Abstract:

As the steps of innovation grow faster than ever and knowledge building keeps exponentially expanding, there is an increasing demand of Graphic Design and Animation education in today's service economy societies. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2012: "Employment of graphic designers is expected to grow 13 %, as fast as the average for all occupations from 2008 to 2018, as demand for graphic design continues to increase from advertisers and computer design firms. We believe that graphic design skills will be a key success factor for a new generation of creative leaders in technology, business, and education. This paper is intended as a guide for universities that are undertaking the task of designing an undergraduate degree program.
Program design has become increasingly complex with the decision by universities to incorporate more subject-specific degrees into their undergraduate profiles in an attempt to attract larger numbers of students each year. This paper main objective is to describe the Structure of designing the new programmer curriculum done by a group of Emirates College of Technology assistant professors, which can be used as a mind map by all stakeholders (teaching staff, students, representatives of the labor market…) involved in curriculum development. Authors were in charge to design a new bachelor degree as an extension of the ongoing diploma of graphic design and animation. This diploma has been successfully running and accredited by the CAA (Commission for Academic Accreditation) of United Arab Emirates (UAE) since 2008. The paper follows the descriptive analytical methodology of case study, the starting point was the exploration of the literature on curriculum design and the key concepts of curriculum development in UAE, then the paper will describe the scenario for performance curriculum development process, criteria, and strategies employed during the collaborative effort that led to the identification of the competencies of the new program curriculum. The first Section includes (a) the overall program learning goals and objectives and the constructive alignment with the Qualification framework of Emirates (QFE) to cover CAA recommendations. (b) While the second section, provides detailed information about the curricula, map, courses goals and outcomes. (c) Finally the program mapping of program learning out comes. QFE, courses learning out comes and assessment tool and strategies involved to demonstrate the degree of learning process had been occurred.
There are numerous issues that need consideration in the development of a successful undergraduate program. The paper resulted in the identification of the key components describing the curriculum as a whole and the constructive alignment between them, and to provide guide information about performance curriculum development process. The curriculum has been designed with the primary purpose of boosting the supply of educational services in the United Arab of Emirates in order to not only meet the rights of all Emirate citizens to obtain a higher education, but also to confront the sustainability challenges within the new market and to meet with the UAE lobar market needs.

Keywords:

Curriculum design, QFE, learning outcomes, assessment criteria, constructive alignment, program curriculum map.