Workshops

Ask us any questions on using the Library's resources or services, from where to find support with referencing, essay writing or doing a literature review. This assessment period, we'll be providing guidance on tried and tested approaches to revision and strategies to get you through your assessments. Our Library drop-in gives you the opportunity to speak to a friendly member of the Library and Student Team to get support and guidance.

Drop-ins are open to all University of Manchester students, researchers and staff. In peak times you may need to wait, support and advice will be provided as quickly as possible. You can join the drop-in at any time during the session!

Booking on

We encourage booking onto the event and participants are encouraged to bring their own laptops or tablets to the Library drop-in. If you don't have access to a device, there is equipment to borrow.

Further support

Talk to us online via Library Chat now. Alternatively, you can email us for advice at tls@manchester-uk.libanswers.com.

The purpose of these sessions is to bring students together to revise or prepare for upcoming assignments. Not only does this guarantee you a revision space during the busy exam and assessment period, but the session also aims to offer the opportunity to work quietly and independently in a supportive, collaborative and motivating environment with other students. The session will run over two hours and there will be 10-minute breaks scheduled in between revision slots of 30 minutes to help keep you motivated and on-task. At the end of the session, there will also be time to reflect on and share your revision experiences with other students and consider how we might best support one another.

Booking on

Due to popularity, booking onto the event is essential to ensure a place.

Further support

Talk to us online via Library Chat now. Alternatively, you can email us for advice at tls@manchester-uk.libanswers.com.

This session focuses on the development of ideas and the creation of connections between ideas and sources to produce a strong structure for written assignments. It works through a method of breaking down the question as an approach to planning a structured response. There will be the opportunity to work in groups to practise this, creating a response to a choice of assignments.

Booking on

Due to popularity, booking onto the event is essential to ensure a place.

Further support

Talk to us online via Library Chat now. Alternatively, you can email us for advice at tls@manchester-uk.libanswers.com.

Do you often feel limited by the assessment formats you work with? Have you got ideas from your learning and research but are finding it challenging to communicate these?

In this session, you will have the opportunity to reflect on the different assessment formats and ways of working that have or havent worked for you. This includes but is not limited to written, visual, audible and immersive mediums. You will get to explore why these have or havent worked for you and as a result, look at new and existing ways that you can work with in your assessments and studies going forwards. You will also have the opportunity to practise some of the different techniques discussed in the workshop and think about how you can implement these in your own studies.

Attendees of this workshop may want to bring a digital device such as a laptop or smartphone to use for the activities, though this is not essential. Laptops will also be provided.

Booking on

Due to popularity, booking onto the event is essential to ensure a place.

Further support

Talk to us online via Library Chat now. Alternatively, you can email us for advice at tls@manchester-uk.libanswers.com.

We all procrastinate to some extent. It may even be necessary to let things percolate in the mind before putting pen to paper or finger to keyboard. But when you find that you simply cant get down to work yet dream of handing in the perfect piece of work, that nagging guilt spoils your leisure time, that you are becoming increasingly self-critical about your abilities, then its probably time to tackle your procrastination.

We will seek to understand the causes of procrastination and look at practical ways to overcome it.

Booking on

Due to popularity, booking onto the event is essential to ensure a place.

Further support

Talk to us online via Library Chat now. Alternatively, you can email us for advice at tls@manchester-uk.libanswers.com.

If you are finding it hard to concentrate, have racing thoughts or often feel anxious or overwhelmed then this workshop, run by The University of Manchester Counselling and Mental Health Service, will introduce you to simple techniques to learn about the nature of the mind and what we can do to alleviate stress.

Currently we may be feeling more anxious and uncertain so may benefit from taking some time to focus on what is within our control. Mindfulness practice is a type of meditation which teaches you how to focus your attention towards what is happening in the present moment. This technique has been proven to be very effective in acceptance and management of stress and anxiety as well as coping with pain and illness.

Booking on

Due to popularity, booking onto the event is essential to ensure a place.

Further support

Talk to us online via Library Chat now. Alternatively, you can email us for advice at tls@manchester-uk.libanswers.com.

In this session, you will learn about what it means to read critically in the context of your studies. You will practice critical reading strategies and learn how to extract key information. You will make connections between sources and develop your analytical and evaluative skills, so that you will be able to select the most useful sources for your purpose. Youll also discover tips on how to aid comprehension and note-taking. Finally, you will reflect on your critical reading skills and how to apply them in future.

Booking on

Due to popularity, booking onto the event is essential to ensure a place.

Further support

Talk to us online via Library Chat now. Alternatively, you can email us for advice at tls@manchester-uk.libanswers.com.

This 30 minute information session will explain what dyslexia (and other specific learning difficulties) are and how to access support. It's run over Zoom, so you'll need to book to receive the link.

We will explain:

• What Dyslexia is
• How a checklist might help you decide whether or not to have an assessment
• How dyslexia can be diagnosed
• How to get university support if you have dyslexia
• How to get funding for support if you're a home or overseas student
• Where to find free assistive technology software

Afterwards, you'll receive a post-workshop pack including:

• Presentation slides
• A link to the dyslexia checklist
• A document that lists various free-to-access assistive software which includes a video demonstration explaining how to use them.

Important information:

• This is an information-sharing session and participation is not required. Cameras and microphones are switched off for this reason.
• There will be an opportunity to ask questions, if needed, at the end of the workshop.
• Please arrive at the session at least five minutes early. If you're late, you might have to book on to another workshop.
• If you have English as an Additional Language and are on a course with the University Language Centre before starting on another course, don't book on to this session. Instead, please call DASS on 0161 275 7512 (or email dass@manchester.ac.uk) and book a Quick Query appointment with an Advisor.

Booking on:

This session will take place on the online video conferencing app Microsoft Teams.

Booking on to the session is essential in order to receive the link to join.

This workshop will focus on how to reference sources in your writing. We will consider different ways of incorporating the work of others into your writing including using quotations, summarising and paraphrasing. We will also discuss how to find the right balance between the work of others (references and data), and your own voice in your academic writing by adding in your own analysis and connecting your ideas to your main argument in order to answer the assignment question.

Booking on

Due to popularity, booking onto the event is essential to ensure a place.

Further support

Talk to us online via Library Chat now. Alternatively, you can email us for advice at tls@manchester-uk.libanswers.com.

In this workshop, we will explore and experiment together with software to support your learning. You will work with other learners to investigate key features of these tools, with time to practice and ask questions. By the end of this session, you will have tested a range of tools that can help you with each stage of your work, from note making to planning and presenting. Laptops will be available for you to use, or you may bring your own if preferred.

How to book on

Due to popularity, booking onto the event is essential to ensure a place.

Further support

Talk to us online via Library Chat now. Alternatively, you can email us for advice at tls@manchester-uk.libanswers.com.

We can all fall into unhelpful thinking habits, and when our way of life has changed so much since lockdown, unhelpful thinking habits can make things even worse.

This workshop is suitable for anybody who feels stuck or held back by their patterns of thinking. The aims and objectives are to:

• Develop a basic understanding of the interplay between thoughts, feelings and behaviour.
• Recognise how some patterns of thinking are unhelpful and lead to emotions and actions that are not in our best interests.
• Identify what your unhelpful thinking habits are.
• Consider alternative more helpful responses and how to practice these.

This workshop has been extended to be an hour and half.

Booking on

Due to popularity, booking onto the event is essential to ensure a place.

Further support

Talk to us online via Library Chat now. Alternatively, you can email us for advice at tls@manchester-uk.libanswers.com.

In this workshop we will consider strategies and tools to help you stay focused on your academic work, despite the many other demands on your time. We will discuss how to effectively manage projects so that we work realistically within the time available to us, and discuss different strategies for prioritising tasks and commitments. You will work with others to discuss common challenges faced when trying to manage your time and will have the opportunity to work on developing an approach to time management that suits your needs and preferences.

Booking on

Due to popularity, booking onto the event is essential to ensure a place.

Further support

Talk to us online via Library Chat now. Alternatively, you can email us for advice at tls@manchester-uk.libanswers.com.

In this session you will use a model for critical analysis to inform your critical thinking and support your analysing of new information. The model will move you from observing a source to connecting it to your own knowledge, and guide you in critically examining the new knowledge in the context of what you already understand. We will have some examples to use on the day, but you are certainly welcome to bring a chapter, image or other item from within your own subject to practice with.

Booking on

Due to popularity, booking onto the event is essential to ensure a place.

Further support

Talk to us online via Library Chat now. Alternatively, you can email us for advice at tls@manchester-uk.libanswers.com.

Perfectionism has a way of robbing us of that glow of achievement and ultimately making us miserable. Having high standards is good but not if they make everything in life so challenging that we are exhausted before we have even started!

If you find that you are never really satisfied with your achievements, spend a lot of time procrastinating rather than working and are increasingly self-critical, then this could be the workshop for you.

Booking on

Due to popularity, booking onto the event is essential to ensure a place.

Further support

Talk to us online via Library Chat now. Alternatively, you can email us for advice at tls@manchester-uk.libanswers.com.

This workshop takes as its focus how sources are analysed and selected for literature reviews. In this session, participants will have the opportunity to practice analysis, and reflect on how they select sources and structure their analysis to construct a coherent argument. For the evaluation of information sources, participants will work collaboratively to determine the key arguments, ideas and any limitations. From this, synthesis will ask that these arguments, ideas and any limitations are then combined to be in dialogue with one another. By the end of the workshop, participants should have a good idea of the process of analysis for literature reviews.

Booking on

Due to popularity, booking onto the event is essential to ensure a place.

Further support

Talk to us online via Library Chat now. Alternatively, you can email us for advice at tls@manchester-uk.libanswers.com.

This workshop will give you practical experience of producing a piece of reflective writing, taking you through one possible model of reflective writing (Gibbs 1998). In the session you will learn about the conventions of reflective writing and how it differs from academic essay writing, before having the chance to write a draft of several key elements of a reflective writing piece, working with and receiving feedback from others in the group.

Booking on

Due to popularity, booking onto the event is essential to ensure a place.

Further support

Can't make this session? Talk to us online via Library Chat now, or send us an email: tls@manchester-uk.libanswers.com.

With Generative AI all around us and seemingly being integrated into every facet of society, it can feel as though you are being left behind if you are not up to date on all of the latest tools and chatbots being released daily. This workshop sets out to quell these concerns by providing a foundation for interacting with Generative AI in a critical and ethical manner which can be taken and translated into your work, study and daily life.

Stepping away from the screen, we will focus on paper-based and group discussion activities to explore the set of learning outcomes below.

Learning outcomes

To demonstrate the importance of always being critical when interacting with generative AI tools

To be able to identify unethical uses of artificial intelligence in different sectors and settings and explain your reasoning

To demonstrate decision-making skills around whether using a gen AI tool is appropriate in learning from a pedagogical perspective

To be able to apply principles to better differentiate between AI-generated content and not

To demonstrate ability to articulate AI literacy skills in job interview or application

Booking on

Due to popularity, booking onto the event is essential to ensure a place. This is currently a one-off session.

Further support

Talk to us online via Library Chat now. Alternatively, you can email us for advice at tls@manchester-uk.libanswers.com.

In this session you will use a model for critical analysis to inform your critical thinking and support your analysing of new information. The model will move you from observing a source to connecting it to your own knowledge, and guide you in critically examining the new knowledge in the context of what you already understand. We will have some examples to use on the day, but you are certainly welcome to bring a chapter, image or other item from within your own subject to practice with.

Booking on

This event will take place on the online video conferencing app Zoom.us. Booking onto the event is essential to receive the link and passcode to join. Select 'find out more' to book your place!

Further support

Can't make this session? Talk to us online via Library Chat now, or send us an email: tls@manchester-uk.libanswers.com.

Zoom support and guidance

All University of Manchester students and staff should register at Zoom.us using their University of Manchester email address, only authenticated users can join this event. Help and support with using Zoom is provided by Media Services. Updates are posted to the Media Services website, and you can contact the team by emailing mediaservices@manchester.ac.uk.