Goals and Learning Outcomes

With courses that demand intensive reading and writing, Digital Cultures will reinforce competencies that are critical for all AUCA students and help strengthen skills imparted through its Core Humanities programs, FYS and SYS. Those skills include:

-- the ability to think critically and to analyze problems and issues from multiple perspectives

-- skills in communication and presentation, including the ability to form and present complex arguments and analyses in writing

-- foundational research skills, including the capacity to employ various forms of citation, compile bibliographies, assess and evaluate primary and secondary sources, and to identify materials key to a research project

-- enhanced skills in reading and writing English through continual, intensive essay assignments and engagement with complex literary and scholarly texts on digital issues in English.

-- the ability to sift through and evaluate contradictory evidence and to make arguments using citations, concrete examples, and explanations    

Digital Cultures will also impart a series of skills specific to this concentration:

-- the capacity to apply established practices in the liberal arts, including varieties of literary interpretation and analysis, to the art forms of the digital age

-- increased fluency in critically reading digital media forms such as memes, posts, podcasts, etc. together with a deep knowledge of the range of artistic reflections on these forms of digital expression

-- the capacity to frame questions that multiply rather than restrict the interpretations that might be applied to a digital text or art form

-- a basic introduction, as the concentration grows, to creating various digital forms such as memes, podcasts, blogs, etc.

-- the ability to grasp and deal with works of digital art that reflect on or embody multiple, competing perspectives

-- the capacity to use the digital means of expression that they are also being asked to critique, analyze, and interpret

-- the broader understanding of any art or technology that comes from combining study with practice

-- an increased awareness of the problems and possibilities of digital technology and of ethical issues, like surveillance and privacy, that are tied to technologies such as artificial intelligence, “smart” cities, and facial recognition programs

-- the ability to read digital advertisements for their political, cultural, and social biases and to identify deliberate or unintended manipulations

-- the capacity to navigate the distinct challenges involved in sifting through fluid forms of social media, and the shifting landscape of digital art, for evidence and citations usable in research projects and papers

-- a broad expertise in analyzing the social media platforms and proliferating technologies impacting and defining our present