Learn 2 Discern: Blended Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on Media Literacy

Overview

<p>Learn 2 Discern: Blended Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on Media Literacy,” an initiative of the Regional Public Engagement Specialist (REPS) Office within the U.S. Embassy’s Public Diplomacy Section (PDS) seeks to provide a series of four expert-facilitated courses in English language and Media Literacy, to help English-speaking Indian youth at the undergrad level improve their English language skills while training them to distinguish real and fake news. Focus will be given to both traditional and social media, as well as video.</p> <p>The program will target English-speaking undergraduate-level Indian youth in the 18-23 age group, with four facilitated MOOCs on media literacy. Each will be 4-8 weeks in duration and reach at least 180 participants. By the end of the project, participants should be able to debunk misinformation and disinformation on a variety of platforms, and the project will have built a network for the continued interaction of these young influencers.</p> <p>Participants will be drawn through a competitive process, that ensures their interest in the program theme, and balances participation across each of the US Mission to India’s five consular districts, with 36 participants in each. Selected participants will complete at least three of the four MOOCs, and maintain at least 70% attendance in the facilitated expert sessions. Courses will meet twice a week depending on the format of each of the four MOOCs.</p> <p><strong>Project Goal: The goals of this funding opportunity are to:</strong><br>Build communities’ resilience to disinformation, inoculate communities against public health misinformation, promote inclusive communities by empowering its members to recognize and reject divisive narratives and hate speech, improve young people’s ability to navigate increasingly polluted online spaces, and enable leaders to shape decisions based on facts and quality information.</p> <p><strong>Project Audiences:</strong><br>Undergraduate English-speaking Indian leaders in the age group of 18-23 years who are technologically equipped to attend the MOOCs and the facilitated sessions and are willing to commit time through the project duration. The audience selection process will be gender agnostic, religion agnostic, and social class agnostic.</p> <p><strong>Project Objectives:</strong></p> <ul> <li>Train 180 youth leaders through a series of 4 blended MOOCs to help them learn to discern real news from fake news within a period of 12 months.</li> <li>Equip Indian youth at undergrad level with the needed language and analytical skills to discern real from fake news and be a better consumer of traditional and social media news feed.</li> <li>Build a network of India-wide young influencers to explore together through formal and informal study the source and intent of misinformation and disinformation and debunk those collectively.</li> <li>Enhance the English Language skills of the Indian youth and prepare them to effectively comprehend the and identify misleading communication.</li> </ul>