Online Media Literacy Course for Teachers — "Very Verified 2.0"

The updated course “Very Verified 2.0” is an enhanced version of the course that launched in 2019. It explains, using examples, how to navigate the surrounding information, distinguish true news from propaganda, think critically, detect bots and trolls, recognise manipulations, and be resilient to them.

 

Course participants will be able to:

 

• Navigate news effectively;
• Recognise manipulations and fake news;
• Understand how russian disinformation works during the war;
• Be more resilient to propaganda and know which Telegram channels to trust (or not);
• Teach teenagers, students, or family members how to check news, posts, and protect themselves from harmful content on social media.

 

Media literacy is not only a personal competency but a crucial skill for teachers who communicate daily with students and parents. In times of war, information hygiene must become a fundamental skill in Ukrainian education. Teachers, who work closely with children, must not only be able to distinguish true news from manipulations but also help Ukrainian students learn to critically assess what is written on social media or in the media. After successfully completing the course, all educators will receive a certificate and 0.5 ECTS credits.

 

Click here to register for the “Very Verified 2.0” course.

 

The course program includes the following key sections:

 

• Media space — about digital well-being, information overload, and fact-checking in the news stream;
• Traditional media — how the media is structured, who influences the content of the news, and why editorial policies are important;
• Social media — about algorithms, information bubbles, content, and how social networks can manipulate perception;
• Disinformation and propaganda — how information chaos works, especially during the war, and how to protect oneself from it;
• Manipulations — about headlines, emotions, pseudo-experts, fake news, and bot farms that create a distorted picture of reality;
• Established negative perceptions – where hate speech comes from, how to identify harmful rhetoric, and why correctness is important;
• Conclusion — practical advice on how to protect yourself from manipulations, disinformation, and propaganda.

 

The course was created by the international organisation IREX in cooperation with the online education studio EdEra. The teams note that during the course update, new sections were added to help better filter modern news in times of war.

 

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“Very Verified 2.0: Media Literacy Online Course” was created by the international organiіation IREX in collaboration with the online education studio EdEra in 2024. The course was developed as part of the project “Learn and Distinguish: Information Media Literacy in Education,” implemented by the International Research and Exchange Council (IREX) with the support of the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, in partnership with the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, the Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications of Ukraine, and the Academy of Ukrainian Press.