MY EXPERIENCE AT SUSSEX DURING AUTUMN TERM

The Autumn term of the University of Sussex started on 4^th October 2010. I joined  the 'Science and Technology Policy Research Unit' ( SPRU) Freeman centre on 4^th October 2010 as a Visiting Fellow.The main objective of my visit to the University of Sussex is to understand the various processes of teaching, learning and assessment adopted by the University including the use of technology in the teaching-learning process.

As soon as I joined Sussex , I thought of joining the Life Science Courses as it is my area of specialisation. But I got the opportunity to attend the lectures of first year Economics. I attended one lecture on Introduction to Economics. After a gap of two days I also got the permission to attend the lectures of Cell and Molecular Biology Course. By the end of the first week of October 2010, I started attending lectures of three Courses-1.Cell and Molecular Biology, 2.Essential Skills in Biomedical Science and 3.Human Physiology. I discontinued attending the lectures of Introduction to Economics since it was not related to my subject. The Cell and Molecular Biology and Human Physiology are laboratory based courses and I also attended the practical classes.

1. The Cell and Molecular Biology: This course was for level 1 and had 24 credits spread over two terms namely, Autumn and Spring. In the autumn term the course had two hours of lectures per week, three tutorials and three practicals. The lectures and tutorials were of one hour duration each and each practical was of three hours duration. The aim of the course in autumn term was to give a solid understanding of the structure and function of key cellular macromolecules, in particular, nucleic acids, proteins and fundamental aspects of gene structure, function, including mechanisms of transcription and its regulation, RNA processing and translation. Simple experiments in the practicals showed the laboratory techniques in nucleic acid isolation, the study of gene expression and protein characterisation.

 The course was assessed by only one regular practical of this term and the marks were counted to the final course marks (15%). A short answer (MCQ) test (35%) of one hour duration  was given in Week 10 that covered all course materials, including Lectures, Tutorials, and Practicals. There was negative marking system for wrong answers.

2. Essential Skills in Biomedical Science: This course was in Autumn term for level 1 and had 12 credits. There were two hour lectures and two hours for self directed teaching per week.

This course had two components, data handling and essential skills. The main purpose of the data handling part of the course was to help students to acquire the calculation skills which would enable them to  interpret results from frequently used biochemical techniques. This  provides a foundation for the practical work they do, not just during the first year, but in many of the courses the students would opt in their future degree program, and, particularly, in their final year research project. The ‘essential skills’ component aimed to introduce students to the basic skills needed for life at University. It included significant transferable basic skills, which promote personal development and academic performance. Key under-pinning skills for success included how to extract information from journal articles, citation and referencing, annotated bibliographies, scientific writing and statistics.

This course was assessed in week 6 and 9 by conducting short tests and each test formed 50% of the assessment of this course. There was negative marking for wrong answers. Prior to these tests open book tests were given as  formative tests.

3. Human Physiology: This course was in autumn term for level 1 and had 12 credits. This  course was dealt with circulatory and respiratory systems, digestion and kidney function.  There were two lectures per week of one hour each. There were two practicals and two seminars per term. The practicals were of three hours duration each and two seminars of one hour duration each. The practicals stressed on data collection, analysis and practical write up.

The assessment of this course consisted of a practical write-up and an end-of-term test.

Any one practical write up was required to be submitted in week 7 as the part of assessment (worth 40% of the course).

There was an unseen test (MCQ) in the final week 10 of the Autumn term. It is worth 60% weightage of the total for the course. There was negative marking for wrong answers.

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