Study skills hub

Time Management

Monday 9 February 2026 1pm - 2.30pm

Organiser: Academic Skills
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

In this workshop we share tips and tools for organising yourself to enable you to make the best use of time available.

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PGT Dissertation Writing: An Introduction

Tuesday 10 February 2026 3.30pm - 5pm

Organiser: Academic Skills
Location: online
Open to: Postgraduates

This workshop is for postgraduate taught students only. It will define what a dissertation is and show how it differs from other assignment types. It will then go to look at the opportunities writing a dissertation offers students and the academic skills that are needed to write one. Finally, it will briefly look at the different sections/chapters that can be included in dissertations and what type of information these sections/chapters typically contain.

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The Distractibles Meetup

Wednesday 11 February 2026 12.30pm - 1.30pm

Organiser: Academic Skills
Location: LFA/144 Academic Skills workshop room (Harry Fairhurst Building, Campus West)
Open to: Students/staff

Finding it hard to focus and plagued by distractions? Join The Distractibles Meetup on Wednesdays, 12.30pm to 1.30pm in the Library, LFA/144. We are a support group of staff and students with small group chat and accessibility ideas to try. Whether you're neurodivergent or just easily distracted, our peer-support group might be just the thing for you. The Distractibles

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Confidence to Speak and Listen (COSAL)

Wednesday 11 February 2026 1.30pm - 3pm

Organiser: Academic Skills
Location: LFA/144 Academic Skills workshop room (Harry Fairhurst Building, Campus West)
Open to: Everyone

Confidence to Speak and Listen workshops are open to all. They give you the chance to get to know others from different disciplines and to practise communicating. Each time we meet we engage in interactive activities involving your voice, your body and your ears! We discuss confidence from perspectives of both speaker and listener and identify communication strategies to take away and apply in different contexts. To get maximum benefit and build your confidence incrementally, we recommend coming to more than one workshop. These interactive sessions are not recorded. The content is different each time, as it is built by you on the day. Slides are not available.

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DIGITAL WEDNESDAYS: An introduction to useful digital tools available at York

Wednesday 11 February 2026 2pm - 4pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: LFA/144 Academic Skills workshop room (Harry Fairhurst Building, Campus West)
Open to: Everyone

At York you have access to a wealth of software, from general 'Office' applications like Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 through to more specific programs to help you be organised or be creative. This session (aimed at all members of the University, however long you've been here) will provide an overview of some of the digital tools available that you might find useful, with a particular focus on applications for organising information, keeping track of your notes, working collaboratively, and keeping up to date. We will share some of our tips for making the best use of technology, and there'll be time to ask questions and share any of your own IT tips.

'You don't know what you don't know' Skills Guide

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Learn to code: Introduction to coding

Thursday 12 February 2026 10am - 12pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

Want to know more about what computer coding is, how it works, and how you can start learning to code?

This introductory workshop is for anyone who is new to writing computer programs or learning coding languages. The workshop will look at useful coding concepts and some basics of the coding language Python to demonstrate these, and will cover:

• How computers work and how this applies to coding
• What are coding languages?
• Key concepts in coding, such as variables, loops, and data types
• How to get started with learning coding.

Coding Practical Guide

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10 tips for Video Editing (Online)

Thursday 12 February 2026 1pm - 2pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

10 tips for Video Editing

In this quick-fire online webinar, we'll be going over our 10 ten tips for creating and editing videos, from creating and gathering video material to exporting a completed project. Whether you're creating videos for social media, making films to promote your work, or working with short videos for any other purpose, come along to this session to learn about our recommendations for how to get started and what to remember. We will also signpost further resources and training available from the Creativity Lab.

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Beginners Guide to Quantitative Data Analysis

Thursday 12 February 2026 2pm - 3.30pm

Organiser: Academic Skills
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

This beginner-friendly workshop is designed for those who are collecting or working with quantitative data. We'll guide you through the essential steps of planning your data analysis - from clarifying research questions and identifying variable types, to selecting the most appropriate statistical tests. Whether you're just starting your project or preparing to analyse your dataset, this session will help you build confidence, avoid common mistakes, and make informed decisions about your analysis. No prior statistics knowledge is required.

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Learn to code: Introduction to programming with Python (a 2 week course)

Friday 13 February 2026 10am - 12pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

Looking to start learning Python?

This introductory hands-on 2 week course gets you familiar with the coding language Python and using Python for basic data analysis and visualisation. Over the two 2-hour long sessions, you will learn the basics of how to:

• Start using Python in notebooks
• Create variables and work with data types
• Process data, from analysis to data visualisation
• Repeat actions with loops and use decisions in your code
• Use functions to improve your programs
• Deal with errors

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Note-making for Reading: What It Is and How to Do It

Friday 13 February 2026 11am - 12.30pm

Organiser: Academic Skills
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

It is important that both reading and note-making are done with a clear purpose. This workshop will introduce a number of different note-making systems/methods and show how these can be used effectively as a bridge between academic reading and writing. Please find related online resources here: https://subjectguides.york.ac.uk/skills/reading

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Academic Reading: What It Is and How to Do It

Monday 16 February 2026 1pm - 2.30pm

Organiser: Academic Skills
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

Learning to read academic texts more effectively, by reading actively, critically, and purposefully, is the focus of this session. You will also learn strategies to reduce the time you spend reading. Please find related online resources here: https://subjectguides.york.ac.uk/skills/reading

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3D capture with Photogrammetry

Tuesday 17 February 2026 10am - 12pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: LFA/103 Creativity Lab (Harry Fairhurst Building, Campus West)
Open to: Everyone

Have you ever come across a detailed 3D model of a real object and wondered how it was made? In this hands-on session, you’ll discover how a series of standard photographs, combined with some software magic, can be transformed into a 3D digital model—a process known as photogrammetry.

We’ll start by photographing a university sculpture and sharing some top tips for capturing great images. Then, you’ll get a chance to process the photos yourself. Along the way, we’ll explore what to do when things don’t go quite as planned and share helpful tricks to refine and tidy up your model for viewing.

This session will show you how to digitize objects related to your work or study and demonstrate how 3D scans can captivate and engage audiences with the unique aspects of your research or interests.

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Academic posters: Designing posters in PowerPoint

Tuesday 17 February 2026 1pm - 3pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

Informative posters are a popular way to share research findings and other information at conferences and exhibitions. There are many desktop publishing applications you could use to design posters but in this session we'll demonstrate Microsoft PowerPoint: although intended for presentations, it shares many features with other publishing applications and generally has the advantage of familiarity, making it a popular and effective choice for poster design.

In this session we’ll look at the design principles behind what makes a successful poster, and how to configure PowerPoint for the creation of both large-format printed posters and virtual poster presentations. We'll look at how to plan your layout, and how to make best use of images and text in your design.

Academic Posters Practical Guide

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The Distractibles Meetup

Wednesday 18 February 2026 12.30pm - 1.30pm

Organiser: Academic Skills
Location: LFA/144 Academic Skills workshop room (Harry Fairhurst Building, Campus West)
Open to: Students/staff

Finding it hard to focus and plagued by distractions? Join The Distractibles Meetup on Wednesdays, 12.30pm to 1.30pm in the Library, LFA/144. We are a support group of staff and students with small group chat and accessibility ideas to try. Whether you're neurodivergent or just easily distracted, our peer-support group might be just the thing for you. The Distractibles

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Confidence to Speak and Listen (COSAL)

Wednesday 18 February 2026 1.30pm - 3pm

Organiser: Academic Skills
Location: LFA/144 Academic Skills workshop room (Harry Fairhurst Building, Campus West)
Open to: Everyone

Confidence to Speak and Listen workshops are open to all. They give you the chance to get to know others from different disciplines and to practise communicating. Each time we meet we engage in interactive activities involving your voice, your body and your ears! We discuss confidence from perspectives of both speaker and listener and identify communication strategies to take away and apply in different contexts. To get maximum benefit and build your confidence incrementally, we recommend coming to more than one workshop. These interactive sessions are not recorded. The content is different each time, as it is built by you on the day. Slides are not available.

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Choosing the Right Statistical Software for You

Thursday 19 February 2026 2pm - 3pm

Organiser: Academic Skills
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

This session is designed for those who are unsure which statistical software best suits their research needs. We'll provide a clear, practical comparison of SPSS, R, and Stata, covering core features, accessibility, and pros and cons of each. Whether you're just getting started or considering switching tools, this workshop will help you make an informed choice based on your skills, project type, and long-term goals. We’ll also share helpful resources for getting started with each platform.

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UG Dissertation Writing 1: Introduction and Literature Review

Friday 20 February 2026 11am - 12.30pm

Organiser: Academic Skills
Location: virtual event
Open to: Everyone

We will look at the opening section of your dissertation, introduce the main components to include, and talk about how we use literature in our dissertation. How much reading should you do? How do we find the useful information quickly and efficiently? What do we class as a reliable source? How do we incorporate our reading into our own work and acknowledge the source?

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Wrestling with your reading list: How to read online books and articles

Friday 20 February 2026 1pm - 2.30pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

Whether preparing for your seminar, revising for an exam or researching an assignment, you're likely to have to do some reading. And that means dealing with your reading list, the library catalogue, a publisher platform - or all three! If this seems daunting - don't worry, we're here to help. This session is designed to help you understand your reading list, get the most from the library catalogue and learn how to use publisher platforms to get the texts you need in the file formats you prefer.

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