How To Fact-Check

How To Fact-Check is made up of six modules, each looking at a different aspect of fact-checking, beginning with why fact-checking is so important, who requires this service, and how you can develop an effective process. You will also learn how to review AI-generated content, fact-check against numerical data, verify images and videos, and share your findings with clients. You are free to work through the content at your own pace and return to lessons as needed.

Each module is broken down into lessons and sections, so you can read a piece at a time or commit to longer study sessions, depending on your preferred learning style and other commitments. The written content is interspersed with images and examples, and quizzes and practical exercises add interactive elements.

The final module explains where and how to find fact-checking jobs, including tips on adding to your resume and building an online presence. The course ends with a final self-assessed assignment in which you follow the instructions provided to fact-check a text, using our exemplar version to review your work. Upon completing the course, you receive a digital certificate – this can be attached to your resume or online profile to show you have undertaken professional training.

Anyone who needs to check facts and verify information can benefit from this course. However, it was made with content creators (e.g., writers, journalists, and podcasters) and editors in mind.

Fact-checking is a valuable skill for anyone who creates or works with content, especially online content – from corporate PR managers to brand ambassadors (and many roles in between!). Misinformation can harm reputations, both personal and professional, but it can be easily avoided. To ensure published content is accurate and honest, all you need is an awareness of how errors come about and a sound fact-checking process. And that’s what How To Fact-Check can give you.

To take the course, you’ll need:

• A laptop or desktop computer
• Internet access

While you can view the lesson content on a tablet or mobile device, you will need a bigger screen and a keyboard to complete the exercises and final assignment. A larger screen and the ability to work across multiple internet tabs or windows will provide an easier experience when fact-checking.

On average, our fact-checking course takes around 20 hours to complete, but this varies from individual to individual.

You can start the course as soon as you make the purchase, and there are no time limits on completion. With ongoing access, the course also acts as a resource that you can refer back to as needed.

You don’t need any qualifications or experience of fact-checking, as the course gives you all the necessary background and develops your skills from the ground up.

Depending on your reasons for taking the course, you may gain more from the content if you have some experience or understanding of writing or editing. While this is not required to follow the lessons, it may provide useful context for why fact-checking is so important and why it is so often necessary.

If you would like to learn more about these topics before taking the fact-checking course, check out our courses in writing and editing:

• • Becoming A Proofreader
  • Becoming An Editor
  • Becoming A Freelance Writer
  • Becoming A Copywriter

How To Fact-Check is accredited by CPD – an independent body that assesses professional training courses. To gain CPD approval, a course must be thoroughly reviewed and meet expert guidelines for valuable professional training. This means that a CPD-accredited course is a great addition to your resume.

When you complete How To Fact-Check, you will receive a digital certificate, showing the CPD logo. This certificate can be added to your resume, portfolio, or online profile to prove your skills to potential employers or clients.

This course teaches you to fact-check different content types: written text, images, video, and audio. You’ll learn how to recognize manipulated media, spot deepfakes, and evaluate the reliability of AI-generated content.

We’ll also cover the different types of source material you may need to draw on, such as academic research, data sets, official reports, news outlets, public records, and other reliable data sources. Along the way, you’ll build the skills to identify bias, analyze complex information, and draw conclusions you can confidently stand behind.

Whether you’re editing client work, publishing social media posts, or creating original content, this course equips you to navigate vast amounts of information and ensure that accuracy always comes first.

While a lot of courses focus only on the basics of fact-checking, our course covers more complex skills, such as working with data sets and verifying images and videos, in addition to the fact-checking fundamentals.

You may want to check if the course you’re considering covers both fact-checking and verification as related skill sets and whether it includes instruction on fact-checking content generated by AI. Our course includes a step-by-step guide to fact-checking output from AI models, and it teaches you about the risks unique to AI-generated content – both written and image-based.

Some courses focus on fact-checking in relation to a specific industry, such as journalism. So it’s worth checking if the course you’re considering takes a narrow or broad approach and whether it is relevant to your industry and your needs. The skills and knowledge taught in How To Fact-Check are useful in podcasting, editing, blogging, journalism, and more. Plus the real-world examples and practical exercises help you to practice and reinforce your learning.

A great way to see if a course is for you is to try it out – which is why we offer two lessons for free!

Fact-checking and media literacy are essential skills in the digital age, especially for writers and editors. A huge amount of information is published every day, some of which is misleading or even completely false. Being aware of how this happens and having the skills to fix it are crucial in combating this kind of misinformation and the harm it can cause.

Fact-checking ensures the credibility of information, while media literacy empowers individuals to think critically about what they read online, question sources, and practice informed decision-making.

Our course will help improve your fact-checking and media literacy skills so that you can navigate all kinds of content safely and effectively. You’ll learn how to discern accurate from misleading information, making you better able to create trustworthy content and contribute to a responsible media landscape.

An editing brief may ask you to review and correct factual information in the text, so being trained and ready to perform this task broadens the range of work you can take on as an editor.

Fact-checking may be required as an extra line of defence against accidental human error, helping writers convey their meaning clearly and accurately. On more complex projects, you may need to do a deep dive into AI-generated content to remove bias, hallucinations, and misinformation, which, if missed, could seriously harm the publisher’s reputation.

Whether the content has been created by a human writer or an AI model, an editor who knows how to fact-check can elevate writing to the next level, making this a valuable skill in the eyes of clients.

We’re always happy to chat about whether our courses are right for you. Please get in touch at hello@knowadays.com, and we’ll be happy to answer your questions.

For general queries, please see our main FAQ page.