From Hype to Help: Learn to Use AI in Your Research with Our Mini Course

Want to use AI for academic research with confidence? The HKUST Library’s “AI Tools for Academic Research” is a self-paced mini-course designed for busy students like you. Grounded in information literacy and critical thinking, it equips you with practical strategies to integrate AI tools responsibly into your research process.

Why Take This Course

This course is built for a packed academic schedule. The self-paced format is:

• Bite-Sized and Flexible: Each micro-module fits into a short break, allowing you to learn between lab runs, fieldwork, or writing sprints.
• Mobile-Friendly and On-Demand: Read, watch, and practice on your phone or tablet. Revisit modules anytime your project requires a new approach.
• Practical and Actionable: The course assumes basic GenAI knowledge and focuses on when, why, and how to use it well in real research scenarios, with tips you can implement immediately.

What You Will Learn (7 Micro-Modules)

1. Evaluating GenAI — A Practical Framework: Use a simple checklist to rapidly assess different GenAI tools.
2. Assessing GenAI Capabilities & Limitations: Understand how factors like knowledge cutoffs and context window impact AI’s performance for research.
3. Evaluate & Select GenAI Tools for Research Tasks: Learn when to use general GenAI, library databases, or specialized academic AI tools for tasks like summarizing or search.
4. Writing Effective Prompts: Master fundamental prompting techniques to maximize the quality and relevance of AI output.
5. GenAI Tools for Research Literature Search: Discover how AI can enhance your search process and the role of academically-focused tools (e.g. scite).
6. Evaluating AI Output Systematically: Implement step-by-step checks for accuracy, sources, and bias in AI-generated content.
7. Privacy, Copyright, & Citing issues with GenAI tools: Learn to protect data, respect licenses, and disclose your use of AI correctly and ethically.

Start Now

Upon completion, you will be able to select the right tools, prompt with intent, and critically validate outputs to integrate GenAI into your research responsibly.

Start the Course Now: Access “A Mini-Course: AI Tools for Academic Research”.

Help Us Improve and Co-Create the Future

This course is just the beginning. After each module, you’ll have the chance to share feedback on what worked and what could be improved. Also, we welcome you to suggest new module ideas to help build more resources. Please email us (lbref@ust.hk) your suggestions to help this resource grow.

– By Samson Choi, Library

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