Faculty-led Inquiry into Reflective and Scholarly Teaching (FIRST)

 

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

Date of this Version

1-4-2025

Document Type

Portfolio

Comments

Copyright 2025 Nicole Sexton

Abstract

This course portfolio relates to the Fall 2025 delivery of BIOS 443/843: Immunology, cross listed as MBIO 443 and VMBS 843 and was prepared as part of the Faculty-led Inquiry into Reflective and Scholarly Teaching (FIRST) project. BIOS 443/843 is an upper division course that introduces Immunological concepts but also connects them to up to date literature in the field of Immunology with the intent of preparing students for careers in medicine and biomedical research. In Fall of 2025 this course was restructured to incorporate additional peer-to-peer learning opportunities and more distributed assessment styles, therefore was peer-reviewed to assess the outcomes of these changes and to support continued use of successful improvements to the delivery of this complex subject. The object of this course reflection portfolio was to align desired learning outcomes with course assessments and to distribute assessment opportunities for diverse student learning strategies. As this was the first delivery of this course by Dr. Sexton effectiveness of interventions was not assessed directly but collective data on formative assessments from exams is examined both in the success of individual exam questions on determining knowledge gained by students and compared with participation in other course assessments. The portfolio concludes with intentions to improve future iterations through full integration of the course design began here and through the design of year-to-year data comparisons as delivery is adjusted.

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