Writing coursework for university often requires the student to research multiple sources of information in order to help them to produce content that satisfies course requirements.

Those sources of information can come in many forms and each source needs to be noted and then quoted in the agreed citation format that the individual’s university requires.

Keeping track of each source and correctly citing each one is a challenge for many and for many students with neurodiversity, there is a risk of a greater level of challenges due to the impact of the individual’s unique challenges related to their neurodiversity.

One doesn’t often think about issues associated with memory, time management, concentration, and organisation skills as being related to one’s experience of neurodiversity. Equally, sometimes the experience of being neurodiverse can exacerbate issues associated with mental well-being such as stress, anxiety, poor self-esteem, and confidence.

All these difficulties can affect productivity, especially when researching for that next assignment or the upcoming dissertation especially if the process of collecting and quoting information sources is complicated.

Let’s make researching sources a simple process...

In recent years, notetaking apps such as Microsoft OneNote and Evernote have been useful for storing information from multiple sources. They are great for being a single ‘repository’ for all of one’s research. It means that information is searchable and found easily in one place. These apps have been successful because they work across technology platforms such as different operating systems and hardware (smartphone, tablet, PC, etc). These apps can be used in different places and contexts and can take advantage of taking pictures of key bits of printed information using inbuilt cameras.

Whilst these apps are great for collecting and storing information, in the context of collating resources, the student, unfortunately, experiences limited abilities to search and recall information in pictures as well as not having an automated way of writing the citation for each source in the correct format. This means that there is an added step in getting a correctly formatted bibliography written within Microsoft Word which can therefore make this part of the process potentially confusing, slow, and frustrating.

What if one could collect the information sources and store them in one place as well as automatically generate citations in the correct University format?

At Aventido, we think that we have found a solution that can do the following:

• Collect and store information sources,

• Categorise sources against project titles,

• Automatically generate citations in authorised university formats,

• Can be used anywhere across technology platforms such as PC, tablets, and smartphones.

The video explains how Pro-Study works.