelligent beings. The term is frequently applied to the project of developing systems endowed with the intellectual processes characteristic of humans, such as the ability to reason, discover meaning, generalize, or learn from past experience.” B.J. Copeland, 1998

  

  

    AI tools can help personalise your learning and support your learning needs. You'll improve your digital literacy and be prepared to use these tools in your future workplace to increase productivity. These tools may also be used as assistive technology for students that need extra support due to diverse needs. 

  

  • Critical thinking skills – analysing the information available from AI tools should encourage the use of information literacy and critical thinking skills

  • Digital literacy skills – through the use of AI tools students may learn the effective use of emerging technology.
  • Prompt engineering skills – knowing effective ways to interact with AI tools to get the desired output.
  • Communication skills - interaction with teachers and peers should be encouraged through discussions on generated content while using AI tools.

  

    The content generated by AI tools may contain biases and inaccuracies. You need to always think critically, analyse and research further to confirm generated content. For example, the current version of ChatGPT generates content based on data up to September 2021 and is not guaranteed to be generated from reliable sources.

  

    Before using generative AI tools in the completion of an assessment task, students should always consult with their teacher regarding the use of these tools and the extent to which it is allowed. When using Generative AI tools in the completion of an assessment task, you must always acknowledge any content generated by the tool. Presenting material generated using artificial intelligence tools as a student’s own work is a breach of academic integrity. For further information on academic integrity, refer to the links below, related to your course of study: Student Conduct & Discipline policy for Vocational Education & Training students

    Academic Integrity Procedure for Higher Education students

  

    There are currently no set guidelines to acknowledge these tools in Harvard or APA style. However, until these guidelines are developed, you may use the following formatting:
  • APA - In-text citation
    (Author, personal communication, March 14, 2023)
    Example: OpenAI ChatGPT (personal communication, March 14, 2023) indicated that...
  • Using block quotes “[generated content]” (ChatGPT OpenAI, 2022) if directly quoting from generated content.
  • Use According to ChatGPT (OpenAI, 2022) [write in your own words ideas you got from the tool] if you have got the information/concepts/ideas from the generated content but written in your own words.
  • Images and other media generated also needed to be atrributed, for example “Image generated by DALL-E OpenAI, 2022”
  • It is recommended that you save screenshots of your prompts and generated content as in some cases, your teacher may request to view this. There are some browser extensions that allow you to save your chat. For example SaveGPT extension for Chrome and Firefox will allow you to save the chat history.

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