Machakos University Students participate in Virtual Exchange Course
Twenty two (22) Machakos University students completed Cycle 1 of a seven-week virtual exchange course in the scope of the Erasmus+ project DigiTREE – “Enriching youth digital, media, and soft skills using virtual mobility experiences in Sub-Saharan Africa and the European Union. The students were awarded certificates on Thursday 9th September 2025, as Cycle 2 of the project commenced with forty (40) students on board in a ceremony presided over by the Project Team leader, Prof. Stanley Makindi.
The Project is funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union. The Project is coordinated by Riga Technical University (Latvia). Other Partner Institutions include; Machakos University, Cyprus University of Technology (Cyprus), Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (Lithuania), University of Botswana (Botswana), and University of Lusaka (Zambia). The facilitators from Machakos University include; Prof. Stanley Makindi, Prof. Richard Kimiti, Prof. Peter Koech, Prof. David Mulwa and Dr. John Musau.
The DigiTREE project creates cross-cultural pathways for youth in the EU and countries of Sub-Saharan Africa for virtual exchanges geared towards media literacy, critical thinking skills, and soft skill development. Through participation in online modules, teams of students learn how to recognize rhetorical strategies used in online communication to persuade audiences. They analyse their own everyday social and digital media use through collaborative group activities led by expert facilitators and learn to recognize and resist misleading or inaccurate information while practicing effective communication strategies to work together in multi-national teams.
Completed modules include; Introduction to virtual exchange, Critical consuming of media content, Digital games for misinformation, Fact-checking, Creating media literacy awareness campaigns, and Presentations and reflection. The collaborative activities in DigiTREE fosters mutual understanding, cultural sensitivity, and soft skill development, which will increase participant employability and open doors for participants to explore new cultures beyond the scope of the project by connecting with people from across the globe.
DigiTREE fosters active citizenship by giving participants the tools to create meaningful awareness campaigns through a variety of digital tools through the use of communication strategies learned during the course of the project.
