Arab Culture and Civilization was designed to help the world learn more about the Arab world. Originally sponsored by the National Institute for Technology and Liberal Education (NITLE), it lost funding in 2007. Since then, the content of the site has not been updated. However, the Middle East Policy Council has taken over the upkeep of the site so that it will remain online.
When the site is first accessed, the user is taken to the introduction page. The Arab Culture and Civilization banner is at the top of the page, and navigation links are on the right. The website seems to have been designed to go simply from page to page, with no jumping around. The intention seems to be that users go from the introduction page to the about page, continuously learning about each topic in more depth. This style of website is outdated, but considering the site has not been revised since 2007 is understandable, making navigation awkward at times.
Eventually, when the user arrives at the Main Menu page, they are at the core of the website: ten different modules, designed to educate one about the Arab culture. The topics chosen cover a large section of the Arab culture, and there is quite a lot to be learned. One that I spent some time with was the Family and Society module. Each one is designed to provide similar types of information – articles, videos, interviews and links to other resources. There was a large amount of information to read and see!
I was confused, however, because the layout of the module pages is vastly different from the layout of the rest of the website. There is a different banner at the top of the page (with no link to get to the main page). Navigation links are now on the left, and these navigation links are to the other modules, not the same navigation links that were offered previously. The design change is confusing, and continues to make the entire website harder to navigate.
One thing that this website is lacking is a search engine. There is so much information it would have been useful to search for specific topics directly instead of trying to find them by the module under which they may be located. There are also no help pages. Users are unsupported when it comes to learning how to use the site.
Overall, I would recommend this website to anyone interested in learning about the Arab culture, but I would warn them that the website is quite old. Navigation will continue to get harder as the rest of the Internet evolves and this website remains the same. And more research will need to be done to make sure that the information that is located is the most up-do-date available. However, the sheer quantity of information here is amazing, and it is a superb place to begin to learn more about the Arab culture and civilization.
