Syllabus

Science Prerequisites for Health Professionals

NTRN 1010: Principles of Human Nutrition

Credits - 3

Description

This is a science-oriented, introductory course that focuses on basic principles of human nutrition. Emphasis is placed on the nutrient requirements of healthy individuals, nutrient categories and their characteristics, physiological functions, metabolism, and food sources. The role of nutrition in health promotion and disease prevention will be discussed in relation to personal health choices and with applications for students contemplating careers in health professions.

Materials

Learning Objectives and Outcomes

Program Objectives:

Students should be able to:

1. Communicate scientific concepts and information clearly.
2. Illustrate fundamental laws, theories, and principles of scientific disciplines.
3. Apply knowledge and critical thinking skills to scientific problems.

Course Objectives:

The objectives of this course are designed to facilitate your construction of conceptual models to describe physical ideas that are the foundation of sciences that you may encounter in your professional studies.

By the end of the course, you will be able to:

• Analyze the multiple processes involved in the body’s handling of nutrients and alcohol, beginning with consumption and ending with waste excretion.
• Characterize the classes of nutrients in terms of their general functions in the body, effects of deficiencies and toxicities, and their food sources.
• Apply biological, biochemical, and physiologic scientific principles to nutrition practice to help improve the nutritional health of individuals and communities.
• Analyze the role of nutrition in health promotion and disease prevention in order to inform research-based recommendations about healthy food choices.
• Evaluate individual and personal dietary intake for nutritional adequacy to promote healthy eating habits.
• Differentiate legitimate and professional nutrition research from food faddism or fraudulent medical information to communicate sound nutrition practices to various audiences.

SELF PACED DESIGN

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.

Assignments

Following the first 13 chapters of the textbook, Principles of Human Nutrition is a 16-week course, grouped within 5 topical units. Each unit contains:

• A component of the diet assessment project
• A class discussion
• Weekly activities, which may include:
  • Readings
  • Video lectures
  • A pre-assessment
  • Quizzes
  • Reflections

Please note the course is designed where you must complete all learning activities in each unit before the next unit becomes available.   

Pre-assessments 

Successful comprehension of nutrition concepts requires practice, diligence, and motivation. The pre-assessments serve to help you assess your understanding. After reviewing the learning objectives in each week, take the pre-assessment quiz to assess what you already know and help guide your study of the learning materials.

After reading the text and engaging with the other learning materials, retake the pre-assessment. These ungraded self-assessments can be taken as many times as you want, letting you know what you need to work on and allowing you to revisit and review the materials to reassess. When you’re confident with the material, begin the weekly quiz.

Weekly Quizzes

There are 14 graded quizzes. The quiz questions will assess your understanding of the content covered in the week. You will have 30 minutes to complete each quiz. The quizzes are automatically graded and closed for review.

Diet Assessment Project

The Diet Assessment project is divided into five parts. You will complete one part per unit based on the learning materials in the unit. The diet assessment project will ask you to analyze your food intake and physical activity. Each part of the Diet Assessment project will be graded by your instructor using rubrics. All rubrics are linked to the assignments in your course.

Reflections

In Units 1 and 3, you will be asked to watch certain videos and submit a reflection on it. These videos address important issues in the field of nutrition. This assignment is graded by your instructor using a rubric. You can view the rubric in My Grades in your course.

Discussion Posts

Discussion 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 refer to your course for a full description for each assignment prompt, along with reviewing the discussion question guidelines below. Discussion 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. The discussion posts are graded with rubrics by your instructor.

Please also refer to the Grading Policy/Grade Breakdown section of the syllabus to learn the percentage of your grade that each discussion assignment is worth.

Discussion Question Guidelines

1. Read the assignment carefully so that you are familiar with the materials that you need to cover and how to craft your post.
2. Respect each other’s ideas, feelings, and experiences. Some of the questions involve areas of disagreement. Expect your classmates to have different opinions.
3. Use proper writing style. Correct spelling and sentence structure are expected just as if you were writing a regular paper. Use spell check and grammar check before you submit.
4. Draft your posting in a Word document. That way, you can save a copy and use spell check and grammar check.
5. Cite the sources that you use to write your response. Follow the AMA guidelines.
6. Avoid posting large blocks of text. Break your writing into paragraphs and use a space between paragraphs to make your posting easier to read online.
7. Use the “reply” button rather than the “compose” button when responding to someone else’s post.
8. When responding to a classmate, address them by name.
9. Do not use postings such as “I agree,” “I don’t know either,” or “ditto.” They do not add to the discussion, and they will not be counted.
10. Everyone benefits from an active discussion. Check back in frequently to see what others are saying.
11. Plan your time carefully. You will need to give your classmates time to respond to your postings. This is an asynchronous class in which not everyone signs in at the same time.

Examination and Grading Information

Mid-Term and Final Exams

There will be a one-hour proctored midterm exam and a one-hour proctored final exam. The University of New England has contracted with ProctorU to provide students with the most convenient online exam proctoring system. Upon enrollment into the course, you will register with ProctorU and establish a login name and password. This will give you access to all of ProctorU’s services. When you’re ready, you will schedule your exam time with ProctorU at least 72 hours prior to taking the exam.

For all exams, you must review the Proctored Examinations information and requirements in the Policies section of this syllabus.

Exams begin and end promptly with scheduled times.  Be prepared to stay in the exam room for the entire time. You will be required to follow all the proctor’s requests. The exams are closed-book and are also closed for review. While you will see your proctored exam scores, you will not have access to your exams once you have submitted them for a grade. You may contact your instructor regarding specific feedback; however, no exams will be released to the students.

The mid-term exam assesses the content from Units 1-3 and should be taken after you have completed all the assessments through Week 8. The final exam assesses the content from Units 4-5 and should not be taken until all the other assignments are completed.  Exams taken online with ProctorU will be graded immediately. 

An external webcam is required for proctored exams. If you do not have one, you may order one here: UNE’s Recommended External Webcam. Remember to order your webcam at least three weeks prior to scheduling your first proctored exam.

Grading Policy

Your grade in this course will be determined by the following criteria:

Grade Breakdown

Assessment Type	Percentage of Final Grade
Unit Discussions	10%
Weekly Quizzes	20%
Reflection Activities	5%
Midterm	20%
Final	20%
Diet Assessment	25%

Grade Scale

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