The Skills Pod

Send us a message or feedback Join the Academic Skills Team for The Skills Pod . In this episode, Maths and Statistics Advisers, Matt and Shirley, are joined by Ioannis Kanakis, Associate Professor in Chester Medical School. They discuss what is meta-analysis used for, what kind of data is needed to perform it, and offer tips on how to overcome some common issues that students have.  Follow us! @A...

Send us a message or feedback Join the Academic Skills Team for The Skills Pod. In this episode, Senior Academic Skills Adviser and Project Developer, Anthony, is joined by University of Chester alumna, Lin Chou (Masters in Art Therapy). They discuss Lin's use of the Academic Skills Team during her studies, her experiences as an international student, and their recent co-authored paper, Bridg...

Send us a message or feedback Join the Academic Skills Team for The Skills Pod . In this episode, Academic Skills Advisers, Anthony and Emma are joined by Dami Akosile, Lecturer in Human Geography, to chat about writing blog posts. We discuss the importance of planning your blog post's structure and content, finding the right tone, and share our tips for making your blog posts engaging.  Foll...

Send us a message or feedback Join the University of Chester's Academic Skills Team for The Skills Pod. In the final episode of our Dissertation Suite, Academic Skills Advisers, Liz, Anthony, Emma, and Stefan share their top tips for finishing a dissertation. They discuss breaking the final stages down into manageable chunks, things to look for in the final editing stages, and the importance...

Send us a message or feedback Join the University of Chester's Academic Skills Team for The Skills Pod. In this episode of our Dissertation Suite, Academic Skills Advisers, Emma, Stefan, and Nicola, and Maths and Statistics Adviser, Mikayla, chat about writing a dissertation. They share strategies to get writing, discuss the importance of criticality and how to ensure you're being critic...

Send us a message or feedback Join the Academic Skills Team for The Skills Pod . In this episode, Academic Skills Advisers, Lisa, Stefan, and Emma chat about introductions and conclusions. We discuss what makes a good introduction and conclusion, how they differ in assignments and bigger projects such as dissertations, and share our strategies for writing them.  Follow us! @AcadskillsUOC Don'...

Send us a message or feedback Join the University of Chester's Academic Skills Team for The Skills Pod. In this episode of our Dissertation Suite, Academic Skills Advisers, Anthony and Stefan, discuss qualitative research methods. They provide an introduction to qualitative research, outline why they would choose to do it, and briefly discuss the different instruments which can be used.  Foll...

Send us a message or feedback Join the University of Chester's Academic Skills Team for The Skills Pod. In this episode of our Dissertation Suite, Maths and Statistics Advisers, Mikayla, Shirley, and Matt, discuss quantitative research methods. They chat about the importance of planning your research, how visualising your data early on in your analysis will help you to spot patterns and poten...

Send us a message or feedback Join the Academic Skills Team for The Skills Pod . In this episode, Academic Skills Advisers, Emma, Stefan, and Sharon chat about assignment structure. We discuss the importance of planning, how to develop an argument, and share our strategies for structuring assignments.  You might also find it useful to listen to our episode on Approaching an Assignment .  Universit...

Send us a message or feedback Join the University of Chester's Academic Skills Team for The Skills Pod. In this episode of our Dissertation Suite, Alice, Lisa, Stefan, and Emma share their top tips for literature reviews from reading and note-making, to planning and writing.  You might also find it useful to listen to our full-length episode on Literature Reviews .  Follow us! @AcadskillsUOC...

Send us a message or feedback Join the University of Chester's Academic Skills Team for The Skills Pod. In this episode of our Dissertation Suite, Head of Academic Skills, Alice, and Academic Skills Advisers, Emma and Liz, are joined by Assistant Liaison Librarian, Sterling, to discuss reading and research. They chat about literature searching strategies, the importance of keeping good record...

Send us a message or feedback Join the University of Chester's Academic Skills Team for The Skills Pod. In this episode of our Dissertation Suite, Academic Skills Advisers, Anthony and Liz, discuss ethics in research. They chat about the importance of ethics in your research and how to ensure adherence to ethical standards in your studies.  Follow us! @AcadskillsUOC Don't forget to like,...

Send us a message or feedback Join the Academic Skills Team for The Skills Pod . In this episode, Academic Skills Advisers, Emma, Anthony, and Liz chat all things group work. We discuss the benefits of group work, the possible pitfalls and how to avoid them, and share our strategies for successful group work.  You might also find it useful to listen to our podcast episodes on Approaching an Assign...

Send us a message or feedback Join the University of Chester's Academic Skills Team for The Skills Pod. In this episode of our Dissertation Suite, Academic Skills Advisers, Anthony and Sharon, discuss researcher position. They chat about the importance of researcher position, break down some of the key terms you'll come across, and go through ways you might identify your stance.  Follow...

Send us a message or feedback Join the Academic Skills Team for The Skills Pod . In this episode, Academic Skills Adviser, Emma, and Maths and Statistics Adviser, Mikayla, are joined by Richard Bott, Programme Leader for MSc Cardiovascular Health and Rehabilitation, to chat about lab reports. We discuss the structure of a lab report, go through what's required in each section, and share some...

Send us a message or feedback Join the University of Chester's Academic Skills Team for The Skills Pod. In this episode of our Dissertation Suite, Academic Skills Advisers, Emma and Anthony, discuss research proposals. They chat about what a research proposal is and its purpose, go through the general structure (although do be sure to follow departmental guidance regarding this!) and share so...

Send us a message or feedback Join the University of Chester's Academic Skills Team for The Skills Pod . In this episode we discuss academic conduct: what it is, the foundations of good academic conduct, and strategies to maintain good academic conduct throughout your studies. This episode features Anthony and Emma.  You might also find it useful to listen to our episodes on Paraphrasing and...

Send us a message or feedback Join the University of Chester's Academic Skills Team for The Skills Pod. In this episode of our Dissertation Suite, Academic Skills Advisers, Emma and Lisa, and Maths and Statistics Adviser, Mikayla, discuss developing a research question. They chat about honing in on your topic, the importance of doing your research to help you identify your question, and figur...

Send us a message or feedback Join the University of Chester's Academic Skills Team for The Skills Pod . In this episode, Emma and Anthony are joined by Senior Lecturers, Ruth Roxburgh and Sue Grave, from Nursing and Healthcare Education to discuss time management for students on placement. We chat about strategies for managing your time and finding a work-life balance that can support you in...

Send us a message or feedback Join the University of Chester's Academic Skills Team for The Skills Pod. In the first episode of our Dissertation Suite, Academic Skills Advisers, Emma, Lisa, and Nicola, discuss Planning and Time Management for a Longer Project. They chat about the importance of setting mini-deadlines, factoring wiggle room into your overall schedule, understanding what’s expec...

Send us a message or feedback Join the University of Chester's Academic Skills Team for The Skills Pod . In this episode we discuss academic reading strategies with a focus on dolphin, shark, and whale otherwise known as skimming, scanning, and deep reading. This episode features Liz, Lisa, and Emma. Follow us! @AcadskillsUOC Don't forget to like, comment and follow the podcast!

Send us a message or feedback Join the University of Chester's Academic Skills Team for The Skills Pod . In this episode we go back to basics and talk about paragraph structure. We begin with a discussion about sandwiches (bear with us - it will make sense in the end!) before going through the components of a critical paragraph. This episode features Liz, Anthony, and Emma.  Follow us! @Acads...

Send us a message or feedback Join the University of Chester's Academic Skills Team for The Skills Pod . In this episode we chat about procrastination. We discuss what procrastination is, why we procrastinate, and what strategies we've developed to try and tackle it. This episode features Emma and Liz.  Follow us! @AcadskillsUOC Don't forget to like, comment and follow the podcast!

Send us a message or feedback Join the University of Chester's Academic Skills Team for The Skills Pod . In this episode, Academic Skills Adviser's, Emma and Anthony, chat to the team's work based learning students, Elly and Lucy. We discuss the project they have been working on, their experience of working with the Academic Skills Team, what they have learnt during their placement,...

Send us a message or feedback Join the University of Chester's Academic Skills Team for The Skills Pod . In this episode we chat to the University's Royal Literary Fund Fellow, Caroline Corcoran, about her role and how students can access support from her. As a published writer, Caroline also shares some tips for academic writing and editing. This episode features Emma, Liz, and Alice. ...