We are a nation in crisis. And police, insurers, and patients are all looking to social workers for help in curbing the opioid epidemic. Opioid deaths now surpass gun violence and car crash deaths, according to CDC data published by the Washington Post, leaving police no choice but to rethink their strategy, as law enforcement is not working. Police are…

The Graduate Programs in Public Health (GPPH) has a new mini-grant program! We are pleased to announce the availability of funds to support research activities among primary and adjunct faculty, staff, and public health students. We have secured funds with this new public health mini-grant to assist students and faculty in attending conferences and conducting research. There are two types…

It is important as educators and leaders in the field to not only be aware of new legislation in education but to understand how new legislation will affect the day to day work of teachers and administrators. With a new administration in the White House and new Education Secretary Betsy DeVos now at the helm, there has been a sense…

Megan Landry, BSN, MHA, was the former Program Director for the Graduate Programs in Health Informatics at UNE Online. To start off, let’s define health informatics. What is Health Informatics? Former Program Manager Megan Landry explains. Watch this video on YouTube Megan Landry, B.S.N., M.H.A.-Informatics formerly directed the Health Informatics programs at UNE Online. The early years of Megan’s career…

Michele Marshall is a Master of Science in Health Informatics (MSIN) student originally from Casco, Maine. With a strong interest in healthcare and science, Michele spent twenty years working as a medical technologist. Michele currently balances working full-time as a microbiology software analyst for a medical technology company with family life and her studies. Hear more from Michele in our…

In celebration of National Health IT week, we are pleased to announce the creation of three NEW focus areas for our Master of Science in Health Informatics degree. You are now able to select one of the following areas as a specialization: Healthcare Leadership Health Data Analytics Training and Development These three focus areas complement our existing Master of Science…

As the field of health informatics grows, there is a tremendous need for educated professionals to fill crucial roles. One of the greatest challenges in health informatics today comes from ensuring that new health informatics professionals are equipped with the skills and knowledge to make sure that healthcare technologies are implemented effectively and in a way that improves efficiency, affordability…

Darryl Vincent is living proof of the power of integration. Working full-time as the then-Vice President of Programs at the U.S. Veterans Initiative while earning his MSW at UNE Online, Darryl applied his education to the workplace the moment he signed off from class. Now a COO, Darryl credits his UNE Online teachers for the successful changes he’s implemented at…

Empathy and action are a powerful combination – Social Workers protect victims and children by intervening. How does the cycle of domestic violence start? How does it become so insidious that millions of victims stay in abusive relationships and homes? How do we make it stop? The Cycle of Violence was identified by psychologist Dr. Lenore Walker in 1979 when…

Dr. Nan Solomons is the Practicum Coordinator for the Master of Science in Health Informatics program at UNE Online. We spoke with her this week to discuss the field of health informatics, and how she supports students through their Practicum process. How did you get interested in the field of Health Informatics? I got interested in the field of Health…

Recently, I found myself testing different timeline creation tools to see how well they worked and how hard they were to work with. Technical challenge is an important consideration for course activities, as any difficulties I face in testing will be magnified by the number of registered students. Even small problems hinder scalability. In some cases there may be a…

Abuse takes many forms, and child victims may experience it differently. Whether they are victims of violence themselves or witnesses, even audibly, the effects can last a lifetime. There are many reasons that parents stay in abusive relationships— and it’s often mothers, who represent up to 85% of the victims of domestic abuse, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.…

Two weeks ago we conducted a webinar in which we presented two conferencing tools as excellent options for holding synchronous office hours for an online class—appear.in and Blackboard Collaborate. We chose these tools, specifically, because we feel that they can be used in conjunction to respond to different needs. Blackboard Collaborate is robust, feature rich, and built into Blackboard directly,…

For a while now I have known that {for me} going back to school was absolutely necessary. It took some time to get to the point where I was comfortable pulling the trigger and picking a program. It also took a lot of soul searching. I looked at topics everywhere from Psychology/Counseling to an MBA. Nothing really seemed to fit. That…

Opening our eyes to the misconceptions of domestic violence and helping victims requires a deeper understanding – because reality is far more complicated than common conceptions. Domestic Violence fact: One in four women, and one in seven men, will be victims of domestic violence in the U.S. in their lifetime, according to the CDC. For women globally, the number is…

Brendan Parsons works as a Student Support specialist on our Graduate Programs in Education. Standing tall at 6’5” it’s safe to say Brendan is our tallest staff member. When Brendan isn’t helping his coworkers access items on top shelves, he’s assisting current and prospective students with everything from registration to transcript requests. Brendan’s cool, calm demeanor allows him to work…

Christine Rogerson, LCSW, is the Practicum Coordinator for the Master of Social Work program at UNE Online. She graduated with a Bachelor of Psychology from the University of Maine and went on to earn her Master of Social Work right here at the University of New England. Prior to teaching at UNE, Christine spent several years working in multiple clinical…

Last week we covered Appear.in as a tool for conducting online conferences. This week we’re going to go over the same steps for creating persistent and scheduled online conferencing spaces, but with Blackboard Collaborate. The differences between Collaborate and Appear.in make them both useful, we think, for different applications. Appear.in is very simple and easy to use, but has limits…

Mary White, LCSW, is a Field Planner and Clinical Assistant Professor for the Master of Social Work program at UNE Online. She graduated with a BA in Behavioral Science from the University of Maine in Presque Isle and earned her Master of Social Work from the University of Maine at Orono. For 18 years Mary was employed at a community…

At UNE Online students are our top priority, and their success is what drives each and every one of us to do what we do. We’d like to share a little bit about the people that are dedicated to making that happen every day. Meet Jonathan Chavoustie: Student Support Specialist for the Science Prerequisites for Science Professions (SPHP) suite of…

How do you know that the online courses that you are taking are high-quality and appropriately rigorous? Through Assessment. Recently I spoke with Dr. Richard Parent, UNE Online’s Director of Assessment, about the role of Assessment as an integral part of instruction, and how assessment helps determine whether or not a school or program delivers on the promise of a…

How do you know that the online courses that you are taking are high-quality and appropriately rigorous? What does Assessment have to do with anything? How does Assessment guarantee return on investment? In an attempt to understand some of the higher-level happenings within the College of Graduate and Professional Studies (CGPS) I recently spoke with Dr. Richard Parent, UNE Online’s…

Online and face to face faculty are likely familiar with the Crocodoc inline grading tool, licensed for use by Blackboard. For a number of years, this third-party cloud-based document conversion system was the tool used to record faculty’s annotations of student’s digital work to provide them with detailed and relevant feedback as if they were handing back a marked-up paper.…

“Words cannot express how much I enjoyed the experience. I really feel that when I received my BSN at age 22 I did not appreciate the magnitude of the accomplishment. Going back to school at a seasoned age I understand the work that we all put into our degrees.”