This year, DW Akademie is celebrating its 50th anniversary. It’s an institution that has grown immensely since that first training program for radio technicians in Rwanda. It has steadily expanded its work promoting press freedom, freedom of expression and media development. But the game has changed over the past five decades. Information can now reach every corner of the world, which is why media development has taken center stage in development policy. DW Akademiie is meeting these challenges with an innovative and interdisciplinary approach. They work on political frameworks in consultation with government authorities and NGOs, for example, and advise journalists and the media on developing new business models to assure their financial independence. Today, DW Akademie works in 50 countries around the world, with sustainably designed programs and clearly defined aims.

DW Akademie is testing an innovative new training format for bloggers and journalists in North Africa based on the MOOC concept (massive open online course). The Open Media Summit (OMS) is an interactive online course combining e-learning and social media, which is an open-access, interactive, online platform where educational resources are distributed through live streaming, discussion forums and other online resources. The course is free and open to everyone. The only prerequisites are English and Arabic language skills and a computer or laptop with an Internet connection.

More than 300 citizen journalists from North Africa are testing the new learning format, which offers a virtual campus. Participants can meet in online classrooms, access training resources and take part in live stream sessions. The website shows how many people are online and the countries they’re from. This is part of the concept behind open exchange and interactive learning.

Upcoming topics on the course agenda include dealing responsibly with online sources, data-driven journalism and Internet censorship. A total of six live video sessions will feature guest experts from North Africa. The course is open to all those interested, and newcomers are welcome.

DW Akademie instructors flew to New Delhi, bringing cutting-edge teaching methodologies with them. IGNOU participants included teachers and researchers, media trainers and project managers.

The goal of the training was for the participants to communicate more effectively in their own teaching. DW previously put on three similar sessions, while IGNOU broadcast DW programming over campus radio stations.

With 3.5 million distance learning students, IGNOU is the world’s biggest university. In keeping with its special charge to provide education for disadvantage parts of Indian society, “The People’s University” offers basic and general education as well as professional training.

In India, DW is working with the Robert Bosch Foundation to train Indian journalists about reporting in Germany. DW Akademie will host a select group of Indian journalists in Germany from September 10 to October 26, 2012 and provide them with comprehensive coverage of Germany and valuable  knowledge for reporting on Indian-German issues.  Journalists selected for the program will receive intercultural and journalistic training, as well as insight into Deutsche Welle’s  editorial teams.

Hannibal TV is one of the largest private stations in the country and has been broadcasting the Arabic version of DW’s Journal since May 1. The station will also be showing the talkshow Quadriga and In Focus – a series of documentaries.

The public broadcaster Télévision Tunisienne also agreed to broadcast DW programming, including the Arabic versions of Quadriga and In Focus, as well as the magazines Tomorrow Today and euromaxx.

In addition, DW-AKADEMIE was included in the partnership agreement and will work with the new partners to help provide journalistic training.