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Diploma in Higher Education Studies

Primary and secondary sources

HES 103 · Research and Study Skills for University Study — Week 3 of 16

CourseHES 103
Week3 of 16
SemesterI
TutorOnline in the course chat

This week’s topics

Primary and secondary sources

  1. First-hand information: surveys, interviews, experiments
  2. Second-hand information: books, articles, websites

What you will be able to do

  • 1.1 Distinguish between primary and secondary sources.

Activity

Sort ten sources into primary and secondary.

Study materials

Further resources

  • Writing Guide, 12.1: Primary and secondary research · PDF · OpenStax Writing Guide with Handbook (2021), 12.1 on primary and secondary research sources, pp. 391–392 · for registered students
  • Writing Guide, 14.1: Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Sources · PDF · OpenStax Writing Guide with Handbook (2021), 14.1 with examples of first-hand and second-hand sources, pp. 451–455 · for registered students
  • Writing Guide, 13.2: How to Create Sources · PDF · OpenStax Writing Guide with Handbook (2021), 13.2: surveys, interviews and observation as primary research, pp. 432–436 · for registered students
  • Everything online is a website: information format confusion in student citation behaviors · Open-access article · Greer (2018), Communications in Information Literacy. Students' confusion between different types of sources and formats. · for registered students
Materials marked “for registered students” open in the student portal, which is set up as soon as you receive final acceptance.
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Course plan
  • Week 1: Studying independently: planning your week
  • Week 2: What is research?
  • Week 3: Primary and secondary sources
  • Week 4: Finding information: libraries, databases and search engines
  • Week 5: Can I trust this source?
  • Week 6: Making notes from sources
  • Week 7: Referencing: why and how
  • Midterm: Midterm evaluation
  • Week 9: Plagiarism and how to avoid it
  • Week 10: Asking a good research question
  • Week 11: Collecting your own data: surveys and interviews
  • Week 12: Planning a project: aims, steps and a timeline
  • Week 13: Presenting what you found
  • Week 14: Reflecting on your learning
  • Week 15: Review and coursework completion
  • Final: Final assessment and submission
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