Case study: Co-creating a flipped feed-in approach to a virtual biochemistry lab assessment: increasing student achievement and engagement in a large, diverse cohort.

More inclusive, authentic assessments are required to address awarding gaps and to ensure that bioscience students can apply their knowledge to relevant work-based scenarios. In this case report, we present a co-created approach to designing a more inclusive, virtual biochemistry lab assessment for a diverse cohort of ∼270 first-year students. The assignment was to write up an inclusive clinical case study as a one-page journal article. A flipped classroom approach taught the relevant skills, along with simulated labs from Learning Science Ltd. Student Lecturers co-created the assessment, including the marking rubric and the unexemplars. We replaced traditional feedback with a flipped, feed-in approach where students were able to engage in a formative assessment with peer marking and unexemplars. Whilst the summative assessment was marked anonymously, a dialogue-based approach was employed, where students could request personalised audio feed-forward from the tutor. The high pass rate (97%) and student satisfaction score (88%) suggest that this approach is an effective way to challenge, engage and support a large, diverse cohort of students. First-year students who participated in the flipped feed-in experience obtained a significantly higher summative mark (56.7% cf. 50.9%) than those who did not. Interestingly, students in receipt of learning adjustments scored higher marks on average in the summative assessment (59.3% cf. 54.3%), suggesting that we have reversed the disability-based attainment gap. Further investigation into whether a co-created, flipped feed-in approach can reduce attainment gaps based on ethnicity, gender and age is warranted.

Seroconversion for infectious pathogens among UK military personnel deployed to Afghanistan, 2008-2011.

Military personnel are at high risk of contracting vector-borne and zoonotic infections, particularly during overseas deployments, when they may be exposed to endemic or emerging infections not prevalent in their native countries. We conducted seroprevalence testing of 467 UK military personnel deployed to Helmand Province, Afghanistan, during 2008-2011 and found that up to 3.1% showed seroconversion for infection with Rickettsia spp., Coxiella burnetii, sandfly fever virus, or hantavirus; none showed seroconversion for infection with Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus. Most seroconversions occurred in personnel who did not report illness, except for those with hantavirus (70% symptomatic). These results indicate that many exposures to infectious pathogens, and potentially infections resulting from those exposures, may go unreported. Our findings reinforce the need for continued surveillance of military personnel and for education of health care providers to help recognize and prevent illnesses and transmission of pathogens during and after overseas deployments.