Project RITE

How well do college students retain what they have learned after a course is over? Are they able to apply concepts learned to their daily lives? Transfer and application of knowledge beyond the formal classroom environment is notoriously difficult to assess. This interdisciplinary research study between Dr. Trena Paulus and Dr. Lisa Jahns in Nutrition will examine application of knowledge The NTR (Nutrition) 100 course at the University of Tennessee teaches concepts of nutrition, health and wellness to approximately 200 undergraduate students each semester. NTR 100 attracts a wide range of undergraduate majors as it fulfills a UT General Education requirement. However once students finish the semester and move on, whether or how they retain and apply what has been learned is unclear. Computer-mediated communication (CMC) tools can extend learning experiences beyond traditional boundaries of time and location. We propose using web logs (blogs) as an informal online learning community where highly motivated students who have done well in the course can extend their learning through reflection, discussion and application of learned concepts to their daily lives as they write about it in their blogs.

We’ve received IRB approval and recruited our participants for the project from the fall 2006 Nutrition 100 course. We have 12 participants. Rebecca Payne, doctoral candidate in the TPTE department, is the graduate assistant for the project.

This month we’ll plan the orientation for the project, including selecting a blog tool for the participants to use. We plan to hold orientation on January 8th or 9th, with blogging to take place from mid-January to mid-March.