PAU ALL SET TO TIE-UP WITH US VARSITY OF ILLINOIS FOR DIGITAL LITERACY

Ludhiana, August 8, 2023: In an endeavour to promote healthy and responsible social media use among students, the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) is all set to partner with the University of Illinois, USA, in a project ‘Digital Literacy in India.’ This prestigious project will be handled by the Department of Agricultural Journalism, Languages and Culture, PAU.

Emphasizing on nurturing the 'correct use of social media' abilities among youths, the Vice-Chancellor Dr Satbir Singh Gosal said that this will be the maiden randomized evaluation of a UG student-based digital literacy programme in a developing country.

Dr Manav Indra Singh Gill, Registrar and Dr Shammi Kapoor, Dean, College of Basic Sciences and Humanities, hoped that the present study would benefit students by helping them better understand and improve their social media habits as prior research has shown that social media use is associated with worse mental health and academic outcomes among students.

Dr Sarabjeet Singh, Head of the department, stated that the project basically involves three components, namely digital citizenship, digital balance and digital wellbeing. The structure of the programme involves baseline survey, intervention of digital literacy classes and an endline survey of selected undergraduate students. In India, the project is being coordinated by JPAL South Asia, he informed.

Giving further details, Dr Singh told that as partnering institution, PAU will be among the first in India to participate in a digital literacy programme adopted from an award-winning US curriculum. All students participating in the study will get certificates of participation and a cash incentive to complete surveys by the project. This research has far-reaching policy implications not only in India but also worldwide and can be of immense help to students, he observed.