The written take-home examinations will consist of all material presented in class during that quarter.  There will be four such take-home exams over the duration of the course.  Performance in the presentation sessions shall be judged on the material presented including; literature search, the oral presentation, performance in handling questions and performance in problem solving and discussion.

There will be one final Multiple-choice exam (approximately 45 questions) that spans all 14 blocks (content from each block overview lecture only).  The objective of this overall exam is to ensure students have a broad overall knowledge of the areas addressed in this course.  The MCQ questions will assess basic core concepts presented by the block lecturer and these core concepts will be summarized by each of the block lecturers at the end of there lecturesTo encourage participation, the instructor may issue bonus points to a maximum of 2 individuals per student presentation. Notification of these bonus points will be circulated by e-mail after the student lectures. Each individual may accumulate up to a maximum of 10% bonus points. This is a substantial incentive to promote and acknowledge participation in class discussion.

Responsibility of Lecturers

Presentations:
The course is presented as 14 blocks of 2 weeks each (see course outline). Each block will be used to address a particular aspect/topic of microbial pathogenicity. The instructor for the block shall provide an overview lecture (generally 2 hours) on the chosen topic. This will be followed the next week by a series of two to  three sub-topics (selected by the block instructor). Each subtopic will be assigned to an individual student (topic assigned 3 – 4 weeks prior to the actual presentation) to carry out self study and make a presentation (lecture) to the class. Key articles for each topic will be posted on the web for access by not only the Presenter but also the rest of the class. The overview lecture given by the instructor the week prior to the student presentations ensures that the Presenter for each session will know how much introduction should be included in his/her presentation.  Students should discuss their topic with the Block Lecturer right away to ensure they are focusing on the correct aspects of the topic.

As the student presentation needs to deliver information that is current and correct as well as provide an exercise in scientific communication and discussion, the instructor should determine if there are important omissions, incorrect information, etc. in the presentation and/or summary. These should be quickly pointed out before the ensuing discussion.

Grading of the Sub-topic summary, powerpoint presentation and discussion will be completed by the instructor within 2 weeks of the student presentation. The grades will be submitted to the Course coordinator. The final grade and any additional feedback will be e-mailed to the student.

Responsibility of the Students
Student presentation sessions are held approximately every other week for three hours. Each 3-hour session shall accommodate three student presentations (35 - 40 minutes oral presentation and 15 - 20 minutes discussion for a total of 60 minutes per student). For each student presentation session, the responsible instructor shall provide 3 sub-topic titles, along with 1 - 3 lead papers on the respective subjects. The topics will be assigned by the course coordinator to students approximately 3 – 4 weeks in advance of their presentations. If the number of students registered for the course is less than the maximum number of 20, then some of the sub-topics shall not be treated. Each student in the course will give two presentations over the course of the year the first topic is shared between two students and the second is an individual topic). Each student has responsibility for providing the powerpoint presentations and a 4-6 page summary (excluding references, figures etc) at least 24 hours prior to the session to allow others in the class an opportunity to review this material prior to attending the session. Students who fail to meet this responsibility for pre-circulation of the material will loose marks on their grade for that presentation.

Students are responsible for being aware of what constitutes plagiarism and must ensure that their reports and presentations are free of plagiarism. This includes but is not limited to; do not “cut and paste” blocks of text from websites or any other source and use in your reports or presentations, and do not use pictures, diagrams, tables from references or any other resource without quoting the source. On the University of Manitoba and the Dept of Medical Microbiology websites there is more detailed information regarding plagiarism and how students can ensure they avoid this problem (note: the University of Manitoba has a very strict approach to this issue and there is “zero tolerance” – so it is critical that students ensure they are knowledgeable regarding what constitutes plagiarism because claiming “I didn't know” will not be considered a valid excuse.)