Universitat Internacional de Catalunya
Basic Concept in Experimental Research
Teaching staff
Coordinadora: Dra. Samantha Álvarez (salvarezs@uic.es)
Introduction
The success of biomedical sciences during the past century has been established on a constant dialogue between clinical practice and research. Nowadays, Evidence-Based Practice, integrates clinical expertise and the best available scientific research for informed decision-making on diagnosis, and treatment of individual patients.
Evidence-Based Medicine involves the use of critical reading of medical research. During their entire careers Physicians are not just expected to keep up to date with research, but they are increasingly encouraged to participate in the creation of new useful evidence as members or leaders of research projects conducted in their services.
The aim of this program is to broaden and deepen the ability to understand and design medical research.
The program contains 3 elements that include class-based lessons, reading seminars and project-based learning. As most research is published in English, the course lays emphasis on reading, and listening skills in this language. Students will practice speaking and writing activities for analyzing and enhancing scientific communication in medical research.
Teacher-led lessons are full-group activities aimed at enhancing the ability to read research reports. These sessions will discuss investigation design topics and reading abilities for Medical Students. These activities are designed to facilitate the comprehension of investigation reports and papers within an academic setting.
Reading seminars are conducted in divided group sessions by experts in each research design. These sessions have a journal-club conference format where students will attend a presentation analyzing a research paper. The paper will be discussed by teachers and students.
Project-based learning will also be done as a journal club activity where students will conduct and discuss their own presentations of journal papers using specific designs.
Pre-course requirements
It is required to have taken the subjects Biostatistics, Introduction to Epidemiology and Management of Scientific Information.
The recommended minimum level of English at the start of the course is B1+
Objectives
1) To give students research design and reporting tools to analyze and design medical research
2) To reinforce the knowledge of principles of causality applied to health research
3) To understand, synthesize and discuss medical research in English
4) To reinforce the receptive skills of reading and listening and to facilitate the development of the productive skills of speaking and writing through interactive activities.
Competences/Learning outcomes of the degree programme
Based on the use of the competency from the Medical degree program, students will be able to have sufficient knowledge of English to understand medical and health sciences literature in English, as well as a sufficient level of oral comprehension to be able to attend and participate in a talk or lecture.
- 31 - Understand, critically evaluate and know how to use sources of clinical and biomedical information to obtain, organize, interpret and communicate scientific and health care information.
- 34 - Ability for critical thinking, creativity and constructive skeptisim with a focus on research within professional practice.
- 37 - Acquire basic training for research.
- CB-6 - To have developed sufficient autonomy to participate in research projects and scientific or technological cooperation within the student’s own thematic and interdisciplinary context. This should also include a high degree of knowledge transfer.
- CTI-1 - To know how to communicate effectively through written and oral communication in a foreign language that will allow them to work in an international context.
- CTP-3 - To develop critical thinking and reasoning as well as self-assessment skills.
Learning outcomes of the subject
Students will be able:
- To be able to read and understand medical and health sciences literature in English
- To critically assess research reports, being able to differentiate their elements, and learning where to find strengths and weaknesses.
- To devise research diagrams using research design notation
- To be able to participate in a talk or lecture in English
Syllabus
Topics:
The course begins reviewing basic concepts in research design and moves on to the practice of navigating through research paper manuscripts. Students will practice with tools for finding and handling investigation, writing, and communicating results.
Then, students will learn about specific topics of research designs using actual literature, covering:
1) Observational designs: cross-sectional, cohorts and case-control studies.
2) Pharmacologic clinical trials
3) Non-pharmacologic trials
4) Diagnostic studies.
5) Research Synthesis and Meta-analysis.
CLASS SCHEDULE
|
Data |
Grup |
Topic |
Professor |
|
|
AB |
Introduction to the course. |
Dra. Álvarez |
|
|
AB |
Reading (and writing) papers: EQUATOR guideline |
Dra. Álvarez |
|
|
AB |
Observational studies |
Dra. Álvarez |
|
|
A/B |
Observational designs 1:Cross-sectional design |
Dra. Álvarez Dra. Bayés |
|
|
A/B |
Observational designs 2:Case control |
Dra. Álvarez Dra. Bayés |
|
|
A/B |
Observational designs 3:Cohorts |
Dra. Álvarez Dra. Bayés |
|
|
AB |
Experimental designs |
Dra. Álvarez |
|
|
A/B |
Trials 1: Pharm RCTs |
Dra. Álvarez Dra. Bayés |
|
|
A/B |
Trials 2: Interventions |
Dra. Álvarez Dra. Bayés |
|
|
AB |
MIDTERM QUIZ |
Dra. Álvarez Dra. Bayés |
|
|
AB | Diagnostic studies |
Dra. Álvarez |
|
|
A/B |
CM: Diagnostic studies |
Dra. Álvarez Dra. Bayés |
|
|
A/B |
Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses |
Dra. Álvarez |
|
|
A/B |
CM: Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses |
Dra. Álvarez Dra. Bayés |
|
|
AB | Final Recap | Dra. Álvarez |
|
|
A/B |
Group presentations I |
Dra. Álvarez |
|
|
A/B |
Groups presentations II |
Dra. Álvarez |
| AB | FINAL QUIZ SESSION | Dra. Álvarez Dra. Bayés |
Discipline-specific Language Skills
Students will learn to read, understand, and discuss academic literature related to research in health sciences. Furthermore, they will learn to recognize the main features and the common format of experimental research articles and observational studies. They will develop synthesis skills of material covered throughout the course.
Teaching and learning activities
In person
Learning activities are based on actively engaging in the process of reading, analyzing, and synthesizing information from medical journals. Students will discuss course contents in seminars. They will give preseands well as produce some writing assignment lectures by a professor and presentations by other students and speakers.
In-class and outside-class time
The estimated student work time for this course is 60 hours. Total hours per activity are:
|
Activity |
Presence |
Place |
Type |
Hours |
|
Classroom training |
In-class |
Classroom |
Individual |
10 |
|
Seminars |
In-class |
Classroom |
Individual |
18 |
|
Group practice Project |
Outside Class |
Classroom |
Group |
12 |
|
Reading assignments |
Outside Class |
|
|
18 |
|
Assessment |
In-class |
Classroom |
Individual |
2 |
|
|
|
|
Total in-class |
30 |
|
|
|
|
Total outside-class |
60 |
|
|
|
|
Total (3 ECTS x 20 hours) |
60 |
Methodology and Activities
Different teaching methodologies will be combined to achieve learning objectives and competencies.
1. Classroom training sessions: Lecture with classroom practice. Professors will explain concepts and present practical exercises on research design and critical reading concepts.
2. Case methods (Journal Club): Sessions with the group divided in which students will have to read as a group or individually a scientific article previously uploaded in Moodle. Then they will have a few minutes to answer a quiz about the article. Once the quiz is finished the teacher will proceed to explain the article trying to answer the questions of the quiz and discuss more relevant aspects of it, thus promoting the debate in class.
3. Group project: Small groups of students (7 people) will do a Journal Club project in which they will prepare a presentation for later discussion. In the first sessions, students will choose the group and will work to develop a critical analysis to present to the class in the following sessions. These articles are optional readings for students who are not members of the group. Discussion and debates will be encouraged. If a discussion does not arise spontaneously, teachers will ask questions to promote informed dialogue.
4. Partial exam: In this session, students will read an article to read and analyse, and will have to answer a 10-question questionnaire.
5. Final exam: In this session, students will be given an article to read and analyze, and will be required to answer a 20-question quiz on it.
Classroom attendance
Students will be aware that the evaluation questionnaires will be conducted in the classroom and will have limited time for their development.
Students will not be allowed to leave the classroom during a quiz or presentation. If you have a medical appointment or other eventuality remember that quizzes will not be made up. It is recommended that you plan your attendance accordingly.
Course web page
The moodle webpage will contain the course schedule, contents, and reading materials. Open forums will provide the means for course communication.
Course quizzes and tasks will also be embedded in the Moodle platform, so students are expected to have online access to Moodle during sessions for adequate progress.
Communication and tutorhips
Questions about course assignments and procedures will be asked in the forums, where all students are encouraged to participate. No queries about assignments or procedures will be made by email. Forum queries may not be answered by the teacher unless they require only a brief and clarifying response.
E-mail contact will be reserved for contacts of a personal nature that may have an impact on academic activity. A response to e-mail messages is not guaranteed if they do not deal with these aspects.
You are encouraged to contact your teacher via the teacher forum with any concerns you may have about your progress in the subject. To do this, a message will be sent in a new forum thread indicating in the subject line BCER Tutoring for an appointment to discuss problems as soon as there is a concern on the part of the student. Clarification of these queries will be requested by email (NOT before or after class).
Participation
Students are reminded that class participation will be evaluated with extra points in the course. In addition, group work outside of class will also form an important part of the evaluation.
Second Sitting
No student can pass the course by only taking the resit exam. If students fail the course, they will have to contact the course coordinator to arrange the conditions and contents of the resit. If they intend to attend the resit exam, they must contact the course coordinator at least 14 business days before the exam date.
COURSE REGULATIONS
Communication:
The communication during the course will mainly via the course forums.
ENQUIRIES AND DEBATES: Forum for the students to engage in debates about papers and designs discussed during the theory sessions and case methods.
FORUM OF IMPORTANT MESSAGES: One-way forum where the teachers will communicate with the students regarding the course procedures or contents that are of general interest. This forum is compulsory reading and the student's responsibility is to remain updated about the messages.
FORUM OF COURSE PROCEDURE QUESTIONS: Forum for questions concerning the procedure and development of the course.
The messages to the forum directly addressed to the teachers will be attended to in the eriod of 48 hours.
The email will be reserved for communications of strictly personal aspects. There is no objection for teachers to attend to email.
Delivery dates:
All delivery dates are closed. No extensions or exceptions will be opened on these dates. The student is responsible for the material's content as it has been delivered, which must be done in the accepted formats. If there were errors of any kind in the delivered documents or they were not in the appropriate format, no amendments or exceptions will be accepted.
Plagiarism:
Plagiarism is the use of ideas or phrases of others in the work itself, presenting it as an original without clarifying the origin of the copied material. Plagiarism is a very serious fault in accordance with Law 3/2022, of February 24, on University Coexistence, punishable with expulsion and permanent notification in the student's personal academic record.
The use of plagiarized content from any source, another student, the same or another academic year, will be considered plagiarism. The work under suspicion will be canceled and the fact automatically notified to the student advisor and the University Coexistence Commission to take the appropriate disciplinary measures.
"Copying" refers to the act of obtaining information, answers, or solutions in an unauthorised manner during an academic test. This may include looking at another student's answers, using unauthorised material such as notes or electronic devices, or receiving unauthorised help in any form during the exam.
Cheating is a very serious offence according to Law 3/2022 of 24 February on University Coexistence, as it is a form of academic cheating and undermines the integrity of the assessment process by negatively affecting the fairness and validity of the results.
For these reasons, the activities detected with suspicion of having been copied will be annulled as grading criteria and immediately notified to the Degree Coordination and the University Coexistence Commission so that the appropriate disciplinary measures can be taken.
Audiovisual recording of sessions or photography in the classroom
The explanations of the teaching staff are "explanations of the chair" and objects of intellectual property. Its presence in the classroom is subject to image rights. Except for the express consent of the teacher, it is forbidden to record the sessions, take photographs, and share them. The same criterion refers to the recordings of interventions or contents of colleagues.
The notes are versions of the teacher's speech record and are also copyrighted. The distribution between the students to which they are originally destined is authorized, but their public distribution is not authorized outside the duration of the course without the express authorization of the teacher.
According to Law 3/2022, of February 24, on university coexistence (art. 12e it is serious misconduct to improperly use content or means of reproduction and recording university activities subject to intellectual property rights. If detected, the cohabitation committee will be notified so that the sanctions that apply to these misdemeanors are established.
Deliveries of materials:
Submissions of material will only be accepted through the Moodle of the subject. No email deliveries are accepted unless requested by the teacher. When sending assignments or tasks, these will be in Portable Document file (.pdf) formats.
Use of mobile devices computers
Technology is a tool but not a source of distraction. The use of phones or tablets in the sessions will not be allowed for uses not directly related to the subject. Students detected in unauthorized use of technology for purposes other than the course objectives, will be expelled from the classroom.
Phones or computers are not allowed in the exam. These must be saved out of range. They will not be stored in your pocket, or in open bags
Punctuality
Students will not be allowed to enter class or exam sessions once they have started.
Serious misconduct will be considered in this course:
(a) Consult other people during a questionnaire or exam or consult through technology. Students who are suspected of these behaviors will be expelled from the classroom and will receive a call for suspense
(b) Misuse of computer equipment (computer, telephone, tablet, or another device) online during class sessions, questionnaires, or exams.
(c) Representing one's own tasks when they are the work of others without recognition
(d) Present a task of other people as their own (although there is no problem working with other students to check their own errors/calculations, the presentations must be individual)
(e) Perform individual group activities when it is not indicated that it is possible to do so.
(f) Plagiarism of contents in any activity of the course
(g) Present a group work without having participated in its realization.
(h) Showing a disrespectful or inappropriate tone or manner towards the teacher or other students.
Any serious misconduct will involve a disciplinary measure and may result in a loss of the final grade. Three serious misdemeanors will involve automatic suspension in the subject. In addition, any student who commits serious misconduct will be reported to their advisor.
Questions about course assignments and procedures will be asked in the forums, where all students are encouraged to participate in the forums for clarification. No queries about assignments or procedures will be made by email. Forum queries may not be answered by the teacher unless they require only a brief and clarifying response.
E-mail contact will be reserved for contacts of a personal nature that may have an impact on academic activity. A response to e-mail messages is not guaranteed if they do not deal with these aspects.
You are encouraged to contact your teacher via the teacher forum with any concerns you may have about your progress in the subject. To do this, a message will be sent in a new forum thread indicating in the subject line BCER Tutoring for an appointment to discuss problems as soon as there is a concern on the part of the student. Clarification of these queries will be requested by email (NOT before or after class).
Evaluation systems and criteria
In person
|
ACTIVITY |
% NOTE |
RESULTS |
|
GROUP PROJECT
|
30%
|
Critically evaluate research reports, being able to differentiate their elements and learning where to find strengths and weaknesses. Be able to read and understand medical and health sciences literature in English. Be able to participate in a talk or conference in English |
|
FINAL EXAM |
0- 60% |
Critically evaluate research reports, being able to differentiate their elements and learning where to find strengths and weaknesses. Be able to read and understand medical and health sciences literature in English. |
|
MIDTERM |
10% |
Critically evaluate research reports, being able to differentiate their elements and learning where to find strengths and weaknesses. Be able to read and understand medical and health sciences literature in English. |
|
CASE METHODS |
0- 60%
|
Critically evaluate research reports, being able to differentiate their elements and learning where to find strengths and weaknesses. Be able to read and understand medical and health sciences literature in English. Develop research diagrams using research design notation. |
|
PARTICIPATION IN THE CLASS |
15% EXTRA |
Critically evaluate research reports, being able to differentiate their elements and learning where to find strengths and weaknesses. Be able to participate in a talk or conference in English. |
Qualification Final project (compulsory, 30%) Midterm exam (compulsory, 10%) Case methods (conditional 60%) Final exam (conditional, 60%) Extras: Classroom participation (optional +15%) The final grade will be the sum of the results in all the elements. The pass mark is 5 points for the final grade.
Important information:
Attendance and participation: Students are reminded that attendance and participation in class and continuous evaluation are not compulsory but fundamental for grading the course. Furthermore, group work outside class will also form a major part of the evaluation. Plan assistance responsibly.
Second Sitting
No student can pass the course by only taking the second sitting exam. If students fail the course, they will have to contact their teacher and the course coordinator to arrange the conditions and contents of the second sitting.
If they intend to attend the second sitting they must contact their teacher and the coordinator at least 14 natural days before the second sitting exam date.
Final quiz
Throughout the course, 7 progress quizzes will be given. No ad hoc quizzes will be given, so students who miss a session will receive a 0 for that quiz.
Students who miss the quizzes, will not have the opportunity to retake them. Students who miss quizzes, and who have a valid justification (i.e. medical certificate) must present it to their coordinator the following day of class.
Bibliography and resources
Class-based materials:
Class-based materials are based on readings from academic resources. They will be provided from online academic journals. Intranet and Internet materials for self-study.
Recommended learning material:
Mayer D. Essential Evidence-Based Medicine. 2nd ed. Cambridge University Press. 2009