Development, Validation, and Application of the Microbiology Concept Inventory

BRAKE the OUTBREAK: a free online simulation helps students learn about vaccination, social distancing, R, and herd immunity

Brake the Outbreak (BTO) is a free, online simulation of infectious outbreaks designed for educational use. A student using the simulation chooses a disease, vaccination percentage, social distancing rates, and other inputs. BTO then visually displays the resulting outbreak as it proceeds, including summary data, such as incidence and prevalence. BTO also shows emergent results like reproductive rate (R), which can be used to determine and test the herd immunity threshold (HIT) of the outbreak. BTO has been tested in the undergraduate microbiology classroom, where results suggest its use can enhance the learning of epidemiological content.

Updated ASM Curriculum Guidelines describe core microbiology content to modernize the framework for microbiology education

Curricular guidelines promote standardized approaches to coverage of essential knowledge and skills in undergraduate education. The American Society for Microbiology (ASM) Curriculum Guidelines for Undergraduate Microbiology were developed in 2012. Continuous, rapid growth of knowledge in science and a dynamic, changing world necessitate updates to these guidelines. As such, ASM formed a task force in the summer of 2022. The task force assessed the 2012 ASM Curriculum Guidelines considering advancements in technology, an understanding of an expanded role of microbes, and a broader scope addressing relevant social and environmental aspects of microbiology. Language in the updated guidelines was also modified to better include eukaryotic microbes, viruses, and other acellular microbes. The task force formed working groups, each aimed at revising specific sections of the 2012 ASM Curriculum Guidelines. The revisions to the ASM Curriculum Guidelines were reviewed by subject matter experts and education stakeholders. Feedback from this peer review was incorporated into the updated guidelines, and further comments were solicited from the ASM Conference of Undergraduate Educators (ASMCUE) attendees in November 2023 before these guidelines were finalized. In this article, we describe the rationale and development of updated ASM Curriculum Guidelines which identify foundational concepts that will serve to improve microbial literacy and that can be expanded upon to address more advanced and specialized topics.

Dynamic answer-dependent multiple-choice questions and holistic assessment analysis in high-enrollment courses

Many 4-year public institutions face significant pedagogical challenges due to the high ratio of students to teaching team members. To address the issue, we developed a workflow using the programming language R as a method to rapidly grade multiple-choice questions, adjust for errors, and grade answer-dependent style multiple-choice questions, thus shifting the teaching teams' time commitment back to student interaction. We provide an example of answer-dependent style multiple-choice questions and demonstrate how the output allows for discrete analysis of questions based on various categories such as Fundamental Statements or Bloom's Taxonomy Levels. Additionally, we show how student demographics can be easily integrated to yield a holistic perspective on student performance in a course. The workflow offers dynamic grading opportunities for multiple-choice questions and versatility through its adaptability to assessment analyses. This approach to multiple-choice questions allows instructors to pinpoint factors affecting student performance and respond to changes to foster a healthy learning environment.

Application of the Microbiology Concept Inventory to improve programmatic curriculum

The Microbiology Concept Inventory is an assessment tool derived from the fundamental statements created by the American Society for Microbiology. This two-tier, multiple-choice question inventory requires students to choose the most correct answer for each question and provide a brief justification of their reasoning. Educators can utilize this tool to identify common misconceptions held by students and adjust curriculum to address and prevent the persistence of student misconceptions. Over the course of 5 years, the Microbiology Concept Inventory was annually administered to undergraduate students enrolled in entry-level, mid-level, and senior capstone microbiology courses at a mid-western rural university. Analysis was completed to compare course, year, majors and minors, gender, ethnicity, and cumulative GPA. Results of this study showed a significant difference in Microbiology Concept Inventory scores between students with high cumulative GPAs (3.5-4.0) and students with comparatively lower cumulative GPAs (2.5-2.99, 3.0-3.49). Results between the other demographic categories revealed statistically different scores in favor of white students, but no differences in scores between genders. The results suggest evidence of ethnic bias, but no gender bias as measured by the Microbiology Concept Inventory. Additionally, significant differences in scores across cohorts are indicative of improvements in the curricula due to prior targeted changes. Analysis of concept inventory results can guide curriculum changes for course instructors. Implementation of curriculum changes can enrich students' academic success.

Scaffolding STEM Literacy Assignments To Build Greater Competence in Microbiology Courses

Different approaches can be used to impart science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) literacy among undergraduates and thus can be modified to support various scientific concepts and course objectives. In comparable microbiology-related courses, scaffolded assignments to improve STEM literacy through data, information, and communication analysis skills were developed using the ASM Curriculum Guidelines and the Microbiology Course Inventory (MCI) to structure the course and assignments. Examples of such assignments included a meta-analysis using literature and bioinformatics, as well as a public data presentation and an epidemiological model based on current events. To evaluate the effectiveness of such approaches, assignment components were aligned to determine whether the activities reinforced the MCI concepts. Comparison of pre- and postcourse data indicated relative strengths (and weaknesses) addressed by scaffolded STEM literacy pedagogy. These efforts also contribute to a department-wide initiative to enhance career readiness and implementation of course assessments. Future goals are to broaden the integration of assignment components to other microbiology-related courses and have longitudinal assessment.

What College Biology Students Know about How Vaccines Work

Vaccines are an important and societally relevant biology topic, but it is unclear how much college biology students know about how vaccines work and what inaccurate ideas they have about that process. Therefore, we asked more than 600 college students taking biology courses at various levels to explain, "How does a vaccine work?" in a free-response format. Based on authoritative sources and responses from immunology and other biology faculty, we created a rubric to gauge the basic knowledge and accuracy present in student responses. Basic knowledge was defined as knowing that vaccines mimic the pathogen, elicit an active immune response, and provide protection against future infection. Accuracy was defined as the absence of scientifically inaccurate ideas. We found that advanced biology majors score significantly higher in basic knowledge and accuracy when compared with all other student groups, but there were no differences between entering biology majors, pre-health majors, and non-pre-health majors. We also uncovered a variety of inaccurate ideas, with the most common being that vaccines contain the original, unmodified pathogen. These results provide a new way to gauge college student understanding of how a vaccine works and enrich our understanding of what college students know about this process.

Bootleg Biology: a Semester-Long CURE Using Wild Yeast to Brew Beer

Laboratory exercises for undergraduates that involve authentic discovery and research have been shown to increase student learning and engagement. To bring these advantages into the microbiology curriculum, we developed a semester-long course-based undergraduate research experience for a laboratory based on brewing beer with wild yeast. This set of lab exercises uses many of the same protocols found in traditional microbiology lab curricula-isolating and maintaining pure cultures, staining and microscopy, use of aseptic technique, PCR, gel electrophoresis, and media preparation-and integrates them into a novel and exciting project that enables students to be active participants in the scientific method. Students are assessed on their ability to brew beer successfully and to stain and visualize microorganisms; they are also assessed for knowledge gains in the traditional portion of the course, their ability to use their brewing knowledge in other settings, and their attitudes about science. After completing the course, students showed gains in general microbiology knowledge and their engagement with science.

Agar Art: a CURE for the Microbiology Laboratory

We previously developed and assessed "The Art of Microbiology," a course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) which uses agar art to spur student experimentation, where we found student outcomes related to science persistence. However, these outcomes were not correlated with specific activities and gains were not reported from more than one class. In this study, we explored which of the three major activities in this CURE-agar art, experimental design, or poster presentations-affected student engagement and outcomes associated with improved understanding of the nature of science (NOS). The Art of Microbiology was studied in three microbiology teaching laboratories: at a research university with either the CURE developer (18 students) or a CURE implementer (39 students) and at a community college with a CURE implementer (25 students). Our quasi-experimental mixed methods study used pre/post-NOS surveys and semi-structured class-wide interviews. Community college students had lower baseline NOS responses but had gains in NOS similar to research university students post-CURE. We surveyed research university students following each major activity using the Assessing Student Perspective of Engagement in Class Tool (ASPECT) survey but did not find a correlation between NOS and activity engagement. Of the three activities, we found the highest engagement with agar art, especially in the CURE developer class. Interviewed students in all classes described agar art as a fun, relevant, and low-stakes assignment. This work contributes to the evidence supporting agar art as a curricular tool, especially in ways that can add research to classrooms in and beyond the research university.

Teaching in the Time of COVID-19: Creation of a Digital Internship to Develop Scientific Thinking Skills and Create Science Literacy Exercises for Use in Remote Classrooms

The extreme academic and social disruption caused by COVID-19 in the spring and summer of 2020 led to the loss of many student internships. We report here our creation of a novel internship for students majoring in the biological sciences. Student interns worked together to systematically categorize multiple episodes of This Week in Microbiology (TWiM). They annotated episodes by labeling relevant ASM fundamental curricular guidelines and the microbiology techniques described in several podcast episodes. Interns worked together, which advanced their written and oral communication skills while improving their scientific thinking skills. Faculty then enhanced each annotation by adding short figure-reading exercises that can be used in a variety of educational settings to teach science literacy. When surveyed, students reported greater confidence in analyzing and interpreting results from a variety of microbiological methods, improved communication of fundamental microbiology concepts in written and oral form, and enhanced ability to collaborate with others. Combined, this digital internship provided a unique opportunity for students to develop critical technical and scientific thinking skills and generated useful open education resources for teaching general microbiology in the form of annotated podcasts.

Inside the Undergraduate Immunology Classroom: Current Practices that Provide a Framework for Curriculum Consensus

Although immunological research has become increasingly important in recent decades for understanding infectious and immune-mediated diseases, immunological pedagogy at the undergraduate level has lagged behind in reports of evidence-based scholarship. To address the need for a renewed emphasis on immunology education and to describe the current status of undergraduate education in immunology, an online survey of instructors with experience in teaching immunology was conducted. The survey investigated the effects of instructors' level of teaching experience, target student population, and course components on the emphasis given to certain immunology subtopics in their courses. Instructor teaching experience and current role in teaching influenced the proportion of time allotted to lab techniques, clinical topics, and evolutionary aspects, but type of institution (undergraduate and graduate degree-granting institutions) did not affect course content or emphasis on subtopics. Topics that received the greatest emphasis were the adaptive immune system, the innate immune system, host-pathogen interactions, and molecular mechanisms. Vaccines, hypersensitivity, autoimmunity, and essential immunology techniques were ranked slightly lower, while topics such as evolution, metabolism and antibody purification received the least emphasis. Inclusion of a lab component increased time given to lab-related and clinical topics but did not affect the perceived importance of various scientific competencies. These data describe current curricular practices of instructors who have experience teaching immunology and inform curricular priorities and course design frameworks for undergraduate immunology education.

A laboratory competency examination in microbiology

The American Society for Microbiology's curricular guidelines for Introductory Microbiology highlighted key laboratory skills in the isolation, visualization and identification of microorganisms as core learning objectives in the discipline. Since the publication of these guidelines in 2012, there has been a paucity of diagnostic assessment tools in the literature that can be used to assess competencies in the microbiology laboratory. This project aimed to establish a laboratory competency examination for introductory microbiology, with tasks specifically aligned to laboratory skills and learning outcomes outlined in curricular guidelines for microbiology. A Laboratory Competency Examination assessing student skills in light microscopy, Gram-staining, pure culture, aseptic technique, serial dilution, dilution calculations and pipetting was developed at The University of Queensland, Australia. The Laboratory Competency Examination was field-tested in a large introductory microbiology subject (∼400 students), and student performance and learning gains data were collected from 2016 to 2017 to evaluate the validity of the assessment. The resulting laboratory assessment is presented as an endpoint diagnostic tool for assessing laboratory competency that can be readily adapted towards different educational contexts.

Is the undergraduate microbiology curriculum preparing students for careers in their field?: an assessment of biology majors' conceptions of growth and control of microorganisms

BACKGROUND

We present an analysis of students' responses to application-based questions on the topic of growth and control of microorganisms, from a questionnaire administered to 348 second and third year students of an Indian university who were enrolled in its undergraduate programs in Biotechnology or Microbiology. We examined aspects of the laboratory practice as reported by teachers and of the university assessment patterns that may explain our findings. Reports by teachers also included their views on the impact of the laboratory curriculum on building student capabilities. Studies such as this play an important role in informing the ongoing discourse in the country about much-needed reforms in undergraduate education.

RESULTS

Our analysis revealed several lacunae in students' understanding. Students' performance on the questionnaire was also found to be poorly correlated with their academic achievement in the university examinations. Teachers' reports revealed that there was a minimal student involvement in planning and designing of the experiments in their laboratory course; rather, cookbook protocols were commonly used by the students. There was a striking disparity between students' stated career aspirations and their preparedness for them.

CONCLUSIONS

Our analysis points to underlying issues in the teaching-learning and assessment process; we discuss these issues and possible alternatives to the current practices. This study, to the best of our knowledge, is the first in the country that has explored students' conceptions for an elementary topic in biology education at the tertiary level. We believe that the results of the study will be useful in shaping the ongoing educational reforms in higher education and will also be useful in developing a concept inventory on this topic.

Microbiology Education and Infection Control Competency: Offering a New Perspective

Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) have become a significant and costly problem for healthcare institutions worldwide. Despite the crucial role of infection prevention and control (IC) procedures, there is a substantial body of evidence to indicate that IC knowledge and practices of health professional graduates is, however, sub-optimal. This paper presents a discussion of the critical role microbiology plays in infection control education and practice, arguing that without an ability to apply microbiology knowledge to IC decision-making, there is an inherent risk of incorrect application of IC practices and thus a risk to patient (and nurse) safety. The authors propose a re-conceptualization of infection control competency, using nursing as an exemplar profession, to reflect practice that is not based on simple memorization of protocols but rather on a sound understanding of microbiology and informed decision-making. The proposal for re-conceptualizing the definition and assessment of IC competence, if adopted, would potentially enhance students' understanding and synthesis of microbiology knowledge and help build students' capacity to apply that knowledge to practice.

Publishing activities improves undergraduate biology education

To improve undergraduate biology education, there is an urgent need for biology instructors to publish their innovative active-learning instructional materials in peer-reviewed journals. To do this, instructors can measure student knowledge about a variety of biology concepts, iteratively design activities, explore student learning outcomes and publish the results. Creating a set of well-vetted activities, searchable through a journal interface, saves other instructors time and encourages the use of active-learning instructional practices. For authors, these publications offer new opportunities to collaborate and can provide evidence of a commitment to using active-learning instructional techniques in the classroom.