Key Information
About the content
Discover how to source reliable information and improve the validity, authenticity, and quality of your content with this online course from the University of Southern Queensland.
- Enhance your research skills for quality content delivery
Creating content that is based on reliable and valid sources is critical to build trust and credibility in the market.
On this four-week course, you’ll develop your information retrieval skills and learn to gather and evaluate the reliability and credibility of sources.
You’ll learn to create high-quality, factually-accurate content, whatever your brief.
- Find and evaluate reliable sources
The questionable reliability of online content means that professionals in media and communications need to be able to critically assess sources before assuming the validity of the information they’ve found.
Using a range of credibility criteria, you’ll learn how to spot fake news, and gain practical skills for sourcing reliable content.
With these skills, you’ll be able to ensure your fact-checking and sources are dependable, determine any bias, and add authenticity to your work.
- Learn the fundamentals of professional and ethical decision making
Gaining key insights into how to generate accountable, ethical content, you’ll examine the key features of ethical social media and journalism.
Using this knowledge, you’ll be able to approach content generation using ethical and professional decision making techniques that elevate the credibility of your content.
- Discover interviewing skills essentials
Interviews are a vital facet of content creation, allowing you to gather direct quotes, generate specific answers, and obtain first-hand accounts.
You’ll hone your interviewing techniques, learning how to master the fundamentals of interview success and conduct them using ethical considerations.
By the end of this course, you’ll have the skills to devise and justify a story angle, as well as the ability to collect credible background information to inform your content creation.
Prerequisite
This course is designed for anyone who works in the communications and media sectors and wants to improve their research techniques for content creation.
It would be particularly beneficial for those who work in journalism or writing, or those who support them in research roles within media and communications.
Syllabus
Syllabus
Week 1: Researching credible content
Week 2: Using reliable sources
Week 3: Ethical and professional decision making
Week 4: Interviewing skills
By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...
- Engage in critical evaluation of sources to determine their credibility
- Demonstrate awareness of the importance of sourcing high quality, credible content
- Develop skills in sourcing information from key sources
- Apply an ethical approach to a communication role
Instructors
Rebecca Te'o
I'm a journalist and academic - my background is feature writing, subbing and page design. I'm obsessed with journalism and design, and am a champion for quality work and attention to detail.
Content Designer
The University of Queensland is a public research university located primarily in Brisbane, the capital of the Australian state of Queensland. Founded in 1909 by the Queensland Parliament, UQ is one of six sandstone universities, an informal designation of the oldest university in each state.
Combining the three world rankings of the most established universities in 2023, the University of Queensland is ranked 2nd in Australia and 42nd in the world. UQ is also a founding member of edX, Australia's leading group of eight and the international research-intensive association of Pacific universities.
Platform
FutureLearn is a massive open online course (MOOC) learning platform founded in December 2012.
It is a company launched and wholly owned by The Open University in Milton Keynes, England. It is the first UK-led massive open online course learning platform, and as of March 2015 included 54 UK and international University partners and unlike similar platforms includes four non-university partners: the British Museum, the British Council, the British Library and the National Film and Television School.
