The anticipated knowledge, skills and attitudes to be developed by the students are:

1. Understanding of biomedical science as a broad field that applies rigorous, biology-based science primarily to the field of medical research, including the research of human disease and the development of potential diagnostic tests and therapeutic agents

2. Ability to critically analyse and understand published biomedical research,

3. Understanding of the experimental design process and its application in providing solutions
to specified research questions

4. Ability to communicate, in written form, biomedical research outcomes in an scientific style

5. Awareness of the ethical issues surrounding biomedical research

Students will be supplied with required & suggested readings, available from the Barr Smith Library or from online sources.

Access to MyUni and University email is absolutely required, as the bulk of communication with students will be via these mechanisms.

MyUni: Teaching materials and course documentation will be posted on the MyUni website (http://myuni.adelaide.edu.au/).

The tutorials provide a mechanism for students to review the lecture material. Workshop sessions and related assessments will use examples from the lectures to develop skills in assessing the relative value of published work and the process by which biomedical experimentation is undertaken.

The information below is provided as a guide to assist students in engaging appropriately with the course requirements.

Students are expected to attend all planned teaching activities to maximise their chances of success. In addition students are expected to spend 2 hours per lecture and 1 hour per tutorial in revision and preparation respectively. Finally, students will need to spend 45 hours in preparation of various assessments associated with the workshop.

A student enrolled in a 3 unit course such as this should expect to spend on average 12 hours per week on the studies required. This includes both the formal contact time required to the course (e.g., lectures and practicals), as well as non-contact time (e.g., reading, preparing assessments etc).

Please Note:
Tutorials are held weekly and begin in week 2. 
Some teaching activities may be held in week 13 dependant on public holidays
Lecture topics are subject to change based on staff availability

Week	Type of learning activity	Topic
1	Lecture	Introduction to Biomedical Science & Biostatistics
	Workshop	Workshop #1
2	Lecture	Cell Biology Overview
	Workshop	N/A
3	Lecture	Cell Biology Overview
	Workshop	Workshop #2
4	Lecture	Cell Biology Overview
	Workshop	N/A
5	Lecture	Diseases of development
	Workshop	Workshop #3
6	Lecture	Diseases of development & Genetic Counselling
	Workshop	N/A
Mid Semester Break
7	Lecture	Autoimmunity & Multiple Sclerosis
	Workshop	Workshop #4
8	Lecture	Sexually Transmitted Diseases
	Workshop	N/A
9	Lecture	Colorectal cancer and aging
	Workshop	Workshop #5
10	Lecture	HCV - Disease & Epidemiology
	Workshop	N/A
11	Lecture	Aging & Disease
	Workshop	Workshop #6
12	Lecture	Aging & Disease & Topical Lecture
	Workshop	N/A
13	Lecture	N/A
	Workshop	N/A

Assessment task	Type of assessment	Percentage of total assessment for grading purposes	Hurdle (Yes/No)	Outcomes being assessed
Critical review of Journal article (Part 1)	Formative	5%	No	1,2,4
Critical review of Journal article (Part 2)	Summative	15%	No	1,2,3,4
Experimental design (Part 1)	Formative	5%	No	3,4
Experimental design (Part 2)	Summative	15%	No	2,3,4
Online Exercise (includes a peer assessment component)	Summative	20%	No	2,4,5
Tutorial Tests	Summative	4 x 10%	No	1

Attendance at all teaching activities is required to obtain instruction for assessments.

Please note periodic assessements will be held during either workshops and/or tutorials, hence attendance at all of these activities is mandatory.

Non-attendance at these sessions without adequate reason (in association with appropriate documentation) will result in a zero mark for the relevant assessment.

Description of Assessment:
All assessment tasks will be supported by extensive guidelines and detailed assessment rubrics.
Specific criteria along with a template document will be provided to assist the students in completing each assessment task.

Redemption of Formative assessments:
Part one of the Critical review and Experimental design assessments are formative tasks. Applying the feedback from these assessments will be essential for achieving high marks in Part 2 of each assessment. In addition, if students do poorly in Part 1, they can elect to explicitly address how they have used feedback from Part 1 in preparing Part 2. If this is deemed satisfactory (according to the supplied guidelines), the major assessment will be marked out of the total of the two linked assessments (i.e. 25%). Examples:

1. A student’s mark for Critical review Part 1 was 2.1% (out of 5% max). The student included specific notes within Part 2, detailing how they had addressed the feedback given in Part 1 when preparing Part 2. This was deemed satisfactory by the marker, and thus Part 2 was assessed out of a maximum of 20%, rather than out of 15% (i.e. the student could achieve full marks for these linked assessments, despite the low performance in Part 1)
2. Another student scored the same mark of 2.1%. This student chose not to explicitly address the feedback provided from Part 1, and thus Part 2 was marked out of a maximum of 15% (i.e. the student could score a maximum of 17.1/20% for these linked assessments)

Note that in all cases, the student will be awarded the higher mark (i.e. the student will not be disadvantaged if they attempt redemption but score poorly in Part 2). Overall this approach to the assessment tasks allows all students the opportunity to achieve high scores in this course, and importantly encourages them to use the feedback given to improve their academic performance.

Critical review of Journal Article (Parts 1 & 2; Maximum of 20% of total course grade):
Two workshops will be dedicated to teaching the process of critically reviewing published data i.e. determining significance and reliability. These workshops will be assessed by written assignments, in the manner outlined above.

Experimental Design Parts 1 & 2 (Part 1 & 2; Maximum of 20% of total course grade):
Two Workshops will be dedicated to teaching the design process for Biomedical experiments. Students will receive instruction on the specifics of experimental design, and use this knowledge to explain the underlying design factors present in a published article as well as design their own experiment. These workshops will be assessed by written assignments, in the manner outlined above.

Online Exercise - (20% of total course grade):
Students will participate in this group exercise by researching a specific disease (chosen by the students) and developing a wiki which presents their findings regarding various aspects of the disease e.g. treatment, pathogenesis, future research directions etc. Students are expected to provide adequate literature support for their contributions and will also provide peer assessment for the members of their groups with regards to their contributions to the wiki. Note that there will be a specific training session on the use of Wikispaces during the first workshop.

Tutorial Tests: (40% of total course grade):
Students will be assessed on their understanding of the lecture material via tests held periodically throught the semetser (4 in total). These tests will help students evaluate their understanding of the lecture content.

 

All work (except the tutorial tests) will be submitted online via the relevant assessment link on MyUni. Coversheets & Templates will be supplied as required. Any work submitted without the relevant coversheet will NOT be assessed. Tests papers will be collected at the end of each test period, with feedback provided in a following teaching session.

Late submission of assessments
If an extension is not applied for, or not granted then a penalty for late submission will apply. A penalty of 10% of the value of the assignment for each calendar day that the assignment is late (i.e. weekends count as 2 days), up to a maximum of 50% of the available marks will be applied. This means that an assignment that is 5 days late or more without an approved extension can only receive a maximum of 50% of the marks available for that assignment.