Press Release
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Communications & Public Relations
EFFAT UNIVERSITY FACULTY MEMBERS MAKE GLOBAL COURSE CONNECTIONS Transnational Course Pairings: Cultural Handshakes to Enrich Learning
Two Effat University faculty members will explore a new way to enhance their classes by connecting with a companion class in another nation this year. Rania Ibrahim, Dean for Student Affairs, and Mohammad Khan, Department of Marketing, will be part of an international course sharing project called Global Course Connections (GCC). This pilot project is designed to enrich each connected course with an international perspective through direct exchange between students and faculty members on two campuses in two countries as they jointly progress through similar curricular components of the connected courses.
Rania Ibrahim will be linking her course, Arabic as a Second Language in the fall 2012 term, with Introduction to Arabic as a Foreign Language, a class being taught at Hope College in Holland, Michigan. The two classes will use the same text, which will make it possible to synchronize units as they move through the material, and they will both use Blackboard as a medium of exchange. For both faculty members, the goal is to teach their students to read and to create in Arabic. They plan to share a unit on food, including recipes from different cultures. The classes will work together in groups on a final project at the end of the semester. An ideal outcome would be for the students on the two campuses to come to know one another through Arabic.
Mohammad Khan will also be linking a course, Intercultural Communications, with a course by the same name at Hope College. Mohammad and his faculty partner plan that the courses will include small group interactive exercises in which Effat students will be paired with Hope students to
complete intercultural communication exercises. The academic calendars of the two institutions are well aligned, which allows the two instructors to convene collaborative classes for eight weeks using Skype. One of the challenges of using synchronous communication is the eight hour time difference between Effat and Hope.
The Global Course Connections Project (GCC) is one of several initiatives of the Global Liberal Arts Alliance, a multinational higher education alliance coordinated by the Great Lakes Colleges Association (GLCA) in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Effat University is one of the founding member
institutions of the Global Liberal Arts Alliance. Rania Ibrahim and Mohammad Khan represented Effat University at a meeting of the Global Liberal Arts Alliance in Athens, Greece this June where the faculty members worked closely with their faculty partners on planning the upcoming shared class.
The twelve connected courses offered during the 2012-13 academic year are:
Terrorists and Treehuggers at Albion College (Albion, Michigan) and The American University in Beirut (Beirut, Lebanon)
Arabic as a Second Language at Effat University (Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) and Introduction to Arabic as a Foreign Language at Hope College (Holland, Michigan)
Monetary Theory at Denison University (Granville, Ohio) and Franklin College (Lugano, Switzerland) Organizational Behavior at The American University in Bulgaria (Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria) and Earlham College (Richmond, Indiana)
Intercultural Communications at Hope College (Holland, Michigan) and Effat University (Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia)
Zionism and Modern Judaism at The American University in Cairo (New Cairo, Egypt) and Arab Israeli Conflict at Allegheny College (Meadville, Pennsylvania)
Global Literature at Hope College (Holland, Michigan) and Children’s Literature at The American University of Beirut (Beirut, Lebanon)
Press Release
2
Communications & Public Relations
International Trade at The American College of Greece (Athens, Greece) and International Management at Albion College (Albion, Michigan)
International Political Economy at Kalamazoo College (Kalamazoo, Michigan) and International Trade The American College of Greece (Athens, Greece)
Food and Agriculture at Al Akhawayn Univesity in Ifrane (Ifrane, Morocco) and Soils to Table at Allegheny College (Meadville, Pennsylvania)
Mirror on Modernity: Growing Up Amish in the 21st Century at The College of Wooster (Wooster, Ohio) and American Culture at Al Akhawayn Univesity in Ifrane (Ifrane, Morocco)
Race and Ethnicity at The American University in Bulgaria (Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria) and Denison
For more information, please contact Communication and Public Relations Department Phone +966263643000 ext 1530, 1531
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