Does someone know how to design a course ?

Question

I am supposed to be giving a course in Egyptian culture to a college in America . I have no experience neither in designing courses nor in Egyptian culture , although I am Egyptian . Could someone help me with some tips ?

Answer 1

If you really do have to design a course from scratch then I would suggest:

Request brochures from a few colleges who have a similar subject on their curriculum, and study how they have organized it, and how they are going to test and mark it. Choose to roughly follow the structure of a course which has the same duration - ie evening classes, every Tuesday and Thursday, for 2 hours, duration 10 weeks.

Keep them interested with photographs, old and new Egyptian music recordings, and a couple of jokes.

Don't try to include too much, and fit in a lot of consolidation.

Give them enough handouts which include the key points contained in the test so that they can swot at home.

You can only swot to a certain point. The golden rule in teaching is if you don't know the answer to a question admit it, and tell the student that you will look it up, and get back to them with the correct answer. That way you don't have to feel you need to know everything, and they won't lose confidence in you.

Good luck.

Answer 2

Think about the things you would want to know about another culture that you weren't familiar with and start writing those things down. Something that you might think of as mundane, could be very interesting to someone who hasn't been to your country. Also, I bet some of your time will be taken up with questions. You didn't mention how long the course is. Is it a one time thing or something you have to do for several days? Something else to consider would be taking pictures of places and things and talking about them: Obvious things like the pyramids, but then also, any municipal works that a city or town is proud of, colleges and universities, any digs that might be going on. Also since it is about culture, you can talk about your customs, rules of society, holidays, etc. Hope this helps.

Answer 3

1. Find a book or several books that you think apply to the course
2. Create a syllabus that divides the number of chapters by the number of classes.
3. Expand on each class based on the materials/books that you will be using. Go on-line to a university and many professors have a website with their class syllabus posted which include text books and papers. Remember to leave a day for the mid term and the study before the final!

Answer 4

Well, generally you want to have a text book. Usually there is something called a syllabus that outlines the schedule for the course, the topics to be studied, the expectations for the course. For example, how will you grade the course? Will you have papers, or all tests or both? I am sure that the college you are going to be teaching at will be glad to help you.