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Helen Barrett, Author at The Open College of the Arts

To find out more details about the transfer to The Open University see A New Chapter for OCA.

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Helen Barrett


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Ask the librarian

I was delighted to attend a Google hangout recently and meet our Rest of World group of students at OCA.  Students attended from Canada, Chile, New Zealand, Zambia, USA, Hungary and most impressive of all – Japan (Calling in from Japan impressed me the most, simply because it was 4am there at the time of […]

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OCA wellbeing: Running thumb

OCA wellbeing: Running

I realise I am very fortunate to be in my running group.  It has opened my eyes to all the virtual experiences that people can now engage with.  Lockdown has resulted in the creation of so many activities to connect people – virtual running competitions, online courses, online counselling – the list goes on.  Being removed from family and friends is difficult, but having a great group of people online has kept me going.  I can’t wait until we can run together again.

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Ask the librarian

In this blog, I highlight a selection of ebooks bought for you over the last year (chosen from reading lists or through Programme Leader requests) which are related to the study of your course. Remember you will need to login to the online library to view your ebooks.

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Ask the librarian

Your research folder is a place – physical or digital – where you’ll store any scanned/photocopied essays, articles, notes and any other material that might be relevant to your course. If using a digital research folder remember to back it up – e.g. a USB stick (don’t rely on this) or external hard drive, email, cloud drive etc.

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Ask the librarian

What is plagiarism? Plagiarism means deliberately or accidentally using someone else’s work or ideas as if they were your own. Work means any intellectual output, and typically includes text, data, images, sound or performance and includes material downloaded from electronic sources. Deliberately plagiarising work whilst you are at OCA can have very serious consequences, which is why it’s important to follow good academic practices and to reference your work properly.

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Ask the librarian

Continuing from May’s Ask the Librarian blog that discussed how to find the right content online, lets next discuss what you should do once you have completed your first search for research.

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Ask the librarian

Searching online, especially for distance learners is easy to perform from home and was my go-to place for research when I studied as a distance learner.

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Ask the librarian

When using library catalogues or databases you need to pick your search terms (keywords) carefully. Search engines and library databases are not intelligent and will match up words without considering their meaning.

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Ask the librarian

Most universities modify the system slightly to suit the needs of their students, so if you consult other universities’ Harvard referencing guides you will find differences between them. For this reason, it is important you use UCA’s own Harvard Referencing guide when completing your assignments.

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