Syllabus

Schedule

Weekly Dates

Week 1: October 21 – October 27
Week 2: October 28 – November 3
Week 3: November 4 – November 10
Week 4: November 11 – November 17
Week 5: November 18 – November 24
Week 6: November 25 – December 1
Week 7: December 2 – December 8
Week 8: December 9 – December 13

Week One: Introduction to multimedia, social media, and nutrition

Weekly Learning Outcomes

• Decipher the differences between questionable and science-based articles.
• Explore modes of communication using multimedia and social media platforms.
• Analyze social media nutrition experts for best nutritional practices in reporting.

Lectures

Required Readings

• Digital and Media Opportunities for Dietary Behavior Change
• A Narrative Review of Social Media and Game-Based Nutrition Interventions Targeted at Young Adults
• Deciphering Media Stories on Diet
• Adverse outcomes associated with media exposure to contradictory nutrition messages
• Role of Media in Nutrition Communication
• The Nutrition Practitioner and Social Media
• Ethical and Legal Issues Related to Blogging and Social Media
• The effects of television and internet food advertising on parents and children

See course for additional readings.

Assignments

• Nutrition “Expert” Review

Discussions

Week Two: Commodification and commercialization of food and nutrition

Weekly Learning Outcomes

• Analyze the characteristics of commodity foods and food products.
• Analyze how commercialization is applied to food industry and expressed to the public.
• Explain the health promoting and health adverse effects of commodity food consumption.
• Analyze the ethical issues regarding commodification and commercialization of foods.

Lectures

Required Readings

• Buying Health: The costs of commercialism and an alternative philosophy
• Manufacturing Epidemics: Role of Global Producers in increase consumption of unhealthy commodities including processed foods, alcohol, and tobacco
• Pilot-scale commercialization of iron-fortified rice: Effects on anemia status
• Association of higher consumption of foods derived from subsidized commodities with adverse cardiometabolic risk among US adults
• From commodity surplus to food justice: food banks and local agriculture in the United States
• Foods as Commons or Commodity? Exploring the Links between Normative Valuations in Food Transition
• Dietitians’ Food Industry Relationships: What is Ethical and What is Not?

See course for additional readings.

Assignments

• Commodification of Food Assignment
• DUNE Agreement and Abstract

Discussions

Week Three: Policy of Food Labeling and Regulation

Weekly Learning Outcomes

Lectures

Required Readings

• History of Nutrition Labeling
  • Read Chapter 2: Pages 19-36
  • Click on “Download for Free PDF” or “Read Online” to access the document
• Dietary Supplement Regulation in the United States (2013 Taylor Wallace Ch 1)
• Dietary Supplement Label Guide
• FDA Update to Nutrition labeling
• Health Claims in the United States: An Aid to the Public or a Source of Confusion?
• Regulating Inherently Subjective Food Labeling Claims
• FTC – Dietary Supplement: An Advertising Guide for Industry
• The effects of nutrition knowledge on food label use: A review of the literature

See course for additional readings.

Assignments

• Literature Based Nutrition Claims Assignment

Discussions

Week Four: Industrial marketing and communication

Weekly Learning Outcomes

• Analyze methods and techniques the industry utilizes to capture their audience through advertisements.
• Summarize your thoughts by comparing and contrasting effective advertisements.
• Analyze research and current trends geared toward childhood and adolescent populations.
• Evaluate governmental involvement between industrial marketing and the consumer.

Lectures

Required Readings

• Food marketing to children online: A content analysis of food company websites
• Evolutions in food marketing, quantifying the impact, and policy implications
• Food marketing expenditures aimed at youth: Putting the numbers in context
• Defining commercial speech in the context of food marketing
• Bringing produce to the people: Implementing a social marketing food access intervention in rural food deserts
• New strategies to improve food marketing to children
• Associations between food marketing exposure and adolescents’ food choices and eating behaviors
• Food marketing to children and adolescents
• Recommendations for responsible food marketing to children
• Government can regulate food advertising to children because cognitive research shows that it is inherently misleading
• Applying industry practices to promote healthy foods: an exploration of positive marketing outcomes

See course for additional readings.

Assignments

• Key Assignment 1 – Nutrition Research Paper

Discussions

Week Five: Food Lobbying

Weekly Learning Outcomes

• Summarize the history of lobbying and its effects on nutrition.
• Describe the techniques used to lobby nutritional messages and achieve desired outcomes for policy.
• Interpret how the lobbying of sugary beverages and highly processed foods is currently integrated into our food system.
• Anticipate and explain what consequences may occur due to nutritional lobbying on consumer health.

Lectures

Required Readings

• 2013 Food Politics by Marion Nestle: Chapter 4 Influencing Government Food Lobbies and Lobbyists
• Lobbying Definitions by State (find your state)
• Origins, Evolution, and Structure of the Lobbying Disclosure Act
• Difference Between Lobbying and Advocacy
• Public health, nutrition, and food policy
• Creating healthy food environments through global benchmarking…
• The rise and fall of the world’s first fat tax
• The Truth about Sports Drinks
• Sponsorship of National Health Organizations by Two Major Soda Companies

See course for additional readings.

Assignments

• Food Lobbying Assignment
• Key Assignment Checkpoint: Powerpoint Slides

Discussions

Week Six: Marketing and policy of organic food systems

Weekly Learning Outcomes

• Explore the meaning of organic using today’s standards.
• Interpret how policy influences the organic food system.
• Determine the trends in organic food policy and its impact on consumers.
• Examine how the food market has responded to consumer demand.
• Assemble a short promotional video and written advertisement that captures the basic concepts of your webinar presentation.

Lectures

Required Readings

• A History of organic farming: Transitions from Sir Albert Howard’s Wat in the Soil to USDA National Organic Program
• The history of organic food regulation
• Product labeling in the market for organic food: consumer preferences and willingness-to-pay for different organic certification logos
• Individualist and collectivist consumer motivations in local organic food markets
• Decisional factors driving organic food consumption: Generation of consumer purchase intentions
• Associations of Organic Produce Consumption with Socioeconomic Status and the Local Food Environment: Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA)
• Organic food sales
• Michael Pollen Comments on the Organic Food System
• Consumer segments in organic foods market
• Are Organic Foods Safer or Healthier Than Conventional Alternatives? A Systematic Review
• Organic market overview
• Organic Marketing Report
• Social Media Marketing Strategies in the Organic Food Industry

See course for additional readings.

Assignments

• Food Policies Assignment

Discussions

Week Seven: Public Health and the Food Industry

Weekly Learning Outcomes

• Present a webinar to your specified group of classmates using Blackboard Collaborate.
• Review the presentations of your classmates and provide them with feedback, and analyze their content.
• Construct your research PointPoint slides in preparation for the live webinar
• Analyze the benefits and downfalls of ideas pertaining to food industry, sustainability, and public health.

Lectures

Required Readings

• Sustainable diets: The interaction between food industry, nutrition, health and the environment
• Conflict of Interest and the Role of the Food Industry in Nutrition Research
• Innovation in the food industry: Personalized nutrition and mass customization
• Public nutrition and the role of the food industry
• Partnerships between health organizations and the food industry risk derailing public health nutrition

See course for additional readings.

Assignments

• Key Assignment 2: Academic Webinar

Discussions

Week Eight: Multimedia, marketing, and food trends

Weekly Learning Outcomes

• Examine various food trends in popular culture and determine their impact on the public as well as your own habits related to food.
• Evaluate the presentations of your classmates using the rubric form
• Discuss your course experience and summarize your ideas in the discussion board

Lectures

Required Readings

• Food Trending and What’s Hot
• Food consumption trends and drivers
• Adapting to consumer food trends
• Trends in food consumptions: what is happening with generation X?
• New generation youth life and food consumption
• The value of unhealthy eating and the ethics of healthy eating policies
• Functional foods: Trends and development of the global market
• A Prime a day keeps the calories away: The effects of supraliminal priming on food consumption and moderating role of gender and eating
• The IFIC Foundation Food & Health Survey 2015: 10-Year Trends and Emerging Issues
• PlateMate: Crowdsourcing Nutrition Analysis from Food Photographers
• Changes in prices, sales, consumer spending, and beverage consumption one year after a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages in Berkeley California, US: A before and after study

See course for additional readings.

Assignments

• Reflection Prompt / E-Portfolio

Discussions

Student Resources

Online Student Support

Your Student Support Specialist is a resource for you. Please don't hesitate to contact them for assistance, including, but not limited to course planning, current problems or issues in a course, technology concerns, or personal emergencies.

Questions? Visit the Student Support Applied Nutrition page

UNE Libraries:

• Library Access for all students:  Your library login ID and password are the same as the ones you use to log into Blackboard/Brightspace.
• Applied Nutrition Database
• Library Tutorial: Find an article
• Library Questions: Ask a librarian or phone library staff at (207) 602-2361 or (207) 221-4330.

UNE Student Academic Success Center

The Student Academic Success Center (SASC) offers a range of services to support your academic achievement, including tutoring, writing support, test prep and studying strategies, learning style consultations, and many online resources. To make an appointment for tutoring, writing support, or a learning specialist consultation, go to une.tutortrac.com. To access our online resources, including links, guides, and video tutorials, please visit:

• UNE Student Academic Success Center

Information Technology Services (ITS)

• ITS Contact: Toll Free Help Desk 24 hours/7 days per week at 1-877-518-4673

Accommodations

Any student who would like to request, or ask any questions regarding, academic adjustments or accommodations must contact the Student Access Center at (207) 221-4438 or pcstudentaccess@une.edu. Student Access Center staff will evaluate the student's documentation and determine eligibility of accommodation(s) through the Student Access Center registration procedure.

Policies

AMA Writing Style Statement

In keeping with the requirements of the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, the American Medical Association (AMA) Manual of Style, 11th edition is the required writing format for this course and is available at both UNE libraries under the title "AMA Manual." Additional support for academic writing and AMA format is provided throughout the coursework as well as at the UNE Portal for Online Students.

Online resources: AMA Style Guide

Turnitin Originality Check and Plagiarism Detection Tool

The College of Professional Studies uses Turnitin to help deter plagiarism and to foster the proper attribution of sources. Turnitin provides comparative reports for submitted assignments that reflect similarities in other written works. This can include, but is not limited to, previously submitted assignments, internet articles, research journals, and academic databases.

Make sure to cite your sources appropriately as well as use your own words in synthesizing information from published literature. Webinars and workshops, included early in your coursework, will help guide best practices in AMA citation and academic writing.

You can learn more about Turnitin in the Turnitin Student quick start guide.

Technology Requirements

Please review the technical requirements for UNE Online Graduate Programs: Technical Requirements

Course Evaluation Policy

Course surveys are one of the most important tools that University of New England uses for evaluating the quality of your education, and for providing meaningful feedback to instructors on their teaching. In order to assure that the feedback is both comprehensive and precise, we need to receive it from each student for each course. Evaluation access is distributed via UNE email at the beginning of the last week of the course.

Attendance Policy

Online students are required to submit a graded assignment/discussion prior to Sunday evening at 11:59 pm ET of the first week of the term. If a student does not submit a posting to the graded assignment/discussion prior to Sunday evening at 11:59 pm ET, the student will be automatically dropped from the course for non-participation. Review the full attendance policy.

Late Policy

Assignments: Late assignments will be accepted up to 3 days late; however, there is a 10% grade reduction (from the total points) for the late submission. After three days the assignment will not be accepted.

Discussion posts: If the initial post is submitted late, but still within the discussion board week, there will be a 10% grade reduction from the total discussion grade (e.g., a 3 point discussion will be reduced by 0.3 points). Any posts submitted after the end of the Discussion Board week will not be graded.

Please make every effort ahead of time to contact your instructor and your student support specialist if you are not able to meet an assignment deadline. Arrangements for extenuating circumstances may be considered by faculty.

Student Handbook Online - Policies and Procedures

The policies contained within this document apply to all students in the College of Graduate and Professional Studies. It is each student's responsibility to know the contents of this handbook.

UNE Online Student Handbook

UNE Course Withdrawal

Please contact your student support specialist if you are considering dropping or withdrawing from a course. The last day to drop for 100% tuition refund is the 2nd day of the course. Financial Aid charges may still apply. Students using Financial Aid should contact the Financial Aid Office prior to withdrawing from a course.

Academic Integrity

The University of New England values academic integrity in all aspects of the educational experience. Academic dishonesty in any form undermines this standard and devalues the original contributions of others. It is the responsibility of all members of the University community to actively uphold the integrity of the academy; failure to act, for any reason, is not acceptable. For information about plagiarism and academic misconduct, please visit UNE Plagiarism Policies.

Academic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to the following:

1. Cheating, copying, or the offering or receiving of unauthorized assistance or information.
2. Fabrication or falsification of data, results, or sources for papers or reports.
3. Action which destroys or alters the work of another student.
4. Multiple submissions of the same paper or report for assignments in more than one course without permission of each instructor.
5. Plagiarism, the appropriation of records, research, materials, ideas, or the language of other persons or writers and the submission of them as one's own.

Charges of academic dishonesty will be reviewed by the Program Director. Penalties for students found responsible for violations may depend upon the seriousness and circumstances of the violation, the degree of premeditation involved, and/or the student’s previous record of violations.  Appeal of a decision may be made to the Dean whose decision will be final.  Student appeals will take place through the grievance process outlined in the student handbook.