Progress 09/01/13 to 08/31/15
Outputs
Target Audience:Three conferences supported by this USDA grant were held at University of Georgia and reached a target audience of 106 attendees including 17 graduate students, 87 administrators, faculty, and staff, and 2 representives from the food and beverage industry. Changes/Problems:The major change in our approach was to explore more deeply the approaches used in current childhood obesity courses and programs to continue to identify ways to collaborate across universities and share best-practices for course and program development, implementation, and evaluation. We focused on learning from three ongoing programs on how to best move forward to develop comprehensive interdisciplinary graduate instruction programs in childhood obesity in the future. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The interactive nature of these strategic planning conferences provided training and professional development opportunities involving sharing and critiques of best-practices and strategies used in interdisciplinary graduate instruction for childhood obesity and weight management. Topics included teaching strategies for scientific methods, nutrition, physical activity, food environment, behavioral change, behavioral economics, policy, population-based strategies for obesity prevention and management, and related areas. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Summaries of the conferences were disseminated to attendees and stakeholders at each conference. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
In collaboration with universities primarily from the southeastern US, the University of Georgia has held four conferences to initiate development of graduate instruction programs in obesity prevention and weight management, including a focus on childhood obesity. Faculty from 14 universities were involved in one or more of these conferences. The first conference was supported by a State-of-the-Art Conference grant from University of Georgia, was held in July 2013, and focused on what graduates should know and be able to do after completing graduate instruction in obesity. The next three strategic planning conferences were supported by this Higher Education Challenge Grant from NIFA, USDA. The conference held in July 2014 was titled, "Case-Based and Multi-University Approaches to Graduate Instruction in Childhood Obesity: Strategic Planning Conference." The next conferences explored in finer detail the features of graduate instruction programs in childhood obesity and weight management with University of Arkansas in March 2015 and Purdue University in August 2015. The attendees at the USDA-supported conferences were administrators, faculty, staff, graduate students, and other stakeholders (106 attendees). We explored multi-university collaborations and best-practices for case-based, interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, and online learning. Our key accomplishments include identifying: Intended competencies, learning objectives and outcomes: These are being identified from our collective experiences with three interdisciplinary graduate level courses in childhood obesity, one planned at University of Georgia, one currently taught at University of Arkansas, and one taught at Purdue University as part of the USDA-funded Transdisciplinary Obesity Prevention Research Program (TOPR) that is a collaboration of University Illinois (lead), Purdue University, and University of California-Fresno State. Integration strategies across disciplines and methods of delivery: Traditional classroom, online, hybrid (classroom and online), and interdisciplinary case-based learning strategies were shared by faculty from several universities, including the Georgia Regents University-University of Georgia Medical Partnership (all case-based curriculum for students in medical school), and Purdue University/University of Illinois/University of California-Fresno State, which have the most well-developed learning outcomes such as student gains in scientific knowledge about the complex causes of childhood obesity and interpersonal skills necessary for the contemporary work force. Educational resources needed: Obesity-related courses typically are not required in nutrition, exercise science, public health, child and family development, education, or agricultural graduate programs, so strategies such as certificates are suggested to attract students to these courses and programs. E-tuition rates allow for a higher rate of return of tuition to departments teaching the courses, and will help recover additional costs associated with development and delivery of online courses and programs. Strategies for collaboration across institutions: Collaborations will need to involve face-to-face meetings and conference calls with teaching faculty and administrators with experience in multi-institution collaborations, e.g., conference attendees included administrators from Purdue University, University of Arkansas, Tennessee State University, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, University of Georgia, and the Georgia Regents University-University of Georgia Medical Partnership. Also, various ways to efficiently share course content across universities and their diverse learning platforms were presented by University of Georgia's Office of Online Learning. Recruitment of diverse students into graduate programs in childhood obesity: Strategies likely to be successful include outreach to HBCU, as was suggested by Tennessee State University (an HBCU). Advantages include increased diversity of students and development of unique skills for the job market, as well as sharing of course content among faculty and universities to increase access to obesity-related graduate programs at universities whose graduates often serve populations at the highest risk of obesity and obesity-related disorders. In addition, evaluation plans continue to be in development with the Program Evaluation Group, College of Education, University of Georgia. The target audience remains as students pursuing master's degrees in agriculture, family and consumer sciences, education, exercise science, public health, and related areas. Anticipated impacts include a workforce prepared to address childhood obesity from the multidisciplinary perspectives of child and family development; food, nutrition, and agriculture; physical activity and exercise; counseling and behavior management; public health; and obesity policy. Related developments at University of Georgia include approval of an Interdisciplinary Graduate Certificate in Obesity and Weight Management that started in fall 2014 and involves more than 20 faculty who are teaching required and elective courses and supervising five on-campus clinics. Since fall 2014, course enrollment includes graduate students and honors students from 17 departments and programs including agricultural and applied economics (MS), athletic training (MS), cellular biology/biology (BS), exercise science (MS and PhD), food science and technology (MS and PhD), foods and nutrition (MS), health and medical journalism (MA), health policy and management (MPH), health promotion and behavior (MPH), horticulture (MS), workforce education (teachers in middle- and high-school, MEd), pre-med students (BS), medical students (MD), physicians (MD), and honors students (BS). This University of Georgia certificate is targeted to master's level students and to practitioners to address the obesity epidemic in clinical, community, school, workplace, and research settings (http://www.fcs.uga.edu/fdn/graduate-programs-obesity-and-weight-management).
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Progress 09/01/13 to 08/31/14
Outputs
Target Audience:
Nothing Reported
Changes/Problems: It will work best for faculty from universities across the southeast to have additional face-to-face meetings. After consulting with faculty from other universities, we will determine what timing and types of meetings will work best for us to prepare the Large Scale Regional Comprehensive Proposal. Funds remain in the grant/contract for travel, so justification for allocation of funds in this manner will be submitted for approval early in the second budget year. No major changes or problems in approach have been encountered. The Project Director and the Co-Project Directors at the University of Georgia that have been part of this grant/contract from initiation are: Project Director: Mary Ann Johnson, PhD, Bill and June Flatt Professor and Graduate Coordinator, Department of Foods and Nutrition, College of Family and Consumer Sciences, UGA Co-Project Directors: Linda F. Campbell, PhD, Professor and Director, Center for Counseling, Department of Counseling and Human Development Services, College of Education, UGA Neale R. Chumbler, PhD, Professor and Head, Department of Health Policy and Management, College of Public Health, UGA Marsha Davis, PhD, Assistant Dean for Outreach and Community Engagement, Department of Health Promotion and Behavior, College of Public Health, UGA Ellen M. Evans, PhD, Professor and Director, Center for Physical Activity and Health, Department of Kinesiology, College of Education, UGA Joan G. Fischer, PhD, RD, Associate Professor and Director, Dietetics Program, Department of Foods and Nutrition, College of Family and Consumer Sciences, UGA What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Training and professional development occured among the 11 graduate students and 44 faculty, staff, and other stakeholders at the Case-Based and Multi-University Approaches to Graduate Instruction in Childhood Obesity: Strategic Planning Conference. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Input from the strategic planning conference attendees during the conference and from postconference surveys are currently being analyzed and will be posted to the UGA Obesity Initiative website in fall 2015, http://obesity.ovpr.uga.edu/activities/instruction/. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? In the next reporting period, the results of the conference input and postconference surveys will be analyzed and shared with conference attendees and other stakeholders. Workgroups will be finalized to write and review a Large Scale Regional Comprehensive Proposal that focuses on graduate education in childhood obesity.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
In collaboration with universities across the southeastern US, the University of Georgia (UGA) has held two conferences to initiate development of graduate instruction programs in obesity prevention and weight management. Faculty from 13 universities were involved in one or both conferences. The first conference was supported by a State-of-the-Art Conference grant from UGA, was held in July 2013, and focused on what graduates should know and be able to do after completing graduate instruction in obesity. The second conference was supported by this Higher Education Challenge Grant from NIFA, USDA, was held in July 2014, and was titled, “Case-Based and Multi-University Approaches to Graduate Instruction in Childhood Obesity: Strategic Planning Conference.” This second conference was attended by 55 faculty, staff, graduate students, and other stakeholders, explored multi-university collaborations and best-practices for case-based, interdisciplinary, and online learning, and our key accomplishments include identifying: Intended competencies, learning objectives and outcomes: These are being identified from our collective experiences with two interdisciplinary graduate level courses in childhood obesity, one currently taught at University of Arkansas and one scheduled to be taught at UGA. Integration strategies across disciplines and methods of delivery: Traditional classroom, online, hybrid (classroom and online), and interdisciplinary case-based learning strategies were shared by faculty from several universities, including the Georgia Regents University-University of Georgia (GRU-UGA) Medical Partnership, which has an all case-based curriculum for students in medical school. Educational resources needed: Obesity-related courses typically are not required in nutrition, exercise science, public health, child and family development, education, or agricultural graduate programs, so strategies such as certificates are needed to attract students to these courses and programs. At some universities, special tuition rates allow for a higher rate of return of tuition to departments teaching the courses, and will help recover additional costs associated with development and delivery of online courses and programs. Strategies for collaboration across institutions: Collaborations across universities will continue to involve face-to-face meetings and conference calls with instructional faculty and adminstrators with experience in multi-institution collaborations, e.g., conference attendees included administrators from Tennesse State University, University of Tennesse, Knoxville, UGA, and the GRU-UGA Medical Partnership. Also, various ways to efficiently share course content across universities and their diverse learning platforms were discussed by UGA’s Office of Online Learning. Recruitment of diverse students into graduate programs in childhood obesity: Progress includes involving additional universities, e.g., Tennessee State University (HBCU). Advantages include increased diversity of students and unique skills for the job market, as well as sharing of course content among faculty and universities to increase access to obesity-related graduate programs at universities whose graduates often serve populations at the highest risk of obesity and obesity-related disorders. In addition, evaluation plans are in development with the Program Evaluation Group, College of Education, UGA. The target audience remains as students pursuing master's degrees in agriculture, family and consumer sciences, education, exercise science, public health, and related areas. Anticipated impacts include a workforce prepared to address childhood obesity from the multidisciplinary perspectives of child and family development; food, nutrition, and agriculture; physical activity and exercise; counseling and behavior management; public health; and obesity policy. In the upcoming year, we will continue to prepare a Large Scale Regional Comprehensive Proposal (HEC, NIFA, USDA). Related developments at UGA include approval of an Interdisciplinary Graduate Certificate in Obesity and Weight Management that started in fall 2014 and involves more than 20 faculty who are teaching required and elective courses and supervising five on-campus clinics. In fall 2014, the first course has 19 graduate students enrolled from seven departments in five colleges (the colleges of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Education, Family and Consumer Sciences, Journalism and Mass Communication, and Public Health). This UGA certificate is targeted to master’s level practitioners to address the obesity epidemic in clinical, community, school, workplace, and research settings, and includes an elective course in childhood obesity (http://www.fcs.uga.edu/fdn/graduate-programs-obesity-and-weight-management).
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