Overview
Pathophysiology is the study of disordered physiological processes associated with disease.
This course is an introduction to pathophysiology designed especially to meet the needs of students preparing for careers in the health professions – for example, Physician Assistant, Pharmacy, Medicine, Nursing, and Dental Hygiene.
This course focuses on the changes in cellular and systemic physiology that occur in prevalent or important medical conditions. At the cellular level we will cover the responses to tissue injury, abnormal cell growth and the immune system. From there we will investigate the physiological basis of problems associated with most of the major organ systems. In each case we will discuss the effect upon whole body homeostasis. This course will build on prior knowledge of anatomy and physiology as we explore body functions in altered health conditions. The primary teaching methods will be online audio lectures with slides, textbook reading, and online assessments, supplemented with multi-media resources including interactive tutorials and animations.
We created the UNE Online Student Portal specifically for you, to be a useful collection of information to support you as you navigate your online course(s).
From the Student Portal you can access:
The portal also features:
The Study Lounge Discussion Board is a designated support forum in which students may engage with each other and grapple with course content. Feel free to post questions, seek clarification, and support each other, but be mindful of UNE’s Academic Integrity Policy.
Your instructor will monitor this forum. However, if you are seeking specific and timely answers to questions about content-matter or your personal grades, please contact your instructor via course messages. For questions about course materials, program policy, and how to navigate and proceed through the course, please contact your Student Support Specialist through the course messaging system.
The access code you receive from Elsevier will be entered in a Blackboard prompt when you begin your first Learning Activity. You do NOT need an Evolve Course ID and will not be entering this code in Elsevier’s Evolve online learning platform.
Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to:
On the course start date, students will have access to orientation. This must be completed to be able to gain access to the first module in the course. Students must complete the first module to gain access to the next one. We recommend that students spend about 15 hours per week to complete a course in 16 weeks. When trying to complete the course in less than 16 weeks, we typically see students do this successfully within 12-14 weeks. Instructors will be timely in grading and feedback, but it will not be instant.
This course requires the following prerequisite prior to registering for the course: Successful completion of Anatomy and Physiology (200 level preferred) or equivalent with permission of the instructors.
Students are expected to log in at least three times a week for a minimum of 200 minutes for the entire course. All required assignments and assessments will be posted inside the UNE Blackboard course module. Each module will have learning objectives, lectures, assigned reading, online activities, and self assessments, followed by a weekly quiz. Students must complete the quiz for each week before moving to the next set of assignments.
The quiz for each module will consist of 10 online multiple-choice type questions. Quizzes will be taken through Blackboard, and may be taken open book, but will be timed, with fifteen minutes allowed for completion and no backtracking.
Exams will be taken through ProctorU (see below), and will consist of 50 multiple-choice type questions with eighty minutes allowed for completion. The mid-term exam covers material from Weeks 1-7; the final exam covers Weeks 9-15. These tests are closed book and no notes are permitted. Back-tracking is permitted on these exams. No re-takes are allowed, except under extraordinary conditions (e.g., documented technical problem).
Grading
The student will receive a letter grade for this course. Your final grade will be calculated from the following assignments:
13 quizzes (130 points) = 40%
2 Exams (200 points) = 60%
Grade | Points Grade | Point Average (GPA) |
A | 94 – 100% | 4.00 |
A- | 90 – 93% | 3.75 |
B+ | 87 – 89% | 3.50 |
B | 84 – 86% | 3.00 |
B- | 80 – 83% | 2.75 |
C+ | 77 – 79% | 2.50 |
C | 74 – 76% | 2.00 |
C- | 70 – 73% | 1.75 |
D | 64 – 69% | 1.00 |
F | 00 – 63% | 0.00 |
This course is designed to be completed in a 16-week period, which breaks down to one module per week for 14 weeks and two exam weeks (midterm and final). One week in this online course is equivalent to 200 minutes of lecture in a traditional classroom setting. The general rule of studying for science courses is to spend 3 hours studying for every hour that you are in class. Therefore, the suggested study time for each module is 12 hours above and beyond the time it takes to listen to the lecture. Please refer to the schedule below for the order of topics.
Week |
Topic |
Text Reading** |
1 |
Cellular Response to Injury, Stress and Aging |
Ch 1 (review), 4 |
2 |
Fluids and Electrolytes; Acids and Bases |
Ch 5 |
3 |
Inflammation and Tissue Repair; Adaptive Immunity |
Ch 6 and 7 |
4 |
Infection; Stress Response and Disease |
Ch 8 and 9 |
5 |
Cancer Biology |
Ch 10 and 3 |
6 |
Cancer Epidemiology; Skin Cancer and Burns |
Ch 11 and 41 |
7 |
Hematologic Function: Anemia, Clotting Disorders |
Ch 20 (review), 21, 22 |
8 |
MIDTERM EXAM |
|
9 |
Vascular Disease: Hypertension, Atherosclerosis, Coronary Artery Disease |
Ch 23 (review), 24 |
10 |
Heart Disease and Failure: Valvular Dysfunction, Heart Failure, Shock |
Ch 24 |
11 |
Obstructive Respiratory Disorders: Asthma, COPD, Emphysema |
Ch 26 (review), 27 |
12 |
Kidney Disease: Glomerular Disorders, Acute and Chronic Kidney Disease |
Ch 29 (review), 30 |
13 |
GI and Liver Diseases: Ulcers, Bowel Disease; Hepatitis, Cirrhosis |
Ch 35 (review), 36 |
14 |
Endocrine Disorders: Diabetes |
Ch 18 (review), 19 |
15 |
Neurodegenerative and Neuromotor Disorders: Alzheimer, Parkinson Disease |
Ch 13 (review), 15, 16 |
16 |
FINAL EXAM |
** Please go to individual modules for detailed reading assignments and modular checklist.
Contact: Contact via Blackboard course messaging system. It will help us track messages better and get back to you promptly.
Office hours: by appointment
Further Assistance
Your student support specialist monitors course progression and provides assistance or guidance when needed. They can assist questions regarding ordering course materials, University policies, billing, navigating the course in Blackboard, and more.
Your Student Support Specialist is a resource for you - they will monitor course progression and provide assistance or guidance when needed. Please don’t hesitate to contact them for assistance, including, but not limited to course planning, course materials, billing, current problems or issues in a course, technology concerns, or personal emergencies.
Questions? Visit the Student Support Science Prerequisites page
Check Brightspace for specific instructor and support specialist contact information.
The Student Lounge Discussion Board is a designated support forum in which students may engage with each other and grapple with course content. Feel free to post questions, seek clarification, and support each other, but be mindful of UNE's Academic Integrity Policy.
Your instructor will monitor this forum. However, if you are seeking specific and timely answers to questions about course content or your personal grades, please contact your instructor via course messages. For questions about course materials, program policy, and how to navigate and proceed through the course, please contact your Student Service Advisor through the Student Portal.
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.
Students should notify their Student Support Specialist and instructor in the event of a problem relating to a course. This notification should occur promptly and proactively to support timely resolution.
ITS Contact: Toll-Free Help Desk 24 hours/7 days per week at 1-877-518-4673.
The College of Professional Studies supports its online students and alumni in their career journey!
The Career Ready Program provides tools and resources to help students explore and hone in on their career goals, search for jobs, create and improve professional documents, build professional network, learn interview skills, grow as a professional, and more. Come back often, at any time, as you move through your journey from career readiness as a student to career growth, satisfaction, and success as alumni.
The University of New England has contracted with ProctorU to provide students with the most convenient online exam proctoring system. This system provides a simple, no cost to the student, secure, online proctor for exams and allows the student to take all the exams at home and on their own schedule.
Upon enrollment into the course, each student will register with ProctorU and establish a login name and password. This will give the student access to all of ProctorU's services. When ready, students will schedule each of their proctored exams with ProctorU. Exams must be scheduled at least 72 hours in advance to avoid fees. Prior to taking their exams, students must be sure that they have downloaded the ProctorU Chrome or Firefox extension and are using the most current version of Chrome or Firefox. They must also be sure their testing site's connection meets the minimum requirements by using ProctorU's "Test It Out" utility.
Upon the exam day and hour, students will log in to ProctorU and click on "exams". After following the procedures outlined at ProctorU's web site, the student will log in to Brightspace and locate their correct exam. The proctor will then allow student access to that exam.
Students must use ProctorU and must follow all proctoring requirements for their exams to be credited.
Proctored exams are not available for review at any time. You will not be able to see the questions, nor the answers you've given, after completing the exams. Please contact your instructor for specific feedback.
Discussion board assignments cover interesting current events or materials related to this course that contribute to a deeper understanding of key concepts and allow you to interact with your classmates and the instructor. Each assignment may require you to conduct internet research, read additional materials (a short journal or magazine article), visit a specific webpage, AND/OR view a short video prior to writing a response following the specific guidelines in the assignment.
To earn full credit: you will need to post a response to the discussion topic, respond to the original posts of at least two other students, and then contribute meaningfully to an ongoing discussion. You will need to post your initial response before you will see any posts from your classmates. Please keep in mind that only this initial response is included in your assignment grade, so make sure you have followed all of the guidelines and written a complete response prior to submitting the post. For special cases where one or two students are accelerating faster through the course, the instructor will participate in the discussion so that everyone has the opportunity to interact.
Please see Brightspace for a full description, along with specific guidelines, for each assignment. Discussion board assignments should be completed, along with all other assignments in the course, in the order that they appear. Due to the course design, you may be unable to take a proctored exam if you do not complete all assignments that appear prior to that exam.
Please also refer to the Grading Policy/Grade Breakdown section of the syllabus to learn the percentage of your grade that each discussion board assignment is worth.
Please review the technical requirements for UNE Online Programs: Technical Requirements
A schedule of lectures and assignments is included in this syllabus. This is, however a self-paced course and you can complete the course in less time.
Please visit the enrollment page to review the withdrawal and refund policies.
Students are expected to attempt and complete all graded assignments and proctored exams by the end date of the course. View the incomplete grade policy..
Due to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, only the student may request official transcripts. This may be done online by going to the University of New England Registrar website and following the directions on the page.
To view your unofficial UNE student transcript:
To request your official UNE student transcript:
Please review your Unofficial Transcript prior to requesting an Official Transcript.
After you click Submit Request, your official transcript will be put into the queue to be printed in the Registrar's Office.
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.
Academic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to the following:
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.
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