As part of the Project for Excellence, the Center of General Education and Core Curriculum will added two very practical and cultural oriented programs, namely, “Cultural Services” and “Social Services.” At the end of the programs, students will receive a certificate of completion which is meant to enhance their future employability.

Each program is made up of 8 credits, and with 12 additional credits from related courses, students will be qualified to collect a certificate. The whole design of these programs is meant to combine theory and practice in cultural and social work, so that students will possess the fundamentals for a related job market.

For these programs, the Center has arranged various internships at the Tamsui Township Government, Carrie Chang Fine Arts Center, Carrie Chang Music Hall and the Maritime Museum, according to Shieh Philip, the Director of the Center.

Shieh also mentions that, apart from designing practical oriented courses, the Center also requires some their teachers to integrate blogs and use of database to the course design (see http://blog.core.tku.edu.tw/; http://xtree.core.tku.edu.tw/) starting this semester. The Center has also assigned assistants to teachers who use blogs for classes. For example, Prof. Kao Shang-wen who teaches Chinese History and Historical Figures, inviting students to talk about their favorite historical figures on the blog, while Prof. Luo Chen-chung uses his blog to post news about society and politics for students to contribute comments in his “Constitutions and Human Rights” course. Prof. Chang Su-bing, on the other hand, incorporates TKU database to teach History of Taiwan. The database she prepared allows students to explore, for instance, the origins of some obscure Taiwanese names for places and plants.

Shieh is satisfied with the degree of students’ participation in this innovative teaching design and methodology and through them he wishes to change the usual “light weight” image of the courses offered by his Center. ( ~Ying-hsueh Hu )