Learning in a digital age/LiDA104/About

Course name: Critical media literacies and associated digital skills (LiDA104)

Critical media literacies and associated digital skills (LiDA104) is one of four micro-courses for the Learning in a Digital age (LiDA) course. In this micro-course you will explore the concept of media literacy and apply this knowledge to access, analyse, evaluate and create digital media.

Course metrics

Metric	Details
Notional learning hours	40 hours
Duration	2 weeks, 10 - 15 hours per week (depending on prior knowledge in using digital and online technologies)
Assessment	20 hours
Micro credential option	Yes, digital certificate for assessed learning from Edubits
Formal credit options	Yes, 4 OERu credits towards 16 OERu transcript credits for the Learning in a Digital Age course at Otago Polytechnic Yes, complete three micro-courses and the TECEP examination for 12 OERu credits (i.e. the equivalent of 3 US credits) for the Learning in a Digital Age at Thomas Edison State University.
Course	One of four micro-courses for the Learning in a Digital Age course.
Qualification	The following articulation pathways are available: Certificate of Higher Education in Business (OERu) conferred by the University of the Highlands and Islands, Scotland, UK. Undergraduate Certificate in First Year Foundations conferred by Thomas Edison State University, USA. Some universities may accept transfer credit for this course. You should consult the respective university regulations for specified or unspecified transcript credit.
Level	1st year Bachelor Degree Level

What's it about

Learning in a Digital Age is about learning on the Internet and we recommend that any learner embarking on tertiary study in today's world should take this free course. Critical media literacies and associated digital skills is the fourth of four LiDA micro-courses, where you will develop critical media literacy skills and use multimodal communication to express outputs of learning effectively in a digital online environment.

What will I learn?

In this micro-course you will:

• Define media literacy and what it means for learning in a digital age.
• Analyse a recent press release from a critical media perspective.
• Analyse contemporary news considering how the medium and publisher influences the message.
• Apply web literacy skills for online fact-checking.
• Apply skills in using digital media for creating a multimodal presentation to support learning.

What's involved?

There are four (4) learning pathways, each containing numerous resources and learning challenges, designed to help you achieve success for networked learning in a digital age. The learning pathways are:

• Introduction to media literacy
• Mass media
• Web literacy for fact checking
• Create media

The micro-course can be completed in 40 hours, including preparation for the assessment.

What prerequisites should I have, if any?

Anyone is free to participate in this course. An internet connection and basic web browsing skills are required with the ability to create a blog and microblog account (instructions and self-study tutorials provided.)

Learners aiming to submit assessments for formal credit towards an academic qualification will need to meet the normal university admission requirements of the conferring institution (e.g. language proficiency and school leaving certificates etc.).

Each micro-course can be studied independently but may rely on some knowledge and skills gained in related micro courses which can be accessed and consulted freely online. The following table summarises prerequisite relationships.

Course	Prerequisite
LiDA101	None
LiDA102	LiDA101 (to establish personal learning environment)
LiDA103	LiDA101 (to establish personal learning environment)
LiDA104	LiDA101 (to establish personal learning environment) LiDA103 (knowledge of copyright and open licensing)