How to Create an Efficient, Healthy, AND Beautiful Home Work Space
The U.S. Census Bureau estimates about 18% of people in the United States learn and work from home. With so many people working from home, it’s vital to create a workspace that helps you work your best. As a UNE Online student, your study environment plays a crucial role in your success. With online learning becoming more common, it’s essential…
Understanding Financial Aid at UNE Online
The majority of UNE Online students take advantage of some form of financial aid, and federal loans are the primary source of funding for our online students. However, sometimes outside grants and outside scholarships can be accessed to pay for your education, and some students will borrow from private lending sources as well. Students also pay out of pocket –…
SPHP vs PBPH: Which Program is Right for You?
Are you considering a career in the health profession, getting ready to apply to medical school, or just need to get those last few science classes in order to elevate your career in healthcare? The University of New England (UNE) Online offers two distinctive programs: the SPHP (Science Prerequisite for Health Professions) courses and the Post-Baccalaureate Pre-Health (PBPH) Certificate Program. …
How to End the Domestic Violence Cycle
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…
Faculty Spotlight: Nan Solomons, Ph.D., Practicum Coordinator – Health Info
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…
Children of Abuse - How Social Workers Help Them Heal
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.…
Creating a Timeline with Timeline JS
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…
Webinar: Tools for Online Office Hours - Appear.in
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,…
Reflections of an Online Student: My First Grad Course
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…
Meet Our Team: Brendan Parsons
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…
Tackling Three Misconceptions of Domestic Violence
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…
Faculty Spotlight: Christine Rogerson, LCSW – Social Work Program
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…
Faculty Spotlight: Mary White, LCSW – Social Work Program
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…
Tools for Office Hours - Blackboard Collaborate
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…
Meet Our Team: Jonathan Chavoustie
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 Does Assessment Guarantee Return on Investment?
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…
Assessing Online Courses is Key to a High-Quality Learning Experience
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…
Karen Aldworth, MSEd CTE
“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.”
The New Box on the Docs
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.…
Karen Aldworth, MSEd CTE
“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.”
Faculty Spotlight: Dr. Tim Bohinski, Science Prerequisites Program
Dr. Tim Bohinski has a Doctorate in Physical Chemistry and is a Medical General Chemistry II instructor in our Science Prerequisites for Health Professions program. He has a deep interest in chemistry which he has applied in several different fields. Currently, he works with ultrafast lasers – and in a very recent development, a division of the company he works…
10 Tips for Online Doctoral Students: A Dissertation Success Kit
Guest blogger and doctoral student Stephanie N. Marcotte is in her last semester of the online Doctor of Education (Ed.D) program at the University of New England. Her dissertation is focused on community college academic English as a second language (ESL) programs in Massachusetts. She is currently a Nursing Resource Coordinator and Adjunct Professor of ESL at Holyoke Community College…
Opportunity available to go abroad with UNE’s Ghana Health Partnership!
Study abroad to engage in direct health services, interprofessional collaboration, community education, and cross-cultural exchange. Open to students and alumni of UNE Each May, UNE students work alongside the Ghana Health Service, community health educators and the community, in a two-week Cross-Cultural Health Immersion initiative. A chance to effect positive change This annual effort involves collaboration between UNE, the Ghana…
Faculty Spotlight: Llanie Nobile, Science Prerequisite Program
Llanie Nobile is an instructor for the online Medical Biochemistry I (CHEM 1005) class. She also serves as our Adjunct Faculty Representative and is an actively contributing member at our Faculty Assembly meetings. Read more about her below! Can you tell me a little more about the work you do/have done in your field? As a subject matter expert in…
Jump-start your Journey to Become a Registered Dietitian (RD/RDN)
The online M.S. Applied Nutrition program at UNE recently matured in the candidacy process with the Accreditation Council for Education in Nutrition and Dietetics (ACEND®) as the program develops an exciting new pathway for students to earn the Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) credential. An excerpt from the approval document: “The University of New England has applied to the Accreditation Council…
Dr. Joel Lowsky, Ed.D.
“I loved the online format. I’m married with two kids, and I couldn’t quit my day job to go to school. I needed the flexibility of making my own schedule so I could work full time and also be in school.”
Program Director Spotlight: Dr. Jayne Pelletier, Education Program
Dr. Jayne Pelletier is the Program Director for the Graduate Programs in Education at the College of Graduate and Professional Studies here at the University of New England. In this post, Dr. Pelletier discusses her background, love of education, and imparts some words of wisdom to her faculty and students. Can you tell me a little bit about your background?…