IDP Core Course:  Instructor Information and Guidelines

Section Schedules & Discussion Papers

Please note that the course schedule is the only information that will be posted at the public IDP web site. All instructors will have access to read documents posted at the ModCore web site. 

Each discussion leader should prepare a one page outline for the paper discussion, and provide it to the section leader along with a electronic copy so that the material can be posted at the IDP core course ModCore web site. The outlines should contain references for the assigned reading and/or supplementary references, and a list of discussion questions that can be used to guide the discussion. If your outline is the same as last year, just let the section leader know; as we have all of last year's material.  Sample Discussion Outline

The preferred format for distributing research papers for discussion sessions is electronic, i.e. PDF.  Other formats can be converted to PDF.  PDF files of discussion papers will be available to students at the core course ModCore site, not at the public web page.

To facilitate final room scheduling and provide papers in advance, section schedules must be finalized with Susan Gardner in the Office of Graduate Education according to the following deadlines listed. below.  
 

Fall semester    Spring semester
Section Faculty Leader Outlines due Module Course Faculty Leader Outlines due
1 Dr. Art Edison 8/8/08 1 GMS 6007 Dr. Jake Streit 12/12/08
2 Dr. Jorg Bungert 8/29/08 GMS 6008 Dr. Glenn Walter 12/12/08
3 Dr. Jim Resnick 9/19/08 2 GMS 6065 Dr. Dietmar Siemann 1/23/09
4 Dr. Greg Schultz 10/3/08 GMS 6009 Dr. Brian Law 1/23/09
5 Dr. Brian Burke 10/24/08 3 GMS 6005 Dr. Paul Oh 3/6/09
6 Dr. Gerry Shaw 11/14/08 GMS 6006 Dr. Ed Chan 3/6/09

Section Leaders

The section leader is responsible for the coordination of the section, including collecting outlines and discussion papers, refining the syllabus, and administering the exam. The section leader plays a critical role in maintaining continuity within the section and among sections. Section leaders must provide Susan Gardner with syllabus updates, one page outlines and discussion papers by the deadlines shown above.  Respect for these deadlines is critical for making the course run smoothly.  Individual lecture handouts provided by individual instructors can be prepared separately and handed out when necessary; see "Reading, handouts, copying" below.

Lecturers

Lecturers are responsible for the content of individual lectures and share the responsibility for maintaining continuity throughout the course. They should seek to fit their lectures appropriately within the overall context of the course. The section leader can help evaluate the fit where necessary, and lecturers may also consult other lecture material posted at ModCore. Before the onset of the lecture, lecturers are encouraged to distribute hard copies of material projected during lecture so that students can easily follow the presentation (see "handouts" below).

Discussion leaders

Discussion leaders are responsible for the content and coordination of individual discussions. Discussion leaders should prepare a one page summary for each discussion containing the primary literature reference, any background references, essential theoretical or technical background information, and main points to be discussed. Discussion leaders should meet with the other instructors running the same discussion to discuss material to be covered. This is essential for maintenance of continuity among discussion sections, especially since students will be examined on discussion material.

Discussions should be focused on a single high quality peer reviewed research paper. In class, faculty should focus not only on interpretation of data and conclusions, but also on the essential details of the methods and how these methods relate to the data presented in each figure. Reviews are inappropriate, and an excess of material prevents adequate discussion of individual experiments in the short time allotted.

At the discretion of the section leader, scores may be awarded to students for participation in discussion sections.  See "discussion format" for more details.

Material from the discussions may be included in the section exams. It is therefore very important that the essential information for each discussion be clearly outlined in the handout. Students will be told that it is these points that are subject to examination. This ensures that all students have the same outline information in anticipation of examinations, and that therefore that coverage across discussion groups is as uniform as possible.

Reading, handouts, copying

The required texts for the Fall semester of the course are:

"Molecular Cell Biology" (Sixth Edition) by Lodish et al.  W.H. Freeman, 2008 (book info)
"Biochemistry" (Third Edition, Volumes 1&2), by Voet & Voet. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2004 (book info)
"An Introduction of Genetic Analysis" (Ninth Edition) by et al.  W.H. Freeman, 2008 (book info)

Other reading should be put on reserve or handed out as needed. Any required reading not from the required or recommended texts should be provided directly to the students and the relevant faculty.

Supplementary material may be copied and distributed as required.  The graduate office will coordinate copying of discussion papers when necessary.  Copying of supplementary lecture material is the responsibility of individual lecturers; the IDP can be billed for this copying.  Contact Susan Gardner (392-0740) for details.   The IDP will not process material submitted late, faculty must handle such "emergencies" themselves.

Posting Teaching Materials on the Web

Handout material (e.g. Word documents, Powerpoint presentations) or links to other material relevant to the core course may be posted at the core course ModCore web site, which is Gatorlink password-protected, and available only to registered students and the faculty & staff.  Such teaching materials will not be posted on public web pages.  Instructors are encouraged to post their own materials, or they may submit them to Susan Gardner in the Office of Graduate Education preferably with at least one day notice.  

Exams

Section leaders are responsible for composing exams. Section leaders may dispatch this responsibility in whatever fashion they see fit, from composing the entire exam themselves to soliciting questions from the faculty and editing the contributions. The format of each exam is determined by the section leader and may be closed book, open book, take home, or a mixture of formats, but the students should be informed of the format at the beginning of the section.

Each section should be graded on a 100 point scale, and it is highly recommended that the point value for each question be indicated when the exam is handed out.  If discussions in a given section have been scored, then the point value for the exam should be 100 points minus the total possible point value for the discussions.  Scores for each section (exam plus any discussion points) should be submitted to the course director, who will then calculate and post the mean and distribution for each exam, along with a cumulative distribution for the exams to date. At the end of the semester, a cumulative score will be calculated for each student, along with a mean and distribution for the class. Letter grades will then be assigned taking into consideration the final mean and distribution of scores, and TBL scores (to be determined).

Letter grading of for individual exams is discouraged because the final semester grade, which is based on the final distribution of scores, may not be an accurate average of individual exam letter grades. If section leaders wish to indicate to students where they would normally draw grade cutoffs for an individual exam they are welcome to do so as long as it is clear to the students that this represents the section leaders perspective on the exam rather than a letter grade that is cut in stone.

Evaluations

Evaluations will be required  following each exam. Students must complete each evaluation before exams will be returned to them.  Either the state mandated 10 question "long" evaluation format or an informal 4 question "short" format will be used depending on the level of participation of each individual instructor.

Core Course Homepage            IDP Homepage

7/24/08  wtm