Academic Reading in the age of AI 

Duration: 9 weeks 
Open to all students. 

Aims and objectives 

This course helps you to read university texts more efficiently and confidently, by helping you to: 

• adjust your reading approach for different purposes 

• identify key ideas and arguments 

• interpret academic language 

• evaluate the reliability and relevance of sources 

• judge where AI tools can be useful, and where they can be misleading or academically inappropriate 

Syllabus 

Week 1 Active Reading and Strategic Control 

Week 2 Reading Gears: Matching Strategy to Purpose 

Week 3 Reading Faster without Losing Meaning 

Week 4 Reading Clues I: Paragraph Logic and Cohesion 

Week 5 Reading Clues II: Text Organisation and Academic Patterns 

Week 6 Vocabulary, Meaning, and AI Paraphrasing Risks 

Week 7 Reading in the Age of AI: Reliability, Bias, and Hallucination 

Week 8 Selecting, Screening, and Verifying Academic Sources 

Week 9  Synthesis, Academic Identity, and Ethical AI Use