AcampaigntopromoteThe2015-2016AUDReadingAcrossCampusProgramText:FranzKafka’sTheMetamorphosis

Preparedby:Abubaker,Ahmed;Maarouf,Nour;Zaidan,Ola;Smeir,Carmella

SchoolofBusinessAdministration

DepartmentofMarketingandMarketingCommunications

AmericanUniversityinDubai,UAE

Preparedfor

The2015-2016ShoutOutfortheHumanities

Internationalstudentcontest

Most Arabs living in the Middle East, have little to no interest in

reading. Humanities such as philosophy, arts, languages and history are not a

big part of their lives. According to Al Arabiya News, the average Western

child reads for 12,000 minutes a year, while, the Arab child reads, only, 6

minutes a year. Moreover, an American person would generally read around

11 books a year, a British person 7 books a year and an Arab person, only, a

quarter of a page a year. Evidently, there is an issue in the Arab World that

needs to be addressed.

Accordingly, the “Reading Across Campus” program developed in the

American University in Dubai was designed to help encourage students to

read and increase their interest in the humanities. One of the assignments

given to us through our marketing communication course was to develop a

campaign to promote awareness, reading, and critical analysis of the 2015-

2016 academic-year book: Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis (1915).

Objectives

The objectives of the campaign were to elevate students’ interest in reading on a wider scope than just for studying and to have the students read and analyze around 45% of “The Metamorphosis” novella during the two-hour span of the treasure hunt.

Kafka,F.,Crick,J.,&Robertson,R.(2009).TheMetamorphosisandOtherStories(pp.29-74).Oxford,UK:OxfordUniversityPress.

TreasureHuntLocations

EasyHintsWhenever students were not able to analyze the theme or

hint on a certain page, aid was given to them through the “Easy

Hints” booth. Every team got 2 free hints, which was a

keyword, to help them throughout the hunt.

TheEvent

Respectively, groups of 4 had to read 20 pages, all of which

contained a certain theme which revolved around a hint. The theme

(hint) leads them to a certain location on campus with the next clue for

them to decode. In total, the teams had 10 different hints to decipher

and return back to the starting point with all 20 pages.

ThePrizesv 4ticketstotheconcertof

thefamousentertainer,

DJHardWell

v 200DHS/$55USD

VouchertoKinokuniya

Bookstore

v 4casesofRedBull

Registration.TeamswereabletoregisterthroughourGmailaccountmetamorphosistreasurehunt@gmail.com,ourFacebookeventpage,andour2daysofregistrationswhichtookplaceaweekbeforetheevent.Eventually,about130studentsfromdifferentschoolsandmajorswereregistered.

WorkshopAn on-campus workshop was

organized to instruct the teams of the rules of our competition. The presentation was run by a faculty member who explicated 2 pages of the book to show how students could identify and decipher the relevant themes to not only appreciate the literature, but to enhance their chances of solving clues as quickly as possible.

A good number of students attended, about one or two participants of each team. As the participants read those 2 pages, they were able to identify the theme, clues, and where to find them.

PosterThe idea of the poster was inspired by Kafka’s “The

Metamorphosis” book. The theme was a shadow of a

human-sized bug reflecting the protagonist’s conflicted

thoughts. This poster was brought to life with the help of

Chama Al Malla, a student in American University in

Dubai.

Rules & Guidelines of the Event• All teams must contain 4

people

• Teams are not allowed to

separate during the hunt

• There are 10 clues and each

clue is within 2 pages (total

20 pages, 45% of the novella)

• The first team to come back to

the start point with all the

pages wins.

• There were “Treasure Police”

that volunteered to follow the

treasure hunt teams and

monitor them while also

taking photos.

Objective met or not?

UltimatelyOur2mainobjectivesweremet:

1. Togetstudentstoread45%percentofthenovellaincourseofthetreasurehunt

2. Toenhancethestudents’criticalthinkingskills

Manyteamsthatjoinedwereabletoreadapproximately

45%ofthebook,sinceeachhintwasplacedinoneoftwopages.Whatwasmoresatisfactoryandremarkablewasthefactthatthewinningteamwasabletoreadall20pagesofthenovelinapproximatelyanhour. Theentirecampaignwasasuccessandstudentsbenefitedfromtheexperience.Thishunthelpedstimulatetheirmindsandsomewereevenenthusiasticaboutreadingtheentirenoveltounderstandtheprotagonist’sstruggles.

TheWinningTeam

Muhammad Bin Amir, Mahmoud Elshakarey, Zeyad Aiyoub, and Youssef Ahmed; students from Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science and Business departments.

Theeventendeduptobeamajorsuccess:twentysixteams,one-hundredandfourstudents,representingdifferentprograms

attendedtheevent.

Beforethehuntbegan,differentteams

hadtobedistributedontovarious

locationsoncampustoavoidcheating.

Eachteamof4wasgiventhefirst2pages

ofcluestobeginreadingandanalyzing

thecontentthatwouldsendthemtothe

nextlocation.Tosupportusalongthe

way,“TreasurePolice”wereplacedto

ensurenocheatingoccurredandmonitor

theteams’progressfromonehintto

another.Mostoftheteamsroamed

franticallyfromonebuildingtoanother

searchingfortheirnexthints,withsome

referringbacktothe“easyhints”booth

forhelp.Intheend,oneteammadeitto

thefinishlinewithall20pagesanda

grandprizeintheirhands.