What were the learning goals for this course?
By the end of the course it is expected that the student will be able to:
• recognize and to evaluate the main types of archaeological evidence for the period;
• locate major areas of Egypt and Nubia on a map;
• identify social, cultural, material and visual developments in Egypt and Nubia during this period;
• recognize and critically evaluate current theoretical and historical approaches to and interpretations of the period; and
• organize material and to articulate arguments effectively in writing assessed essays.
• Additional outcomes: The course also aims to encourage the development of oral communication skills, visual identification skills, team-working and problem-solving in group seminars. Students will have the opportunity for self-study through an extended project.
How did the hybrid format lend itself to the design of this class?
This was a new course that I specifically designed from the ground up in hybrid format. My intention was to teach the archaeology of ancient Egypt in an interactive way that would take advantage of the many museum resources that we have available to us in New York City. I also wanted to engage our students in helping to provide source material to their counterparts in Sudan. Due to political circumstances Sudanese students are cut off from the many library and proprietary resources that are available to most western students. In order to make these two challenges meaningful, I engaged the students in scaffolded assignments: their assignments built upon one another and also became resources that would be used by a wide range of students, academics and the public. During online portions of the class students visited local museums (e.g. the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World). They also worked with images that I collected from professional archaeologists and ethnographers for them to add to a Flickr site (the Nubian Image Archive (NIA): https://www.flickr.com/photos/132357696@N07/albums). They were asked to write content about these images, group them thematically, and reflect upon them (see course artifact attached). This work was supported by blog posts on the class Blackboardsite as well as feedback from me following the completion of each stage of work.
What did you learn from teaching this course?
I learned how to break down assignments, known as scaffolding, into small assignments. This enabled me to provide students with useful formative feedback for the throughout the term.
Initially some students did not understand the connections between this project and the overall course objectives. Since I had students write their thoughts in discussion threads on Blackboard I was able to correct this issue in my communication to them.
Can you describe the artifact?
This term-long project was intended to scaffold student learning by building one skill upon the other and resulting in a significant final output. My hope was that students would gain competence and confidence as they progressed through the scaffolded assignments. The culminating result was a resource that could be used by students, teachers, professionals and the public.
Assignment link
View the Flickr photo gallery here.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Dr. Boozer is an Associate Professor of Roman Mediterranean Archaeology and Ancient History at Baruch College, CUNY. She has excavated across the Mediterranean and currently directs the CUNY excavations at Amheida (Roman Trimithis) in the Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt and the Meroe Archival Project (MAP) in Sudan. Dr. Boozer has published on topics ranging from ancient empires to everyday life.
External link to Dr. Boozer’s departmental page
External link to Dr. Boozer’s Academia.edu page
External link to the Amheida Project Page
External link to the Meroe Archival Project Page