Website: Designlearning.org
Example of a Well-Designed Course in: DIETETICS
Name: Melissa Gutschall, PhD, RD, LDN
Name of Institution: Appalachian State University
1. Specific Context
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The subject matter: Nutrition Education and Counseling
The title of the course: Education and Counseling for Dietetics
Practice
Typical class size: 25
Level of the course: Senior
Mode of delivery: Face-to-face
Type of institution: University
2. General Description of the Course
Principles of dietary counseling for the general population and for individuals with
special health problems. Principles of teaching and learning applied to nutrition
counseling of patients with specific health problems. (3 credits)
3. Big Purpose of the Course
Students will be confident and competent in their ability to effectively counsel or
educate clients for successful dietary behavior change and maintenance. The skills
gained will be transferable to a variety of diet and disease situations and sensitive to
individual client characteristics. Skills such as improved communication and selfassessment abilities will also enhance the continued personal and professional
development of the student.
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4. Important Situational Factors/Special Pedagogical Challenge
Situational Factors:
Responses/Solutions:
1. Meeting accreditation competencies 1. I will strive to relate the lessons learned
for dietetics education. We must
to each career pathway students might
prepare competent practitioners
select for the future.
with the ability to move on to
2. Use the principles of course design
greater professional training, while
learned from this workshop to effectively
some students in the course will not
deliver the course despite the class size.
qualify to move on the next level of
Consider multiple sections or summer
training.
offerings as alternative strategies to
2. The number of nutrition majors is
meeting growing demand.
growing rapidly such that the
3. Coordinate coverage of particular topics
course enrollment could be 35-50
and disease states with instructor of costudents in a very practicum
requisite course. Students will be
natured course.
covering diet therapy for particular
3. The course is a co-requisite with
Medical Nutrition Therapy 1, taught
during the fall semester of senior
year.
4. I’ve never taught this course, but it
is my area of expertise. I am very
interested in teaching it for that
reason, but also because I am now
the director of our undergraduate
program and would like to increase
my contact with students at the
senior level.
Special Pedagogical Challenge:
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disease states in that course, e.g.,
diabetes, heart disease, which provides a
unique opportunity for integration in this
course within counseling scenarios and
educational sessions.
4. I hope that by using these principles of
course design, I can develop an
effective, powerful, dynamic course from
the start and somehow add it to my
teaching load in the near future.
Responses/Solutions:
Students have a lack of experience 
and exposure to patients in the field
at this point in their curriculum.
Thus, they may be naïve to
individual client characteristics and
motivations that affect readiness to
change dietary behaviors.
My research and practice experiences
have been highly based on behavioral
theories and education planning,
implementation and evaluation. I hope
to be able to provide many examples
from those experiences that will help
students relate to course material. I also
plan to provide rich learning experiences,
such as simulated counseling scenarios
with peer critique that will enhance the
students’ knowledge, professional
development, and passion for the
profession of dietetics.
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5. 3-Column Table
Learning Goals:
Assessment Activities:
1. Foundational Knowledge:
Readiness Assessment Test on
counseling and education principles
and techniques.
Describe the theoretical basis for
dietary behavior change.
Identify key principles and techniques
from theoretical frameworks to use in
nutrition counseling and education
roles.
Identification of counseling and
education principles and techniques
within a preliminary computer-based
counseling simulation that presents
their patient for subsequent
counseling scenarios.
Learning Activities:
Background reading and lectures.
Computer-based counseling
simulations demonstrating
fundamental concepts.
Each group will develop 3 readiness
assessment quiz questions based on
their topic to construct a test for the
class.
2. Application:
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Develop goals in collaboration
with a client and provide
reinforcement to maintain
improved dietary behaviors. Goals
should be specific to client’s
individual needs and sensitive to
differences in health beliefs and
lifestyle choices.
Implement and evaluate
interventions and strategies to
facilitate dietary behavior change.
Demonstrate communication skills
that encourage client discussion,
clarification, and problem-solving.
Practice cultural competence skills
and discipline-specific techniques
within counseling and education
Students will self-assess and peerassess their performance on the
simulation using an established
rubric.
Each student will participate in 2
simulated counseling scenarios about
a given disease state, which will be
videotaped.
Instructor will assess the
improvement from scenario 1 to
scenario 2.
Students will use selected resources
within counseling scenarios and
education session.
Instructor and peers will assess the
quality and appropriateness of
resources chosen for patients.
Students will share resources within
an online group resource repository
(e.g., diigo.com or delicious.com).
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scenarios.
Select and develop appropriate
content, strategies, and resources
for effectively educating clients
about dietary interventions for
their specific disease state.
3. Integration:
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Use prior knowledge and research
to design evidence-based
interventions.
Connect knowledge and
experience from this course within
remaining coursework, internships
and future nutrition practice.
Final education session presentation
rated by instructor and peers.
Reflective essay.
Students will generate the rubric for
evaluating the educational sessions.
4. Human Dimension:
Students will write a reflection paper
at the beginning of the course about
a dietary change they have made,
factors that influence dietary choices,
and level of difficulty in making
dietary change.
A. Learning about ONE-SELF:
Students will gain confidence in their
ability to use this information and
understand how personal health
behaviors and perceptions of food
impact decision-making about
nutrition care for others.
Reflection papers
Class discussion
Scenario observation
B. Interacting with OTHERS:
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Students will integrate what is
learned from counseling experiences
to develop an educational
presentation for patients with multiple
chronic diseases.
Identify promoters and barriers to
dietary behavior change.
Students will write a reflection paper
following each counseling scenario
reflecting on how stereotypes and
biases may affect the ability to work
with others.
Students will watch a videotaped
counseling scenario and select
successful and unsuccessful strategies
Identify a client’s readiness to
change.
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for working with clients and patients.
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Understand non-verbal behaviors
that affect counseling and
education.
Students will observe and take note
of non-verbal behaviors within peerassessment of counseling scenarios.
Class debriefing of all of the above
items.
5. Caring:
Students will get excited about the
value of course material and
techniques within their personal and
professional lives.
Students incorporate what was
learned from family interviews within
the counseling scenario to provide
appropriate goals, reinforcement, and
follow-up.
Interview a family member or friend
about making a dietary behavior
change and reflect on what made
that change successful or
unsuccessful.
Counseling scenarios
Students will reflect on the personal
value of course material within a
learning portfolio.
6. How to Continue Learning:
Develop strategies and resources for
continual learning and professional
development in the field of nutrition.
Learning Portfolio.
Plan for continuing education and
professional development.
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Students will develop a learning
portfolio with plan for continued
learning and professional
development.
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Add 1-2 paragraphs of comments about the goals or your effort to identify good
goals and appropriate learning and assessment activities.
The major goal of this course is that student’s will improve interpersonal,
interprofessional, and cultural competency skills throughout the semester. Thus,
the major assessment activities were selected to address this goal and are
weighted as such.
o Performance on counseling scenarios will be assessed using an established
rubric. The sequence of counseling scenarios will move from simple to more
complex, allowing students to build on their proficiency from scenario 1 to
scenario 2. Scenarios will integrate all counseling theories and techniques
they have learned throughout the semester as well as the medical nutrition
therapies taught in the co-requisite course.
o The assessment will also integrate multiple layers of assessment for
comparison, including self-assessment, peer-assessment, and instructor or
practitioner assessment.
o While the instructor is a registered dietitian, the possibility of having an
outside dietitian assess student performance is being considered to make this
truly forward-thinking and authentic to future practice. This person could also
be the instructor of the co-requisite course, who has significant practice
experience, in efforts to align the content and goals of each course.
o The established rubric evaluates areas of professional demeanor,
interdisciplinary collaboration, communication techniques, cultural sensitivity,
and development of appropriate intervention strategies based on the
information given.
o Students will reflect on their own performance within counseling scenarios
using the same rubric as the instructor and peers.
o Feedback will be immediate in the form of peer reactions to the scenario
performance, and frequent as the students will receive feedback from
themselves, their peers, and the instructor.
6. Weekly Schedule
Week:
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8.
Topic
Learning Plan
Module 1: Information and Ideas
Foundational Knowledge:
Background Reading
Behavioral Theories
Family or Friend Interview
Communication Essentials
Preliminary Reflection Paper
Promoting Change to Facilitate SelfReadiness Assessment Test
Management
Making Behavior Change Last
Module 2: Doing and Observing
Application: Nutrition Counseling
Preliminary case study
The Patient with Diabetes
The Patient with Hypertension
Counseling scenarios with peerThe Patient with Cardiovascular
assessment and self-reflection
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Disease
Integration: Nutrition Education
Intervention
Keys to Successful Nutrition Education
Interventions
Educational Strategies, Mass Media,
Evaluation
Group Facilitation
Educational Resources
Module 3: Reflection
Human Dimension: Self and others
Empathy
Cultural Competence
Verbal and non-verbal behavior
Interprofessional skills: Values and
Ethics, Roles and Responsibilities,
Teamwork, Communication
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13.
Module 4: Continued Learning
Caring: Learning Portfolio
Keep on Learning: Learning
Portfolio
Self-assessment
Professional Development Portfolios
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15.
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Development of final educational
session with presentations for class.
Class debriefing on reflection papers
regarding how stereotypes and
biases may affect the ability to work
with others.
View videotaped counseling
scenarios and select successful and
unsuccessful strategies for working
with clients and patients, as well as
non-verbal behaviors that may
impact the counseling situation.
Development of learning portfolio
with reflection of the personal value
of the course material, and a plan
for continued learning and
professional development.
Include, if possible, a brief description of your teaching strategy
The teaching strategy selected for this course is team-based learning. I’ve selected
this strategy as it is good training for how students will work with patients and other
members of an interprofessional healthcare team in practice. It is also an effective way
to handle the number of students in the course and ensure that each student obtains a
quality educational experience.
Communication among the team is essential for providing superior patient care. The
combination and sequence of the course activities is designed to provide the base of
foundational knowledge, followed by practical application and reflection on theoretical
concepts related to providing counseling and education, and finally, application of the
course content to the design of an effective educational intervention. This strategy
enhances my individual teaching style, because it is the very same method by which I
have been developing and evaluating educational interventions that will be
demonstrated in the course.
This strategy complements the progression from knowledge to skills to behaviors
necessary for professional practice, but also for dietary behavior change among patients
and clients. This course provides the instructor with a unique interface for modeling the
very same strategies used to promote meaningful learning by students that are
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successful for behavior change with clients. The typical weekly structure will involve a
readiness assessment test, followed by a team-based application of the knowledge, and
then application and integration within individual simulations or education programs.
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Add 1-2 paragraphs of comments about anything special you needed to do,
to make this course work right.
This course meets specific accreditation competencies for dietetics education.
We must prepare competent practitioners with the ability to move on to the next level
of professional training, while some students in the course will not qualify to move on
the next level of training. The number of nutrition majors is growing rapidly such that
the course enrollment could be 35-50 students in a very practicum natured course. I
aim to use the principles of course design learned from this workshop to effectively
deliver the course despite the class size, but also to consider multiple sections or
summer offerings as alternative strategies to meeting growing demand. With this,
sections could possibly be divided and the content tailored to students’ future career
plans.
I would also need to coordinate coverage of particular topics and disease states
with the instructor of the co-requisite Medical Nutrition Therapy course. Students will be
learning about diet therapy for particular disease states in that course, e.g., diabetes,
heart disease, which provides a unique opportunity for integration with counseling
scenarios and educational sessions.
Students may have a lack of experience and exposure to patients in the field at this
point in their curriculum. Thus, they may be naïve to individual client characteristics
and motivations that affect readiness to change dietary behaviors. Students may also
be uncomfortable in a counseling situation with peers, which could limit their ability to
get the most out of a highly participatory course. I would try to address this within the
first module activities and readiness assessment tests to get a sense of prerequisite
knowledge and experience, and with the progression of course topics from simple to
complex. I believe it is also my nature to make students comfortable and provide a
positive learning environment where they can gain confidence and willingness to open
up.
Finally, I would need to ensure adequate functioning and efficient techniques for
using the audiovisual equipment, or consider departmental support for upgrades as
needed. Along with this would be the necessity of a high level of organization to
facilitate scheduling of group experiences with availability of equipment.
7. My Contact Information
My name and institution:
Melissa Gutschall, PhD, RD, LDN
Assistant Professor and Director, Didactic Program in Dietetics
Department of Nutrition and Health Care Management
Appalachian State University
My email address: gutschallmd@appstate.edu
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