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Wecome to the INTERNET course of

CFS 368: DIETARY & HERBAL SUPPLEMENTS
DEPARTMENT OF CONSUMER & FAMILY SCIENCES
WESTERN KENTUCKY UNIVERSITY
FALL 2007

This course will be conducted entirely over the internet, EXCEPT for exams.  Students will be required to take exams at Western Kentucky University campus OR at an approved, designated testing site.
To take this course by internet you should:
have basic e-mail skills (be able to send and receive e-mail), have basic internet navigation skills,
be fluent in the English language, and be a motivated individual with the ability to work independently.
If you have registered for this course, you will receive at least one initial email from Dr. Kelley.  Please reply to that email from Dr. Kelley and let her know you received that first email and answer the questions in that email.   It is particularly important to answer the questions and follow instructions about testing, as soon as the emailed is received.  If you are taking EXAMS AWAY from Bowling Green, you will set up a proctored site.  For more exam information, please see the information below regarding exams and testing.

!!  ANY EMAILS you send to the professor should include in the SUBJECT line:  CFS 368

Dr. Danita S. Kelley: Academic Complex 209D, 745-6356
E-mail:  Danita.Kelley@wku.edu

Required Text:
Allison Sarubin Fragakis. The Health Professional's Guide to Popular Dietary Supplements, 3rd edition. Chicago: American Dietetic Association; 2007.

Prerequisite:  CFS 111 or permission of instructor

Course description:   A forum to examine contemporary issues, challenges, and trends in the field of nutrition related to various dietary and herbal supplements and complementary medicine.

Course Objectives:
Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:

  • Identify various dietary supplements.
  • Identify current regulatory, legal and ethical issues regarding the use of dietary supplements.
  • Investigate media claims, efficacy and safety information related to dietary supplements.
    •

    Teaching Methods:  This course will involve the completion of reading and homework assignments, participation in online discussion, and use of course notes (posted on the internet).  Reading course notes and text chapters will be very important to your understanding of the class topics.

    Special Instructional Materials:  A calculator will be useful for homework assignments.  For exams, students should have a calculator.  Although many of you may be taking computerized exams, please take a No. 2 pencil to each exam "just in case" the computerized system is not functioning properly.

    Academic Dishonesty Policy:  (THIS POLICY WILL BE ENFORCED!)  Students will be expected to do his/her own work for exams.  Failure to comply with this policy will result in a failing grade for the exam or assignment, and, perhaps, the course.  Please note WKU's policy (WKU Catalog, 2007-2008, p. 25):  “Students who commit any act of academic dishonesty may receive from the instructor a failing grade in that portion of the course work in which the act is detected or a failing grade in the course without possibility of withdrawal. The faculty member may also present the case to the Office of the Dean of Student Life for disciplinary sanctions.” Academic Dishonest may include the following: 

    Plagiarism: "To represent written work taken from another source as one's own is plagiarism.  Plagiarism is a serious offense.  The academic work of a student must be his/her own.  One must give any author credit for source material borrowed.  To lift content directly from a source without giving credit is a flagrant act.  To present a borrowed passage without reference to the source after having changed a few words is also plagiarism."  For exact sentences or passages taken from another source/author, QUOTATION MARKS should be used (unless a statement clearly identifying that the sentence/passage is an exact excerpt from another source is provided).

    Cheating:  "No student shall receive or give assistance not authorized by the instructor in taking an examination or in the preparation of an essay, laboratory report, problem assignment or other project which is submitted for purposes of grade determination."

    Disabilities Statement:  

    In compliance with university policy, students with disabilities who require accommodations (academic adjustments and/or auxiliary aids or services) for this course must contact the Office for Student Disability Services in DUC A-200 of the Student Success Center in Downing University Center. Please DO NOT request accommodations directly from the professor or instructor without a letter of accommodation from the Office for Student Disability Services.



    Corresponding with each exam will be:


    ASSIGNMENTS and DUE DATES:
    Assignments will be posted in the "Assignments" section of the course website, usually seven or more days prior to the due date.  All students are expected to work *independently* to complete the assignments.  If a student should encounter problems trying to complete the homework, he/she should e-mail the instructor for help.  Assignments must REACH the instructor by the DUE DATE.  Five points will be deducted for each day an assignment is late.  Homework will NOT be accepted after the answer key has been posted online or sent by email.  Some assignments will be more activity based and a single "answer key" will not really be appropriate; such assignments will not be accepted more than four days past the due date.  The "PROJECT", due near the end of the semester, will only be accepted 1 day past the due date.

    PARTICIPATION:
    Students will also be required to participate in online discussions of course topics.  Discussions will take place on the "Discussion Board" in the "Communication" section of the course website.  E-mail to the instructor will NOT be considered class discussion.  When a topic is proposed by the instructor, students will need to participate in "group" discussion about that topic at least once and by the posted due date. This participation will be tracked by the instructor.  Participation points will be deducted for failure to participate on one or more topics and for failure to participate by the due date.

    COURSE WEBSITE:

    For this course, we will be using a computerized system (website) called CourseInfo/Blackboard.

    EXAMS/TESTING:

    1.  There will be three exams.  ALL Students will SCHEDULE and take exams at Western Kentucky University OR at a designated off-campus testing sites by arrangement with the DELO Testing Center in Garrett Conference Center Rm 108.

    2.  EXAM DATES:    You will schedule to take each exam on 1 day from each designated week.
    Exam 1: to be announced
    Exam 2: to be announced
    Exam 3: to be announced

    3.  If you are taking exams in Bowling Green, you will be going to the DELO Testing Center in Garrett Conference Center Rm 108 on the WKU campus.  You will SCHEDULE each exam with the DELO Testing Center and pick from the days and times available to take the exams. The testing center is generally open during the normal work week between 8:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. Some testing on the 1st Saturday of each month may be offered BY APPOINTMENT ONLY, in the morning.  To SCHEDULE an exam, detailed instructions are given at http://www.wku.edu/testing/, to access exam scheduling instructions, go to the reachu website and click on the "-->Exams" link on the top right area of the screen. If taking exams in Bowling Green, the instructions will provide instructions to schedule the exam using topnet.    You should receive email confirmation of your registration day and time.  Please take that confirmation email with you to your exam.

    4. If you will NOT be testing in Bowling Green but WILL be testing AWAY from Bowling Green, Kentucky, then you will be working with the DELO Testing Center to locate a protored site and to schedule exams. Detailed instructions are given at http://www.wku.edu/testing/, to access exam scheduling instructions, go to the reachu website and click on the "-->Exams" link on the top right area of the screen.

    You will SCHEDULE to take the exam with 2 places (the off-campus site AND the DELO Testing Center at WKU).

    (A) Contact one of the testing sites listed at the reachu website and ask what days/times of the week that test proctoring is offered and how far in advance testing should be scheduled (and schedule the exam with them).
    (B) Then schedule with the DELO Testing Center at WKU, using the link above.

    5.  There could be a charge for testing at sites away from Bowling Green.  Exams will be computerized.

    6. You will have 60 minutes for each exam.


    GRADING:
    Final grades will be determined from the percentage of total points you earn.
     
    A: 90+% B: 80-89% C: 70-79% D: 60-69% F: < 59%

    Discussion/Participation: 20 points
    Short assignments: 50 points
    Exams: 3 (50 points each)= 150 points total
    Project = 30 points
    Total points possible = 250 (subject to change, based on number of short assignments)
     
     

        Tentative Course Topics & Exam Schedule
    Course Topic Readings
    Introduction to Dietary Supplements
    Introduction to Complementary & Alternative Medicine
    Government Regulation of Dietary Supplements
    Research Study Basics
    Statistics Basics    		 assigned as course progresses
    EXAM 1
    Determining the Need for Supplements/Ethics/Safety
    Evaluating Supplements
    Vitamins
    Minerals
    assigned as course progresses
    EXAM 2
    Amino Acids
    Herbals-Botanical/Other    		 assigned as course progresses
    EXAM 3-


    Supplement graphics found from Iowa State University Extension http://www.extension.iastate.edu/nutrition/supplements/index.html

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    Last Modified:  August 23, 2007
    Western Kentucky University