13079

13079

General Session - Conference Presentation Only (20 minutes, no formal paper)

Kirsti Dyer, Columbia College, Sonora, CA, USA, dr.kdyer@gmail.com
 * Reviewing and Evaluating Online Food Tracking / Diet Analysis Programs to Integrate into a Nutrition Course **

To enhance student learning online instructors watch for emerging and evolving technologies that can be incorporated into their online courses. Before adopting a program into a course the instructor needs to consider several factors. Some of these include the educational benefits of the program, the ease of use for students, the accessibility for students and the cost of the program. With the cost of attending college rising, finding ways to provide freely available programs is a plus for students.

In this general conference session participants will briefly look at some of the available diet and activity tracking programs. Information about SuperTracker, a free government diet and activity tracking online program, will be shared as a practical alternative to the paid diet analysis or sponsored diet tracking programs. Then the strengths and weaknesses of the SuperTracker online program will be considered including accessibility, major problems and complaints reported by nutrition student users.

Watching for emerging trends to consider adopting in the future, the session presenter surveyed existing nutrition students to discover what other food tracking programs students are or have used in the past. Since many of these other food tracking tools are phone applications, this raises new questions about how emerging technologies are reshaping e-learning as online instructors consider integrating mobile learning applications into courses.

Participants will leave this session with knowledge about SuperTracker, a free online diet and fitness program which can be integrated into nutrition, health, fitness and general biology courses and used for personal health benefits.

//Interactivity // Participants will explore some of the factors that need to be considered before adopting online programs into courses. Participants will also brainstorm on how emerging technologies are reshaping e-learning and what factors may need to be considered before integrating mobile learning applications into courses.

All Audiences Online Programs, Nutrition Courses, Health Courses, Fitness Courses, Food Tracking Programs, Online Courses, e-learning, SuperTracker