News Literacy Project: Checkology

The News Literacy Project's eLearning Course: Checkology

The News Literacy Project has been developing Checkology, an online learning tool suite, since before 2016. Unlike lesson plans (which are run by a teacher in a live or online classroom), Checkology is made up of eLearning modules that are designed for individual completion (although they can also be completed by a teacher facilitating class discussion).

The scope of Checkology lessons goes far beyond misinformation to encompass all of news literacy (journalistic standards and processes, etc.) Current events are unfortunately a reliable point of entry to misinformation, and are discussed in school and at home often with a sense of importance and urgency. This conveys the "so what" to misinformation study.

That said, students should have covered this material in English Language Arts and Social Studies, so teachers designing short-term media literacy units may choose to put balance of the news literacy material in Checkology aside for current events study at other times.

For a scan of Checkology's curriculum around misinformation, consult its one-pager Misinformation In Brief (PDF) below: