Why Your 2020 Resolutions Should Include ‘Metaliteracy’

ALBANY, N.Y. (Jan. 23, 2020) – Looking for an inventive resolution for 2020? Try your hand at sharpening your ‘metaliteracy’ skills by taking the free online course “Empowering Yourself in a Post-Truth World.”

A collaboration between the University at Albany and Empire State College, the massive open online course (MOOC) is designed to help learners weed through the immense volume of information available across the web to determine what’s trustworthy and what is not.

The course, launched in 2018, was recently cited by Inc. Magazine as one of 20 courses “that will make you more successful in 2020.”

Empire State College Professor of Arts and Media Thomas P. Mackey and UAlbany Distinguished Librarian Trudi Jacobson

Developed by Empire State College Professor of Arts and Media Thomas P. Mackey and UAlbany Distinguished Librarian Trudi Jacobson, ‘metaliteracy’ takes information literacy to a new level for the digital age by empowering learners to the collaborative production and sharing of dynamic information online.

Originally launched on the Open edX platform, the new hard-hitting, streamlined version noted by Inc.com became available on Coursera in September 2019.

“Approximately 400 learners from around the world have already enrolled in the course,” said Jacobson. “It is appealing to individuals of all educational levels, from those who have just graduated from high school to those with master’s or doctoral degrees. Clearly, people are searching for knowledge and strategies to help them navigate information complexities and deceptions.”

“We see evidence of a post-truth world every day so it is encouraging that we have received such a positive response to our Coursera MOOC, which provides effective strategies for building communities of trust in a truthful world,” said Mackey. “The MOOC is based on our recent book for ALA, Publishing Metaliterate Learning for the Post-Truth World, and shows how the metaliteracy framework we originated through our collaborative research is applied to address the challenges of partisan and proprietary social information environments.”

Mackey and Jacobson’s team includes Information Literacy Librarian Kelsey O’Brien and Digital Media Lecturer Thomas Palmer of UAlbany’s Department of Communication, and Alena Rodick Interim Assistant Director of Instructional Design at SUNY Empire.

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