BIO 204 Biochemical Nutrition is a study of the chemical basis of nutrients and foods and their use in diet and therapy. This course is designed for students in preprofessional programs leading to careers in health care areas. Because nutrition plays a significant role in both health and disease, emphasis is placed on basic nutrition concepts as well as on diet therapy for management of common health conditions.

The main ingredients for this recipe:

• Textbook and online ancillary materials
• Educator, our wonderful CMS
• Chickering and Gamson's "Seven Principles"
• Nutrition Dinner 2004
• Online survey results
• Class results after blending online with face-to-face instruction
• Conclusions
• Thank you, Ucompass!

Whitney and Rolfes. 2002. Understanding Nutrition, 9th Edition. Thomson/Wadsworth. ISBN for textbook bundled with Diet Analysis 6.0 online : 0534099688 ISBN for Diet Analysis online alone: 0534594204 An extensive Student Companion Web Site, maintained by Thomson Learning, provides students with the opportunity to utilize Web resources and multimedia techniques in order to reinforce learning of the concepts covered in the text.

In addition to mastering material from the textbook, students completed the Diet Self-Study exercises using the Diet Analysis Plus software which is available online and may be bundled with the textbook.

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One of the most widely quoted articles is "SEVEN PRINCIPLES FOR GOOD PRACTICE IN UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION" which was written by Arthur Chickering and Zelda Gamson as a summary of teaching-learning activities that, according to educational research, usually improve educational outcomes.

• "I think the most valuable part of this class has been the ability to learn on my own yet still have the Deadline of the few class meetings."
  
  
• "Many of the lessons I learned in this class will stay a lifetime. Health is essential. I know that I must improve my health and portray more self-control in my diet. My favorite thing about this course was the discussion online. I think that really brought up a lot of interesting topics."
  
  
• "I think that the most valuable part of this course is the time issue. It will fit into almost anybody's schedule."
  
  
• "I really enjoyed the diet analysis. The software was easy to use. I think that I am more aware of the things that I eat and that I will remember this for the rest of my life."
  
  
• "The online diet analysis was helpful. I really liked it. Overall, I think that the course was helpful. The dinner was a nice addition. The online discussion also caused me to think."

On the first unit test I was surprised that the scores were higher than they have been in a traditional class with a lot of lecture time. One of the students remarked, "Well, you are making us read the whole chapter instead of just telling us what we are supposed to know." Overall, the test and exam scores were higher than in my previous six times of teaching the course. There was a marked increase in student interest and enthusiasm. Since everyone had had to complete the quizzes before the class meeting time in order to earn the points for them, I could start a lecture with a question such as, "Was there anything in Chapter X that surprised you?" and have a bunch of hands eagerly go up.

There were, however, some disadvantages as well. There was more emphasis on learning by reading rather than by hearing, so perhaps the visual learners were given a significant advantage. Also, conducting this course during the Short Term condensed schedule and faster pacing was perhaps a disadvantage for this "blended" approach to teaching as it reduced the time available for review. Blended BIO 204 will probably prove to be even more effective as a course offered during the Fall or Spring normally-paced semesters.

By substituting a considerable amount of online coursework for the more traditional lecture time, I have placed the responsibility on the students to learn and think for themselves. In analyzing grade results as well as student feedback I am convinced that this course has been significantly more effective in promoting student learning and retention than the traditional course has been.

I am currently rewriting the course for the newest edition of the textbook and I am planning to offer it again as a "blended " course in Spring 2005.

In order to reinforce student learning and accommodate to different learning styles, I am going to use MS Producer to add voice narration to the slides provided for each chapter. This will help those students who learn best by hearing rather than by reading.
These "mini-lectures" will be available for download from Educator so that the students will be able to listen to them as many times as they wish.

I intend to add one of the Internet exercises that are listed on the Publisher's Web site for each of the chapters that I cover. These will be due before the class discussion period.

I would like to expand the use of the online Diet Analysis Plus in order to add one hour of laboratory credit for the course.