Skills checklists for new students
Your tutors will require that your essays and assignments are properly researched, laid out and well-presented by using IT and information literacy skills. Important correspondence will be sent to your University of Bristol email account, so you need to be able to use the University recommended email packages. You will need to use a web browser to search for information on the University website and on external websites.
The links below lead you to brief checklists that help you to assess your current skills against the minimum level of IT skills that you will need to study at the University of Bristol. If you cannot carry out the tasks listed in the checklists you should try to acquire these skills before starting your course or early in your first term. Ways to do this are suggested.
Undergraduates and taught postgraduates
Essential IT skills
- Microsoft Windows
- Information literacy
- Using the web
- Word level 1: Getting started
- Word level 2: Making more of Word
Further IT skills
Depending on the needs of your course and the requirements of your department you might also need other IT and information literacy skills. Further IT skills checklists are provided for Word for dissertations (using Word specifically for writing up a longer dissertation), Excel and PowerPoint. Or, go to the Courses Online Booking System (COBS) for a full list of courses.
Further information literacy skills can be discussed with your subject librarian. Using our alphabetical list of subjects you will find contact details for your subject librarian who you will be able to contact directly and book a convenient meeting time.
Research Postgraduates
You will need the same IT and information literacy skills as taught students and more. In particular, you will need a high level of wordprocessing and literature researching skills to write your thesis and papers for publication in the most efficient and effective way.
You are unable to attend the courses mentioned above, however, a much wider range of courses is provided separately for research postgraduates through the University's Staff Development programme. See the complete list of courses for staff and research postgraduates.
If you feel that your IT skill level is insufficient for you to be able to attend the courses on offer to you, contact the IT help desk as early in the term as possible.