Bachelor Program in Business and Management

The course aims to develop skills in information literacy. Students will improve their ability to:

• set up and conduct a research project 
• enhance the methodology to search and organise information 
• evaluate and use correctly different types of sources
• manage bibliographic references in their papers

After completing this course, students should be able to:

• understand the goal(s) of their research assignment
• determine the information they need
• improve knowledge about the available types of sources
• better organise their research tasks 
• use different research tools 
• manage a bibliography
• find the information they need in the library
• develop creativity and critical sense.

Course will be delivered on Moodle. It is offered in an interactive environment with self-tests and learning examples to facilitate a better understanding of the lessons. Every student will develop a personal search project on a selected topic, to be presented and discussed.

For information: reference.bem@unito.it.

The examination will be based on: 

• a multiple choice test about theory presented in units 1-18 (30%)

• a search project presentation and discussion (70%)

Unit 1: Choose a topic. The unit will introduce the search methodology and some tools for a first overview of a topic. Learning outcome: understand how to start a research project.

Unit 2: Information characteristics. The unit will present an overview of information characteristics and issues in digital age. Learning outcome: understand the characteristics of the information world.

Unit 3: The scholarly communication. The unit will analyse specific issues related with information and communication in a scientific field. Learning outcome: understand how scientific communication is organized and disseminated.

Unit 4: The search question. The unit will help to focus on key concepts about a defined topic and to identify and express a search question. Learning outcome: understand what is a search question. 

Unit 5: Primary and secondary sources. The unit will present the difference between primary and secondary sources. Learning outcome: understand the difference between different types of sources.

Unit 6: Secondary sources: types. The unit will introduce different types of secondary sources and their use in a search paper. Learning outcome: recognize different types of bibliographical documents. 

Unit 7: Sources evaluation. The unit will improve the ability to recognize and evaluate high-quality information. Learning outcome: learn strategies to evaluate information quality. 

Unit 8: True or fake? The unit will introduce the concept of misinformation and fact checking. Learning outcome: learn strategies to verify information reliability on different media.

Unit 9: Where can I find? The unit will present institutional websites useful to search for statistics, law and economic data. Learning outcome: learn to recognize institutional information.

Unit 10: Articles search. The unit will present specific tools to search for articles. Learning outcome: understand specific issues in order to search scientific articles.

Unit 11: Analysing the literature: discovery tools. The unit will present advanced tools for bibliographic research, such as the discovery tools “Tutto” and Google Scholar. Learning outcome: improve the ability in bibliographic research.

Unit 12: Analysing the literature: databases. The unit will present databases that are useful for bibliographic research in Business & Management. Learning outcome: improve the ability in bibliographic research using databases.

Unit 13: Reuse the information. The unit will explain how to cite bibliographic references. Learning outcome: improve the awareness about copyright and help for an ethical use of information.

Unit 14: Manage the bibliography. The unit will help to organize a good bibliography. Learning outcome: learn to complete bibliographic references and to structure a bibliography.

Unit 15: Reference management software (RMS). The unit will give an overview about the RMS with an introduction to Zotero. Learning outcome: learn the existence of advanced tools to manage citations and bibliographies. 

Unit 16: Zotero/1. The unit will teach how to import and treat bibliographic references from websites and database to Zotero. Learning outcome: learn how to save and manage citations.

Unit 17: Zotero/2.  The unit will teach how to choose a citational style and how to import a bibliography from Zotero into a word processing program. Learning outcome: learn to standardize, complete and transfer a bibliography.

Unit 18: Present your thesis. The unit will give some suggestions about the organization and presentation of a paper. Learning outcome: learn to present correctly a paper.

Course slides, practical examples, suggested reading and other relevant material will be available on moodle during the course.