Developing online basic nutrition curriculum based on an existing face‐to‐face course

Abstract

FSHN 185: The Science of Human Nutrition is an introductory nutrition course required of many degree programs at the University of Hawaii at Manoa (UHM). An online version of this course was developed with assistance from the Digital Course Design and Consulting Group at UHM College of Education during Spring 2011. The course was first offered Fall 2011. The goals of the online course were to 1) meet the same SLOs as the face‐to‐face class, 2) offer greater flexibility for students and 3) to attract students from beyond the UHM campus. The online course content is embedded in the UHM Sakai‐based course management system, Laulima, and presented as weekly modules. All assessments are conducted within Laulima. The content utilizes Blackboard Collaborate for synchronous interactions and archived lectures. Custom animations and review activities were created with Camtasia and StudyMate, respectively. Average final course grades in the online sections were comparable to the face‐to‐face sections taught by the same instructor. Student teaching evaluations were not significantly different between the online and face‐to‐face sections. Most students in the course resided on the island of Oahu. Off campus students completed the course from locations such as Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and Alaska. Partial funding for this project was provided by the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources‐ UHM.