First Major Assignment (Aka Rosie Learns How to Grade)

My Communication Design Fundamental students turned in their first major assignment last week and I just now finished my grading. Grading is confusing enough when you're a TA (do you have the authority to be harsh? Are you the good cop/bad cop?) but more daunting when you're grading on your own for the first time. Am I too harsh? Is this fair? How much will they care or compare? And I too easy?

As I design student, I only cared about grades for the first semester or so- afterwards I quickly realized grades don't matter and it was more the quality of my work/portfolio and how I present myself. However, that is not the case with non-majors, especially non-majors that have not taken this sort of course before. I'm expecting some responses and some concern from students- but we'll see.

Their assignment was to visually interpret the definition of a pair of words randomly assigned to them, using only letterforms or punctuation as illustration. The words were roughly opposite verbs, such as dodge/confront or clap/hiss.

In order to combat grading arguments, I presented them with a rubric beforehand, clearly telling them what I would be looking at and grading on their final work. The five main categories were: quantity/quality of process, use of letterforms/punctuation, conveys word meaning (we focused on showing the action of the word, not the noun definition), composition (of individual and the two designs combined), and typeface selection(s). Being a product of Carnegie Mellon Design, they received a process and an overall grade. For this assignmnet I didn't include the process grade in their overall grade but they could clearly see that a lack of process in the future will really bring down an otherwise great piece.

Below are some examples from the class. Remember- this is the first design class for many of these students and the majority of them are using Illustrator (or using it more thoroughly) for the first time. Since the class only meets for 1 hour and 20 minutes twice a week and we have 18 students in the class, we didn't have time to focus on the two compositions together- so some of the examples are only one of the student's two designs.

V-Day in Qatar

Happy Valentine's Day everyone (special love to James).

Interestingly enough, I noticed a bit more Valentine's Day hoopla than I was expecting- the Hyatt Plaza mall had a huge display/shopping section with large balloons, candy displays, and the Hallmark and Giant Food store had cards, stuffed animals and candies as well. I wondered how much of the local population participated in V-Day or how much of it was for the expats. I did notice some Arab/Qatari men in the Valentine's day section and did notice how some of the V-Day cards had cheeky British humor- so perhaps it was a mix. CMU-Q's Fine Arts Club and Culture Club were even selling and delivering roses for 8QAR each ($2.20 each). I was initially surprised that they were selling roses at all, for it seemed very liberal and somewhat anti-Muslim.

Turns out my initial impression was correct. I was prepare to plunk down some dough for roses for my coworkers when I heard a rumor that one particular student (male Qatari) was completely against the Rose Sale and harassing the students organizing the sale. He argued that Valentine's Day and the Rose Sale in particular, could be seen as promoting immoral relations between unmarried individuals- it was too amorous. He made them feel like they were being 'bad' Muslims. The organizers bowed to this pressure and withdrew their support of the sale. The sale was canceled and customers received refunds.

Shortly after receiving the email that the Sale was canceled (we have a very open communication policy- students, faculty, and staff regularly send out emails to the entire school- like a recent one regarding a fitness challenge, to which the Dean and faculty began to 'reply to all' and playfully trash-talk. Another difference between here and the main Pittsburgh campus). Where was I? After hearing about the cancellation of the Rose Sale, I found this article on CNN.com, detailing how 'Saudi Arabia bans all things red ahead of Valentine's Day'. According to the article, "Every year, officials with the conservative Muslim kingdom's Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice clamp down on shops a few days before February 14, instructing them to remove red roses, red wrapping paper, gift boxes and teddy bears. On the eve of the holiday, they raid stores and seize symbols of love." It's certainly not as strict here in Qatar, but as our canceled Rose Sale suggests, religion and morality still play a huge part in daily life here.

However, it's curious to note what gets censored and what is freely distributed. I've been shopping in Carrefour Grocery store and heard songs with 'mothaf*cker','n*gga-what' & 'b*tch'. Recently Darbi and I were driving by a Burger King and heard them blaring through the children's play area a song using a host of descriptive names for female genitalia. Hmm. So it's ok to sing about these things but not ok to have suggestive material? Or do they not recognize the words for what they are- the slang goes in one ear and out the other? Considering the censorship of websites and reading material, I am surprised that the songs are not censored as well.

Ah- well. Roses aside, there is still a decent amount of chocolate floating around- both my parents and my Grandma sent me over 2 lbs of Fannie May chocolate candies and a coworker just gave me a liquor-filled chocolate truffle (shh- don't tell anyone) ;) Grammy also sent over a huge tin of gumdrops and conversation hearts, which I brought to class yesterday and my students devoured. The gumdrops may have been haram (forbidden to Muslims) due to the inclusion of gelatin (which may or may not have been made from pork) but I left that decision up to students. Many of them ate the gumdrops anyhow, but whether out of ignorance or conscious decision, I don't know.

Anyhow- Happy V-Day!

(Later: I just found this NYTimes Op-Ed by a Saudi graduate student studying in Chicago- giving more details about her experience with Saudi Arabian Valentine's Day- an enlightening read.)

Education City in the NYTimes again!

Today's NYTImes featured another article on Qatar's Education City and included extensive quotes from CMU-Q students and faculty.

CMU-Q's Dean Chuck Thorpe points out that students in this country hadn't been challenged with critical thinking questions before or were hesitant to criticize. I had also read something similar in 'Understanding Arabs' by Margaret K. Nydell prior to my arrival in Qatar. After meeting with the language and academic resource staff at our new faculty- orientation at the start of the semester, I wondered and worried how my students would respond to the critique-style classes. Would they speak up? Would they think I was being too mean? Would they criticize each other's work? How would they move beyond 'I think it's nice'? Or would I spend a lot of time talking to myself and them staring at me? 

I pleased to say it hasn't been like that at all. They challenge my response. They have responses different from each other. We focus on the work rather than the person. I stress the critiques are to improve the work and that feedback is critical to creating better work. 'Ask others. Ask your peers. Try it out. See what happens.' 

They had an assignment due today and the final revisions and process book of their work due Wednesday- I'll post the better solutions later this week. We had a quick critique before moving on to discussing categories and hierarchy and I found them animated, opinionated, critical and encouraging. They were able to critically evaluate the effectiveness of the design solutions and weren't immediately seduced by software filters and tricks. They've begun to learn to edit, to limit the number of bells and whistles they employ. And some of them have done some really great work.

I realize I've fallen into the what I previously perceived as the annoying design professor trait of giving feedback without really answering the question, 'What should I do Professor?'. I don't tell them outright what they should do; I provide insight, suggestions, and alternative ways of approaching the problem. I do offer more software assistance than I ever received in college and I've found it helpful to keep print out of Adobe Illustrator and Indesign tool menu handy. I believe design software is a tool but can also be a hindrance. Especially when one is learning the software for the first time, one tends to create designs that one knows how to execute on the computer. By offering software assistance, I can help them focus on creating a better design than fretting about how they will create what they envision. Classical design education and software skills need to go hand in hand, something that I eventually realized over my own undergrad design education. 

Carnegie Mellon Qatar featured in NYTimes

Head over to NYTimes.com and check out the article on American Universities setting up international campuses. You can also send questions to CMU-Q's Dean Chuck Thorpe. Also- note the great image of Carnegie Mellon's current 'campus' on the article's front page (the student on the left is Khalid Al Sooj, a student in my CDF class). This is the inside of the LAS building in Education City- the student lounge are the yellow-colored spaces in the image (behind the students). The stairs pictured lead up to the first level (it's not the second floor- first floors are ground floors here and second floors are first floors) where administration and faculty have their offices. 

If you were to take those stairs up, veer left and keep following it around, aiming as straight as possible for another corridor or two- you end up at my office- A121, waaay in the back and right near the women's bathroom and the border with Georgetown.

There's only 3 other CMU-Q faculty over here; Silvia, an Uruguayan who teaches English (literature) and immigration studies (and sometimes Spanish-along with her Swedish but Spanish-teaching husband Eric- they just announced they are expecting in September- congrats!); Amel, who teaches writing and is the only Qatari female professor in Education City, and Darlene, a American PhD candidate who teaches English literature as well.  Our CMU-Q outpost borders Georgetown's CIRS offices- the CIRS director Mehran (Iranian) and I share a horrible sweet tooth and often exchange sweets.

My office is a decent size and has four tiny windows (at least I can see outside). It's lit with two massive overhead lights than I often leave off and only utilize my bookshelf lights. I've finally decorated with a mix of 'Advice to Sink in Slowly' prints, a Rasterbator print of Chicago, and map of Doha circa 2002. I hope to get a large push-pin board shortly so I can tack up even more visuals. My office is also often freezing despite me stacking boxes, papers, junk on top of the numerous floor vents. I often leave a sweater and a shawl in my office for such chill attacks.

Additional images of the LAS building, such as our cafeteria where I sometimes buy a complete (huge) meal for 11 QAR ($3.02 US) are viewable at this NYTimes image gallery.