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By Sarah Sharaan

Sunday 25th of April 8:00 PM last edited Tuesday 27th of April 10:30 AM, Dubai

Women Empowerment Celebration Event is an annual event organised by the International Majlis of Women in the AUE under the supervision of Dr Leslie Vandeputte and Dr Karoline Molaeb. This year some of the students studying in CMMC were asked by Dr Karoline and Dr Leslie to participate in the 2021 Zoom event.

On Sunday 25th of April at 6:00 PM, I conducted a fascinating, educational and eye-opening interview with one of AUE’s most prominent and widely loved doctors, Dr Karoline Molaeb, who is one of the organisations of the Women Empowerment Celebration Event.

Dr Karoline Molaeb is one of the faculty members of the College of Education. She joined AUE Spring 2019 and started off with teaching ‘Communication and Study Skills’, now known as ‘University Life’. Currently, Dr Karoline teaches history courses and political courses. She is passionate about many causes and has made remarkable work on Statelessness in her home country Lebanon with the United Nations. She has achieved outstanding academic credentials in many different fields, including criminal law and international business.

Some of the causes she is very passionate about is women rights, women empowerment, and gender equality. The interview was intended to know more about her part in the women empowerment events she organises, with Dr Leslie Vandeputte, for the International Majlis of Women club at our university. However, it turned out to be much more interesting than that.

Dr Karoline is the head of The Sustainability Club in our university; this particular information is interesting because I did not know we have a sustainability club. For the past two years, Dr Karoline and Dr Leslie have joined forces to create powerful women empowerment events. According to Dr Karoline, The Sustainability Club aims to provide creative solutions to tackle gender inequality. Simultaneously, The International Majlis of Women wants to empower women through notable examples from our society. So now we have two very successful and influential clubs working together to provide us with unique events despite the slight difference in objectives.

Dr Karoline believes that holding events like women empowerment celebrations helps people become more aware of the problems in our society and become more educated about the issues. She also noticed that more male students are interested in topics regarding women; during the interview, she said, “around 60% of the students in my Women and Politics course are men,” adding that when she asked them why they joined the course, they would say that they are working with women and a lot of their family members are women and want to learn more about them in a professional setting.

When I asked her what her driving force was to become a voice for the AUE students and have such immense passion about these topics, she said, “students with great potential give me a reason and the motivation”. The Women Empowerment Celebration in 2021 had many speakers and participants. When asked which was her favourite, she was happy to say that the students’ presentations were great and very educational and the presentation of Dr Mona Al Ali.

I asked Dr Karoline about the things she wants to change in our society as a woman. She talked about wanting to change the perception of women in society and how women are viewed as a child barring individuals without a need of achieving their dreams. She also said, “since the start of the feminist movement, there had been multiple waves; each of the waves had a specific goal.” She also believes that all women have the right to choose what they want to do, whether in their career or in their personal lives; it’s not acceptable for anyone to undermine a woman’s choice no matter what.

We also discussed what misconceptions about feminism she would like to change; she said, “women are not trying to replace or take the place of men”. Finally, to conclude our interview, I asked her if there is any message she’d like to send out to women and girls in our society. Dr Karoline wants all women in society not to give up on their dreams and continue fighting to achieve their goals and aspirations.

By: Malak Sherif

Dr. Oshane Santina Thorpe who is a current faculty member at AUE, was born and raised in Jamaica, US, but moved to UAE in 2018 after receiving AUEs job offer which he started it on September 02, 2018.

Before moving to UAE, he worked 7 years in China, 4 of those years in Higher Education. In both the Tianjin Foreign Studies University and the Beijing University of Technology which he misses because he likes relaxed environments, and it was accepted and required to take a mid-day nap after lunch. Therefore, they all had fold out beds in their offices.

Education was his choice of career because of how inspired he was by the passion of his own teachers. Ever since he started his teaching career, he has taught many different courses such as Public Speaking, Media Literacy, Mass Media Theory, Fundamentals of News, and many other more. He even proposed courses for the PR specialization in his first year of work at AUE.

Dr. Oshane always made sure that his students are his number one priority in his career, that is why he always tries to adapt his expectation based on the students, but he tries to never lower his teaching standard. His aim is to bring them up to the level of the class, not disadvantage those who would like to learn because of a few unmotivated students. “My proudest accomplishment surrounds private gratitude given by students at the end of a semester. That keeps me going.” His preferred teaching style is conversational, based on discussions and reasoning. He does not like to lecture. He believes that the best way for a student to learn is to arrive at the conclusion via logical reasoning and problem solving. The effect of the pandemic did not quite shake Dr. Oshane as he is very adaptable to different teaching and learning scenarios. He knew that if it is done from home then it will be quite boring, so he tries to utilize Whiteboards, Polls, YouTube, and MS Forms in his teaching to feel more connected to his students. “I am fine with whatever method of instruction will guarantee safety. But I do miss the personal touch of teaching and interacting with my students.”

Moreover, knowing professor Oshane personally you would know that he is a family man. From staying at home to cook instead of his wife for the kids to having his greatest inspiration be no one other than his Father. He truly enjoys a good family quality time, but with this pandemic affecting us all, Dr. Oshane had a different side to it in which he said “With a baby born in March I was able to spend more time with my family. I still had to work, as in the early days of the pandemic, but I did not feel like I was working from home. I felt like I WAS LIVING AT WORK.” Which might have been the case with many of us when it was the start of a pandemic especially with the lockdown being initiated.

When Dr. Oshane is not in the academic environment he is usually doing one of the following: Business developments, exercising, walking trails or swimming, and as much as he is successful in all of that it didn’t change the fact that when he was asked what would he want to change in his life he mentioned this “I would probably change my major and focus on something practical for my higher education, like design or film making and If I were not an academic, I would love to be a farmer. It is something I hope to achieve in my lifetime.”

By: Lana Musa

Students become more aware of the complexity of representations they encounter in the media and gain a multifaceted understanding of their fabrication. Media literacy allows people to question the motivations of any form of media communication.

Doctor Walaa Fouda faculty member from CMMC teaching Editing for the Mass Media in the AUE stated that the media literacy development influenced the CMMC curriculum improvement plan that the curriculum committee are working on currently as the new courses will contain a big amount of practical and applied parts along with the theory. And that the perceptions of all the faculty in CMMC regarding the students’ media skills and understanding is linked to practical practice and the skills of analysis and critical and creative thinking, and all the professors work to support this in the various courses.

In the past decades, Media literacy has brought major changes, primarily in the way we understand development in all aspects and minimizing technological restrictions in their use and confirm that control over media depends on the type of media and the social context they operate. It is about a process, which has fundamentally changed all aspects of life and thus influenced modern education. “Media literacy education is intended to promote awareness of media influence and create an active stance towards both consuming and creating media. It is developed during the last two decades after the spread of social media and the interactive media in general. Our role here as media educators is to provide the suitable tools to help the students develop receptive media capability and critically analyse messages, offers opportunities for learners to broaden their experience of media, and helps them develop generative media capability to increase creative skills in making their own media messages. “Doctor Walaa.

By Lana Musa

Dean of CMMC Doctor Dahlia Mahmoud sending all her love and support to all the colleagues, faculty, and staff members to who helped and supported the AUE community.
“Thank you” Goodies Bags were given to all CMMC faculty members and of course they would have gladly given to all of the CMMC students but unfortunately due to the pandemic of Covid-19 and restriction students are still not allowed to go back on campus. The gifts were given to thank the CMMC community for the efforts that they are giving especially during the pandemic of Covid-19, as it is a good motivation to keep up with everyone.

By Faisal Abdulrahman

The corporate world is fast-changing and one of the best ways to stay ahead of the race is to break away from the common courses and forge unique career paths. Engineering, humanities, computer science, social sciences, and business are some of the most popularly pursued courses around the world. However, that also means that the competition in these professions increases multifold each year.

Here we talk about the most prominent University in the UAE-American University in the Emirates which is located in Dubai. The university presents seven colleges that are offering a bachelor’s and master’s degrees that are College of Business Administration, College of Media and Mass Communications, College of Security and Global Studies, College of Computer Information Technology, College of Design, College of Law, and College of Education, With the goals that associate with the realistic abilities and basic aspirations of the students.

As AUE presents seven colleges with diverse media courses that are highly demanding nowadays in every college, the courses from the college of AUE, Mass and Media Communications are international Relations, Integrated Marketing Communication, Public Relation, and Radio and TV.

International relations, Mass media college provide the undergraduate degree program to Develops the key economic, political, the security, cultural & redevelopments of the developed world.

Integrated Marketing Communication, designed to deliver collective targeted a market statement, by instruments such as marketing, advertising, and deals advertisement. This program is providing both a regional and worldwide frame giving start enabling students’ gratitude for national and international viewpoints on many characteristics of proficient life.

Public Relations, This program prepares students with the skills to attain lucrative roles at the nation national, in international associations, in different categories such as business entrepreneurs, public relations officials, policy reviewers, market investigators, and lawyers, as well as in a teaching sector.

Radio and TV, this technical program can veer around a creative enthusiasm into an attainable career. The extensive focus of the program helps students expand their skills for working in a practical environment that is well-prepared in purpose-built offices.

This platform provides a wonderful opportunity for students to help them in deciding they’re future related to their skills, and this platform does not only teach their students at the national level but also prepares their students for an international career opportunity. The students choose Media studies courses as a Major because they want to recognize the industry of Mass media, how the field of Media includes: TV, radio, newspaper, magazine, digital media, the internet, and social media give the structure of their opinion for the community around them.

By Saif AlSuwaidi

The major consequences of the transition from physical to online learning are its impact on student’s health (both physical and mental). Also sleep habits of student’s (those who are in different time zones) are greatly affected. Matthew Walker, a sleep scientist at Google and professor at University of California explained this in detail in his research article “The sleep-deprived human brain”. Students at the American university in the Emirates are also facing the same issues.
If you are a student of AUE, who is currently taking online classes and is supposed to take online exams due to the global covid-19 pandemic than this article is for you.

Online learning calls for a greater amount of motivation and self-discipline than a classroom based one on one learning. A classroom has one or more instructor and peers, who can hold a student accountable for course-work. In contrast online courses involve setting own goals, tracking progress and meeting deadlines. One cannot learn effectively in isolation.
Effect on mental health: Online learning takes a great toll on mental health of students; virtual classes may worsen existing mental health problems while for others it may trigger new changes in mental health and mood. Many studies have shown that face to face interaction helps reduce depression and anxiety. However, for some students studying in the comfort of their home might offer feelings of safety and reassurance.
Virtual learning fatigue: Constantly looking on a screen for many hours’ triggers exhaustion and posture also matters a lot. Without facial expressions and eye contact our brain finds it difficult to interpret the information.

Schedule flexibility: For some students online learning offers flexibility as they can study at any time wearing and doing whatever they are comfortable in. Also many schools/ universities have proper schedule like on campus classes so they cannot experience such flexibility. Although there are some benefits of online learning there are more drawbacks. Negative effects overpower the positive aspects.
Wishing the students of AUE (American university in the Emirates) all the best and good luck for their online exams and classes.

By Toga Tahir

After a long semester filled with productivity and hard work, Dr. Wala Fouda’s students are getting ready to take over the blog of College of Media and Mass Communication by a storm.

As the students have been intensively learning as well as conducting many editorial tasks in their Editing for Mass Media course, their final project of the course is to develop, conduct, and write vibrant stories that vary from feature stories and news stories to exclusive interviews with some of the college’s most accomplished faculty as well as students, where the best stories out of the class will have the chance to be published on the blog of CMMC.

CMMCThe 400-level course Editing for Mass Media is set to be a practical and collaborative course that relies on the students’ creativity in developing critical skills related to media writing and editing. The constructor of the course, Dr. Walaa Fouda, Assistant Professor, College of Media and Mass Communication is the person behind mentoring and guiding the students towards high and professional performance in all parts of the course. Her teaching styles revolve around categorizing all the aspects and types of mass media production then gradually relating them to different theories and skills of mass media editing. Thus, students get to develop all the skills to learn how to produce, edit and write various types of media. For instance, in one of the selected classes of the course, students get to dig deep into the work and role of newsrooms in news agencies, in which they are one of the main pillars of media professionals’ work. In addition, other than the numerous writing classes that the students have to attend and participate in as they show the progress of their writings, the course also tends to provide holistic coverage of the work of mass media, where different aspects of mass media work are taught, such as the way of conducting ethically based interviews with subjects, witnesses, and sources.

As we reach the final chapters of this spring semester of 2021, the students of Dr. Walaa are working towards implementing all that dense knowledge collected from their classes throughout the semester and putting it out into action on the blog. The takeover of the students is put out to introduce them to the experiences of the real world of editing for the mass media, where deadlines have to be met, stories have to be hunted for, and data collection of stories have to be made to publish professional stories. Stay tuned for all the exciting stories that will be published on the CMMC blog.

By Toga Tahir

More than 115 projects were submitted to the AUE Student Research Competition that took place on the 11th of April, showcasing the versatile and authentic efforts of many academically accomplished students.

The 4th Annual Aue Student Research Competition was held over two days on the 11th and 12th of April and is established to encourage undergraduate and graduate students to compete with their conducted projects honestly and interactively, all of which to achieve a collective community of advocating for building accomplished futures of students. The competition holds the message of promoting scientific research to students while aiming at fostering life-long learnings such as future employability skills, entrepreneurial mindsets, and attitudes pertinent to education, innovation, and research. Whereas the theme of the competition was “Transitioning into a Future Generation”, which is in alignment with Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid’s announcement on launching the UAE Centennial 2071 project “to prepare the nation for future generations”.

As the competition was held virtually on Zoom to ensure the safety of the competitors along with the faculty and committee, the course of the competition excelled in its assembly and organization. In addition, this year’s AUESRC was open to graduate and undergraduate students enrolled in universities in the UAE and GCC, making the competition have a regional reach, where the deadline of submissions was set on the 23rd of March, having a variety of eligible projects for submitting, from theses and dissertations to capstone projects and fellowship projects, and many other. Later on, the projects were evaluated along with the allocation of monetary prizes for the top three winners.

One of our students from CMMC was one of the competitors, Toka Mohammed, a 22-year-old Egyptian student with a major in Radio and Tv. Toka presented her project, GOFIT Advertisement/ APP Market Research that was about color theory and how it is used in advertisements to influence audience preferences and choices. “ I didn’t know that a student in a field of Media and Mass Communication and especially Radio and Tv can be involved in like a research competition in general,” says Toka as we discuss her experience in competing, where she later shares that AUESRC is the first academic competition she had participated in. Toka was initially introduced to the competition through Dr. Walaa Fouda, Assistant Professor, College of Media and Mass Communication where she previously taught her many courses, and coincidentally her project was conducted for one of those classes. As she shares her gratitude towards Dr. Walaa putting forward her project in the competition, Toka says “I actually thought that it’s either I am going to stand out or to be left out” where she explains the misconception she had of research competitions being mainly focused on business and science issues. However, later she realized the broad scope of research and its implementation in various fields, all of which resulted from her participation in AUESRC that made her gain a one-of-a-kind experience filled with support, inspiration, and encouragement from faculty members, even though she did not get any awards, she adds “ the support, the organizers, and the whole experience was an award to me”.

“One of our future aspirations of the competition is for it to reach an international level of participation,” says Professor Marwan Al-Akaidi, Vice President for Research, and Chair of the AUESRC. As it shows, the competition has reached outstanding levels of achievements, its next goal is to go to the international level, where initially it first started with only AUE students then opened up to all UAE universities, and currently, it is taking in submissions form UAE and GCC students. As the competition embodies its aims and goals, all students from different stages of academic studies should hurry and join the upcoming AUESRC because of the many advantages and benefits gained from participating. “It is an achievement for a student to participate in a competition and get shortlisted for presenting because it is a contribution to the community of the UAE,” says Prof Al- Akaidi as he highlights the students’ gains from participating. Thus, students from all across the region, prepare your projects for the upcoming 5th annual AUESRC so you don’t miss the opportunity of sharing your hard work as well as gaining an unforgettable experience with an academically focused community where you might also leave with a prize of 5,000 AED.

By Hamad Ahli

The American University in the Emirates (AUE) is committed to being one of the top higher academic institutions in the region and domestically, by providing a seamless route for students to become inventive, efficient, and productive members of the society. AUE as we know is among the Emirates’ fastest growing educational institutions. They also have several colleges in different areas like (COBA), (CCIT), (CDES), (CEDU), (CLAW), (CMMC), and (CSGC).

The AUE provides undergraduate as well as graduate academic programs. In relation to these, the university provides language lessons for the IELTS, TOEFL, ELI, and some other business-related professional training courses.

The AUE also organizes events for their students because It’s no mystery that educators enjoy spending their spare time trying to learn, having a good time, interacting, and so on, because student life should be filled with happiness and joy. Everybody enjoys organizing events at university. AUE university tries to diversify how the students’ time is spent in the university by organizing various kinds of events, both entertaining and educational. Various scientific conferences are periodically held at universities and other institutions of higher education.

Most recently held 4th Annual AUE International Student Research Conference. The AUE most important thing that they are connecting to the Combat Corona program. A program initiated and managed by OSL. As the world comes together during COVID-19, the American University in the Emirate’s Office of Student Life & Community Engagement (OSL) seeks to maintain its mission during this life-changing crisis. Connecting to Combat corona is virtual student engagement. Throughout the month of Ramadan, OSL hosted a variety of C3 webinars that incorporated a mix of the arts, wellbeing, and practical knowledge.

One of the things that make American university in the Emirates different from other universities in the United Arab Emirates, is our belief that critical reading, thinking and writing skills will be crucial to the future of our students, and the future of the United Arab Emirates.

In line with this, one of our Research Strategic Goals is to offer research and to encourage an entrepreneurial culture among AUE graduate and undergraduate students.

Students around the globe wish to go back to campus for physical learning as Covid-19 resulted in closure of educational institutes all over the world. Most students are sick of e-learning.

After classroom learning was replaced by online lessons, students are desperate to return to universities/ schools to reunite with their dearly missed teachers and friends. Some told us that they are even thinking about people they were not very close with, or they never thought they would miss. Here are some endearing and heartfelt confessions from a few students at American university in the Emirates whom we interviewed.

“I miss my friends so much. They were like a chosen family for me. I miss sitting with them in the cafeteria during free time, there were times when I found them a bit annoying but now I realize how important those random gossip sessions were and of course I miss the college events and all the fun we used to have”.

-Sara Hussein (Student at AUE)

“At first, I really didn’t think I would miss anyone in particular because being an introvert I enjoy my alone time. But overtime I realized how much I miss my teachers and friends especially my literature teacher who I thought was just too strict back in the days. But surprisingly I miss His class so much and all the stories he told us”.

-Fahad al Rashid (student at AUE)

After interviewing a number of students we came to know that most students definitely want to go back to campus soon and do not want to continue the online studies.