Everyone has a role in managing the infodemic, and this journey starts by understanding and identifying its key mechanisms and actors. This course is for anyone interested in understanding what an infodemic is, how it dramatically affects public health and what we can do about it now and into the future. Participants can expect to be exposed to a broad range of infodemic management skills and topics and learn the basics on how to decrease the negative impact of misinformation and disinformation on public health.
Please note: These materials were launched on 14/12/2021.
This course is also available in the following languages:
Overview: The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted everyone around the globe and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Strengthening the public health response, health systems, and global health security depends on improving management of our entire information ecosystem to get people the right health information, in the right format, from the right messenger, and at the right time to promote healthy behaviors and resilience to health misinformation. The rapid overflow of information, combined with information voids and confusing messaging, have all together created an "infodemic" that is making it hard for people to find trusted information and know what actions to take to protect their health and their communities. This confusion leads to risk-taking behaviours and is eroding social cohesion and trust in expertise, health responders, epidemic mitigation strategies and health authorities - prolonging the pandemic.
The course comprises an introduction, five modules and three skills lab covering an overview of the COVID-19 infodemic that we’re all facing, strategies and tools to navigate through it, expose tactics employed by malicious actors in the infodemic, and support friends and family with building resilience against misinformation and disinformation.
Learning objective: By the end of this course, you should be able to:
Course duration: Approximately 4 hours.
Certificates: A Record of Achievement will be available to participants who score at least 80% of the total points available in the final assessment. Participants who receive a Record of Achievement can also download an Open Badge for this course. Click here to learn how.