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51±¾É«â€™s journalism department is involved in the development of a new European Union education project, it has been announced.

Journalism@UL is a partner in the development of a major new EU funded Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) which launched this week.

Journalism@UL subject head Dr Fergal Quinn led the UL involvement in developing the course, aimed at helping journalism students understand policy-making in Europe and utilise relevant data and sources.

UL was one of 27 partner institutes in the EU who contributed to the the €1 million project, led by the Institute of Journalism at TU Dortmund.

The UL team helped write the content of the MOOC, which was then piloted over the last 12 months by students in UL.

The interactive e-learning portal is now available free of charge to universities and the public across Europe.

Dr Quinn commented: “Recent studies have shown that a large amount of aspiring journalists lack basic knowledge about the EU, while EU spending and actions in general are too rarely picked up by the media as important topics and investigated in-depth.

"We hope our input on this project can encourage an evolution in this area. Thanks to all the staff and students here in Journalism@UL for their work on this."

EU Commissioner for Cohesion Policy and Reforms, Elisa Ferreira, praised the newly developed MOOC platform COPE as a "shining example of European cooperation" at its official launch earlier this week.

Ferreira said the future of the EU also depends on independent media, which with their critical reporting, "shed light on every corner of the European house" – and thus advance democracy in Europe.

More information about the project: .