Health and Wellness: An Integrated Approach to Classes Across Cultures and Curriculum Case Study

Associate Professor and Extension Specialist Craig Hassel (Department of Food Science and Nutrition), Professor Linda Brady (Department of Food Science and Nutrition), Professor Paul Brady (College of Agricultural, Food, and Environmental Sciences), and Carolyn Nayematsu, the exective director of the Multicultural Center for Academic Programs on the Twin Cities campus, are developing two new online 1000-level classes, Worldviews of Nutrition and Culture and Health.

Instructional Goals

According to their 2002 TEL Grant Program proposal (PDF) and their discussion of the project at the fall 2003 TEL seminar on Course Redesign, the investigators hope to

"bring widely divergent cross-cultural perspectives to the health and wellness curriculum";
integrate two new courses with existing ones "that encompass health and wellness across the curricula";
incorporate into these courses "serious intellectual consideration for the diversity of ways societies across the globe have constructed knowledge about health and wellness"; and
employ a two-way model of outreach that enables the students and community members to build relationships, co-research issues, and co-create knowledge.

The student demand for the alternative and complementary health courses is increasing. At the same time students are asked to take more credits and pay more tuition, which often leads to conflicts between school and work schedules. The investigators hope their online courses will enable students to be more flexible about the time they spend on course activities within a given week and also to stay on track by completing weekly homework assignments.

Technology Strategies

The investigators decided to develop two products for these courses: class Web sites based on the College of Agricultural, Food, and Environmental Sciences' "ecourse" model and accompanying DVD/CD-ROM materials. These will be integrated to complement each other.

The course Web sites will include links to Web sites from around the world that document "ancient science" and current health and wellness perspectives. The sites also will include online streaming videos modelled on ones available on the Latinos: Culture and Health course Web site.

The DVD/CD-ROM materials will depict aspects of the cultures studied, from ceremonies to short chats with community members. These will function as surrogate fieldtrips that give students a chance to immerse themselves in different worldviews. The students will later write about a health- or nutrition-related topic from the perspective of the community in which they were immersed.

Learning Outcomes

The courses will first be offered spring semester 2004. The investigators then plan to evaluate the project by

tracking how well they stay on schedule and within budget;
collecting enrollment data about University of Minnesota and Tribal College students who take the courses;
using summative evaluation methods to determine how well the students perform in the courses; and
using formative evaluation methods to investigate how the students feel about the courses.