AJMI - Doha

The Al Jazeera Media Institute's e-learning platform celebrated the graduation of its first cohort from the Digital Media Diploma, Sunday, 16^th February, 2025.

The institute's director, Eman Al Amri, opened the ceremony by thanking the trainees for their commitment throughout the six-month diploma programme. She also acknowledged the trainers' efforts, who generously shared their expertise and experience, playing a crucial role in the diploma's success.

She emphasised that graduating from the diploma is not the end of the journey, but rather the beginning, praising the graduation projects completed by the trainees. She described them as bearing a professional hallmark, indicative of a future elite of journalists.

The manager of media initiatives, Montaser Marai, confirmed that the Digital Media Diploma has proven the value of journalism in the presence of journalists and trainees seeking to focus on humanitarian issues in the Arab world.

He highlighted that the valuable discussions raised in the diploma were inspiring and featured in the weekly editorial meetings of the media initiatives team.

Bilal Btaebid, the e-learning officer at Al Jazeera Media Institute, explained that this diploma is the first launched by the institute using a blended learning system (combining self-learning and direct training). He said, "What the trainees produced in terms of inspiring digital stories and impactful podcast episodes has proven the effectiveness of distance learning and the tangible impact it can achieve, despite the challenges associated with the lack of direct contact between trainees and trainers."

The trainees expressed their gratitude to the Al Jazeera Media Institute for organising such an educational programme, stressing the value of the activities, which were beneficial to them in their professional careers, despite their intensity and the seriousness of the assessment process.

The diploma achieved an 82.5% success rate, with trainee Mahmoud Lafi achieving first place with an overall average of 94.29%.

The learning journey in the diploma included more than 350 training hours, divided into various educational activities: 20 hours of self-learning, more than 150 hours in live meetings, and 180 hours dedicated to discussion forums.

These activities also included the completion of 18 assignments by each trainee and passing 180 impact measurement tests.

Over the nine educational modules and graduation projects, trainees produced 31 mobile journalism stories, 26 podcast/vodcast episodes, 30 data-driven stories, and 30 multimedia stories.