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One of the 3,168 students who attended the course on "Disinformation and fact-checking in times of COVID-19 in Latin America and the Caribbean”, said:

" First and foremost, I am grateful for the opportunity to attend this course because the subject matter is more relevant than ever. Training in issues such as fact-checking is relatively uncommon in my country. "

The initiative—which was a free massive open online course, —was delivered in four weeks in three different languages: Spanish, Portuguese, and Guarani. It was the first time a course such as this offered in Guarani. The MOOC achieved its objective of making tools and resources available to journalists, communicators, content creators, among other stakeholders involved in the fight against disinformation, especially that related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The course also featured renowned fact-checking experts and organizations in the region and addressed lessons learned and best practices.

It was delivered by Cristina Tardáguila, of the . This multilingual experience promoted a robust learning community where thousands of participants from around the world were able to discuss the best practices to check news and information and identify disinformation during the pandemic. In addition, learners gained knowledge and shared ideas, resources, and practical tips to implement in their work and newsrooms in the future. These resources will now be available to everyone around the world.

There were four core modules. First, an introduction to fact-checking included interviews with two of the leading fact-checkers from Latin America and the Caribbean: Pablo Uribe, director of Colombiacheck, and Natália Leal, content director of Agência Lupa, the Brazilian fact-checking agency founded by Tardáguila. Participants also explored how to set up a fact-checking unit, focusing on creating in-house methodologies, being transparent with funding, adopting suitable corrections policy, and confronting bias.

A chapter was devoted to pandemic management addressing real-life cases, where attendees learned about the tools used by fact-checkers to detect and debunk viral hoaxes, including , , , and . Finally, students were provided with a breakdown of what is being done in different countries to stop or reduce the spread of disinformation: from the laws being enforced in Asia that could inspire politicians in Latin America to the European investment in education.

Another student pointed out,

"It was an excellent course, and we had an amazing trainer! The sessions were very clear, and we learned a lot. I am looking forward to the next one!"

For more information please contact:

Sandra Sharman s.sharman@unesco.org