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Kansas State University Distance Education Class Offers Insight into Maintaining a Healthy Student Body

Posted on: Thursday, 23 February 2006, 12:00 CST

MANHATTAN, Kan., Feb. 23 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Between coping with a college-course load, adjusting to residence hall life and navigating the college social scene, a college freshman's health may take a backseat. But two distance learning classes from Kansas State University are trying to change that.

Healthy and Safe College Life I covers sexual health, mental health and injury prevention. Healthy and Safe College Life II covers nutrition and fitness; alcohol, drug and tobacco use; health insurance; and illness prevention, including immunizations.

The courses' topics reflect issues the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has identified as affecting college students. These health issues echo the ones affecting K-State students, too, said Carol Kennedy, who teaches the class. Kennedy is director of health education and promotion/nutrition counseling at K-State's Lafene Health Center.

"This course offers a basic level of information," she said. "We've tailored it to students who are new to college or to the high school senior who's going to college."

The class dispels some myths, too, like the "freshman 15," which refers the amount of weight students supposedly gain their first year in college. Not all students gain weight, Kennedy said, and students may have misconceptions about what contributes to weight gain.

Kennedy said Lafene staff had been interested for several years in offering a class for credit about student health issues. A greater push for the class came when K-State's counseling services released data on patients from the past 13 years that showed students were feeling increasingly stressed and that it could have an effect on their health.

"Students who are under a lot of stress not only feel anxious about their course work, they can have difficulty sleeping or concentrating," Kennedy said. "All of those things can decrease their immune system and they could become physically ill."

The classes not only teach students how to identify health problems in themselves or a friend, but they also direct students to resources for help, Kennedy said.

Because the classes are offered over the Internet only -- one student is taking the class from Maryland -- Kennedy said they present information that can be used by students anywhere. However, the courses also familiarize K-State students or those planning on attending the university with resources available on campus, such as Lafene Health Center and counseling services.

The Healthy and Safe College Life classes were first offered last fall. Exams are taken at particular intervals, but the tempo of the course is up to each student.

"Students in this course work at their own pace," Kennedy said.

Kennedy collaborated with Dianna Schalles, Lafene nutritionist, and Shelley Potorff Cunningham, Lafene webmaster and health educator, to develop the course. For course materials, Kennedy and her colleagues researched the Internet and identified materials about college health topics.

Students get information from the Web sites and complete worksheets to learn the information, and then they are tested. Because all of the course material is from the Internet, Kennedy said one of the first lessons is teaching students how to determine whether Web site information is reliable.

Both Healthy and Safe College Life I and II are offered twice a semester, and both will be available this summer. The next session begins March 27. Students may take one or both of the classes in either order. Offered through the department of counseling and educational psychology in the College of Education, each class is worth one credit hour.

More information about the classes is available at: http:// www.dce.ksu.edu/healthysafecollegelife/

http://www.usnewswire.com

Source: U.S. Newswire

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