DW Akademie launches open online course for journalists in Arab countries

Germany’s international broadcaster Deutsche Welle has launched its first online course – The Open Media Summit – for citizen journalists and bloggers from the Arab world.

From now until December 16, participants in the Open Media Summit (OMS) can take part in interactive online training sessions on topics such as the responsible use of online information sources, the potential of data-driven journalism and Internet censorship. The course will be conducted in Arabic with a supporting English language website. Participation in the OMS is free and it is open to any interested participants from North Africa and other Arab countries.

“Aside from on-site workshops,” says Gerda Meuer, Managing Director of DW Akademie, “the Internet – especially Facebook and Twitter – lends itself to training opportunities for bloggers and citizen journalists.” DW Akademie is testing how e-learning and social media outlets can successfully be combined for shared learning and teaching based on the massive open online course (MOOC) concept. MOOCs are a new educational format currently being widely discussed, especially in higher education circles.

“We expect the Internet activists to actively contribute to the educational progress of the participants with their input,” says Meuer, describing the idea behind the project. “Our intention is to bring together the knowledge from the region and pass it on.”

The virtual OMS campus is online at www.dw-akademie.de/oms2012