Foodservice Management Formulas Made Easy: A Self-Instructional Individualized Unit for Undergraduate Dietetic Students

Abstract

LEARNING OUTCOME: Participants will become familiar with a self-instructional individualized unit of foodservice management problem sets, the benefits and problems associated with self-instruction and how to adopt this method of teaching to ones own setting. This presentation will provide an overview of a self-instructional unit for review and practice of foodservice management mathematical formulas developed for use in an undergraduate dietetics foodservice management course. The unit provides basic math remediation and sample calculations with increasing difficulty for calculating food cost percentages, selling prices, recipe adjustments, edible-portion amounts, and as-purchased portion amounts. Each student receives an individualized packet containing self-instructional materials and problem sets. The problem sets are generated using a software program, Computer-Assisted Personalized-Approach (CAPA), which provides unique problem sets for each student. This method of presenting foodservice management mathematical formulas, and the skills necessary to properly calculate such formulas, has been overwhelmingly accepted by students in a large undergraduate foodservice management course. Students work independently or with peers to complete the problem sets and immediately know through the computer program if their answer is correct or not. The correct answer to each problem differs for each student. It is anticipated that student competency will increase with self-instructional learning opportunities. Using this self-instructional unit reduces the time that an instructor must spend on simple math skills and problem calculations, thus allowing more time for other classroom activities. This presentation will also provide ideas about the use of this approach in other areas of dietetics education.