Navigating the Student Portal
Navigating your course
Watch the tutorial below for an overview of how to navigate your course.
Useful tips
When looking for particular information within a learner resource or piece of legislation, you can also use a search function, such as Ctrl+F on your keyboard, to search for key terms.
To do this in learner resources:
- Go to the learner resource you wish to search
- Click on the red settings cog
- Click 'Print book'
- Use the Ctrl+F function to search the whole book.
Prompt words
Prompt words direct you and tell you how to go about answering a question. Here is a list of prompt words that you will come across frequently within your course assessment tasks.
Prompt | What it might mean |
Analyse | Break an issue down into its component parts, discuss them and show how they interrelate. |
Assess | Consider the value or importance of something, paying due attention to positive, negative and disputable aspects, and citing the judgements of any known authorities as well as your own. |
Compare | Identify the characteristics or qualities two or more things have in common (but probably point out their differences as well). |
Define | Make a statement as to the meaning or interpretation of something, giving sufficient detail as to allow it to be distinguished from similar things. |
Describe | Spell out the main aspects of an idea or topic or the sequence in which a series of things happened. |
Discuss | Investigate or examine by argument. Examine key points and possible interpretations, sift and debate, giving reasons for and against. Draw a conclusion. |
Evaluate | Make an appraisal of the worth of something, in the light of its apparent truth; include your personal opinion. Like 'assess'. |
Explain | Tell how things work or how they came to be the way they are, including perhaps some need to 'describe' and to 'analyse' (see above). |
Identify | Pick out what you regard as the key features of something, perhaps making clear the criteria you use. |
Interpret | Clarify something or 'explain' (see above), perhaps indicating how the thing relates to some other thing or perspective. |
Outline | Indicate the main features of a topic or sequence of events, possibly setting them within a clear structure or framework to show how they interrelate. |
State | Express the main points of an idea or topic, perhaps in the manner of 'describe' or 'enumerate' (see above). |
Summarise | 'State' (see above) the main features of an argument, omitting all superfluous detail and side issues. |