Publisher’s note: This story was initially published in the November 2024 issue of GCU Magazine, available in the purple bins of the campus or numerically.
Photos of Ralph Freso
Maggie Miller was a very busy bee.
It has embarked on a product prescription pilot program in which patients with chronic diseases and food insecurity can obtain organic products every two weeks at the Desert Mission Food Bank.
She also prepared a potato salad for patients from local organic ingredients.
And she did it while carrying out a series of internships at the Banner Rehabilitation Hospital de Mesa, Arizona, Banner University Medical Center and Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center in Phoenix, as well as the Scottsdale Unified School District.
“I am both the most busy I have ever been, but I also have the most free time I have ever had,” said Miller, a Grand Canyon University educational assistant and student graduated in nutrition And dietetics, an online program that she loves because of the flexibility he offers her.
Miller, who obtained his baccalaureate at the GCU, must produce 1,000 hours of experiential learning, or learning by practice, to meet the requirements of the college accreditation organization. Seven hundred hours must be done in person.
However, Miller is not intimidated.
The same goes for the Collège des Sciences Natlelles du GCU, which created the program of higher education. It is part of a small percentage of higher education programs accredited in nutrition and dietetics offered entirely online.
This is only one of the measures taken by the university in teaching online sciences – something notoriously difficult to achieve given the practical work in the required laboratory.
“The fact remains that the sciences remain practical experiences,” said Dr Bina VanmaliDeputy Dean of GCU Sciences. “The biggest challenge we are faced with how to offer students authentic experiences?
“For science, practice is necessary. This experience gives you the opportunity to take the ideas you learn in class and test them in the laboratory … then apply them to real world scenarios. You cannot do this as a thought experience and get the same results.
But even online, students can live some of these practical experiences.
The program of higher education in nutrition and dietetics follows in the footsteps of master’s degree in college’s medico-legal sciences, launched in 2021. It paved the way for online evolution of science at the GCU.
“We were really delighted to be, we think, the first (of the country) to offer a practical experience with an online master’s degree,” said Vanmali about the higher education program in forensic sciences.
What made him so avant-garde was that the students were doing laboratory work at home. GCU sent them laboratory kits including a microscope, reagents and other supplies.
This same spirit of innovation animates the master’s program in nutrition and dietetics, whose students currently registered come from 40 states. The program accepts 75 students per year. Courtney BoulangerDirector of nutrition and dietetics, heard of other programs that accept five.
Although college does not send laboratory kits to students, it is the pioneer of the program thanks to experiential learning.
Students create videos, for example, on nutrition advice. “They will advise their mother, advise their friend,” said Baker. “They will film it and then receive the comments of the teachers and their peers according to their skills in advice.”
Students then meet the major part of their experiential learning requirements of 1,000 hours in person with a tutor in a hospital or similar establishment. They will put their skills into practice in terms of nutrition advice face to face with someone or will observe the professor.
The exercise science program has also been a pioneer in the field of online learning, recently offering physiology and kinesiology courses-which teachers might not have done too Quickly without the covid-19 pandemic.
“Without realizing it, we were able to try things and say:” OK, it worked well and it did not work “”, professor of exercise sciences at the GCU. Dr Zach Zeigler said.
As in the legal medicine program, the college sends students to laboratory kits including blood pressure brassards, body fat compasses, etc. Students are invited to go to a local gymnasium and team up with a partner – mom or dad, brother or sister – then measure and record their vital signs.
Students also submit videos, for example by teaching someone’s activity or exercise. They give their opinion on the video so that their teacher knows that they know how to give their opinion.
In another online exercise course, on the applied science of the exercise, students must carry out 100 hours of experiential learning, for example by working in a physiotherapy clinic.
“We have 70 students in this class, and they simply cross the valley. They find these courses, and it is (a course) entirely online. Their hours, instead of being in class, are entirely devoted to the field, ”said Zeigler.
Dean of the College of Natural Sciences Dr Mark Wooden Underlines what point GCU adopts a more holistic approach when creating courses.
“We are not the only school to offer online lessons, but I think we pay much more attention,” said Wooden.
“… we think of the knowledge, the skills they must have. We are thinking about the extracurricular experiences they should live and all the support, “said Wooden about internships, transition programs, online instructors’ office hours and online academic support via the new scientific chatbot to Mira artificial intelligence, to name just a few.
“We think of all this when we build a program. »»
Graduate programs are not the only progress made by the college in the online world.
The teachers improve their course video game. These one hour videos? They do not resonate, which is why the instructors shorten them.
And, said Vanmali, the college plans to launch several online undergraduate programs.
The baccalaureate in nutrition sciences, as well as the medico-legal sciences and the exercise sciences/pre-therapy should be put online, one of them next year.
Like Maggie Miller, the college was very busy.
***
Also taken from the November 2024 issue of GCU Magazine::