Use Of A Digital Repository To Support Graduate Education

DUNE: DigitalUNE, the University of New England\u27s library-managed online repository, archives and provides worldwide access to exemplary work by UNE community members. The MS Applied Nutrition program at UNE has collaborated with DUNE to provide a platform for students to share their academic work with peers and colleagues, and to develop nutrition education resources for practitioners around the world. DUNE is hosted on the Digital Commons platform. Uploaded items receive unique URLs, allowing use statistics to be kept regarding how often and where works are viewed. The platform is flexible, hosting and managing myriad formats of digital objects, and allowing for customizability of its hierarchical layout and metadata fields. Placement of student works in DUNE supports key facets of andragogy, and particularly supports the needs of online students. Adult learners benefit when their work is practical and applicable; Applied Nutrition courses are tailored to this population. Students create academic artifacts for their course and potentially for use in their workplace, but placement on DUNE assures their work an audience outside of the course platform. Consequently, students also receive evaluation outside of the assignment, while showing a body of academic work and growth throughout their time at UNE. This larger audience assigns wider impact and meaning to their work. Additionally, global exposure affords opportunities for the work to be utilized by others, potentially creating opportunities for collaboration and recognition. The use of a library-managed platform outside of the CGPS also helps students to have another connection to UNE and allows staff to work across UNE programs.https://dune.une.edu/libserv_facpost/1002/thumbnail.jp