As human beings, our behaviors and our goals are bridged by many factors, a major one being motivation. In essence, the more motivated we are, the more likely we are to act towards the goal. Similarly, as motivation diminishes, so does performance. In the context of online learning, sustaining motivation is vital in committing to the assignments as well as…

The development of creative, authentic assignments that align with course objectives is always an exciting process. However, guiding students with clearly written assignment instructions can be challenging. We owe it to our busy online students to provide clear, concise instructions that prepare them for success. This week’s blog will provide some tips to help you to do just that. Start with…

If you wanted to join our Health Informatics Twitter Chat on November 29th, 2016 but couldn’t, you’re in luck. We’ve compiled a list of the top questions received during the chat along with our answers. The chat served as an informal Q&A for prospective students to ask questions about the program, curriculum and the admissions process prior to the December…

Many factors result in new curriculum development processes in educational institutions. To name a few: Stricter regulations and legislation require institutions to exercise and document the effectiveness of the education they offer in different ways than in the past. The rise in online education and data analytics trends require that student learning outcomes are more concrete and measurable. Many institutions…

New online classes begin twice a month Registration deadlines for Principles of Human Nutrition and the entire suite of Science Prerequisite for Health Professions online classes are on the first and third Monday of each month. Secure your spot today! Register Now Not all online nutrition courses are the same. UNE Online has a brand new online nutrition course, 100% online, with fresh, custom-developed…

This month has been a busy one for the Graduate Programs in Public Health at UNE! Various faculty and staff members were in attendance at three different events – two local Maine Public Health conferences, and a national conference in Denver, Colorado. At each event our program staff noticed a strong trend toward students actively seeking out Public Health programs…

The University of New England Graduate Program in Applied Nutrition was pleased to exhibit at the Food & Nutrition Conference & Expo (FNCE), the world’s largest annual meeting of food and nutrition professionals, on October 15-18 in Boston, MA. UNE attends FNCE annually.  FNCE is hosted by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, the world’s largest charitable organization focused on…

While I can get behind this quote – not in terms of judging what people discuss but rather in terms of what one may aspire to do ultimately, which is discuss ideas – I also think that it should be less of a tiered approach that may smack of elitism, and more of a pyramid of aspects. It’s going from ideas…

This video will show you how to override a grade in Blackboard and what the student sees on their side.

Blackboard Learn. North America. Spring 2016. 927 Institutions 70,000 Courses. 3,374,462 unique learners. The most recent Blackboard usage study casts a much wider net than has been their scope in the past. Titled “Patterns in Course Design,” the learning management system heavyweight released an interpretation on the current environment of course design. By crunching the aggregate data across their broad sample,…

Email. When it comes to communication it is the best and worst of tools. Most of the time it’s quick and easy. While we all know and accept that occasional typos will happen, there are a few ‘mistakes’ that are truly unforgivable. As you might expect, online graduate students use email to correspond with their instructors, university staff, and peers.…

Doors have flown open for Amber Auger since earning her MPH online at UNE. Growing up in a single parent family, Amber was taught from a young age to to value education. “My mom wanted me to get a great education so I wouldn’t have to work three jobs every day, like she did.” says Amber. Amber took her mom’s…

When we design or teach an online course, we spend time thinking about how to reach our students. We consider their prior learning and such things as the cognitive load of the class. These are essential considerations, but perhaps we can do more. We can turn the tables and look at the class from the student perspective. However, it is…

Today, the Instructional Design team is at ACTEM. Several of us are presenting, in fact. So, for our Vision post this week, we thought we’d post the synopses of our presentations here, and if you would like to you can follow up with the designers responsible for them. Please feel free to email them if you would like to hear more, or if you…

Beautiful conditions greeted several members of the UNE Online team last week as they represented UNE Online as proud sponsors of the Junior Achievement 30th Annual Golf Classic Sponsorship assists with financial literacy skills UNE Online’s sponsorship and participation in the fundraiser will help the Junior Achievement bring work readiness and financial literacy skills to Maine’s students as well as…

“In this course you will have a group project…” I think it is fair to say we’ve all been let down by a working group or by individual team members. No matter the setting, there seems to be an aura of dread when group projects are announced.  Add in the fact that online graduate students work within virtual spaces, and…

How has technology helped us in our society? What about technology in healthcare? Technology, although it sometimes seems to have a negative connotation, is something we all live with and use each and every day. On one side, technology has saved millions upon millions of people through advances with technology in healthcare and research, indicating new ways to manage infectious/chronic…

As phones and computers become more integrated into our daily lives, we’re spending more time staring into the harsh light of our screens. A while back, my colleague Corey Butler wrote for this blog about computer vision syndrome, a kind of eye strain that often accompanies frequent computer use. Well, it turns out that there’s another eye-related problem with routine…

As the first installation of an effective course design series of webinars, here is our presentation on writing effective learning outcomes. Sue Farris, our Assessment Specialist, and Olga LaPlante, the ID for MSW-O, led this webinar. Writing Effective Learning Outcomes We invite you to take this quiz (anonymous, but graded, and with feedback) – you can take it before and after…

MPH student Alison Braid is more than halfway through her degree, and loving it. After spending over 15 years in the professional translation and website localization industry, she wanted to make a career switch. Says Alison, “I decided that it was time for a change!” Alison is based in New York City, and most recently managed a localization team of…

Teaching teachers to teach is about as meta as it comes. But how do we best prepare professional educators to teach students who will likely work in jobs that haven’t yet been created? One answer to that question may very well lie in research. Research has long been a cornerstone of graduate education, but the rapidly changing 21st-century job market…

I’ve called attention to web annotation tools in the past, the reason being that I am among those internet weirdos who thinks there are conversations to be had across domains that, right now, are difficult to maintain because commenting functionality is largely restricted to the domain in which any particular resource is published. Aggregators like Reddit and Imzy show the need for…

Benjamin Luce, a student in the University of New England’s online doctoral program, was recently published in the American Journal of Distance Education. Benjamin interviewed Bryan Alexander, a leading thinker and writer in issues of education and technology. Alexander is a senior fellow for the National Institute of Technology in Liberal Education. The two discuss many issues relating to technology…

Kimberly Roberts-Morandi is a student in the University of New England’s online Doctor of Education (Ed.D.). She is currently working on her dissertation with the other members of her cohort, and checked in with her about her study. Here’s what Kim has to say about her participatory action research experience and why she picked the University of New England for…