On November 26, professors of the Social Communications Department of Mariupol State University took part in an online coordination meeting on the development of educational courses on media literacy.

The event, organized within the framework of the International Project Erasmus+ DESTIN "Journalistic education for democracy in Ukraine: development of standards, chastity, and professionalism", brought together representatives of ten Ukrainian higher education institutions and the National Erasmus+ office in Ukraine, as well as European partners who are the project coordinators.

The participants agreed on a joint action plan aimed at creating a single platform that will contain about 20 separate courses on media literacy in the field of Journalism, Media and communications for non-professional target audience. During the meeting, the participants identified the topics of the courses, unified requirements for their methodological structure, and developed the procedure for testing and editing materials in preparation for the launch of the program.

An important factor in implementing the goals of the DESTIN project is to attract students of the updated master's program "Media Communications and Public Relations" to create educational courses that will help to improve the quality of preparing of specialists. The first year students of the updated Bachelor's program "Journalism and Social Communication" will not be left outside either. They will become the first users of the newly created courses.     

The Head of the Department, Professor Tetiana Ivanova and Associate Professor Iryna Vialkova will work on the development of online courses from the Social Communications Department of Mariupol State University under the guidance of the Dean of the Philology and Mass Communications Department of Mariupol State University, professor Svitlana Bezchotnikova.

The presentation of the pilot projects is scheduled for February 2021, and in May, free access to the ready-made platform will be opened for everyone who wants to improve their own level of media literacy and get the appropriate certificate.

The creation of a joint online resource for a long period will provide opportunities for cooperation of the Social Communications Department of Mariupol University with both Ukrainian universities and European partners for a long period. The media literacy platform will operate for at least three years after the completion of the international project Erasmus+ DESTIN "journalistic education for democracy in Ukraine: development of standards, chastity, and professionalism".