LSC-40049 Medical Microbiology Assessment Brief 2025-26 | Keele University

Assessment Brief 2025-2026 

Assessment Details:  

This assignment has two aims:

1. To provide you an opportunity to develop and evidence your ability to evaluate  the current and future diagnostics for a specific disease/organism.

2. Introduce you to the benefits and limitations of using generative AI (GenAI)  technology to assist your work. 
Some organisms can cause outbreaks of disease and epidemics. As such, it is  imperative to identify these diseases in order to treat patients and reduce transmission.  You need to select one disease/organism from the list of notifiable diseases/causative  organisms linked here. The focus of your work should on the laboratory diagnosis of this  disease/organism; what are the current and future diagnostic pathways for this  disease/organism? 

Your document should include:

• Front cover. Title, student number and word count. Remember not to add your  name to ensure we can mark your work anonymously. The front cover does not  count towards your overall word count.
  
•  GenAI. In this section, you should give the exact question that you posed to  GenAI and a copy of the answer provided. If you modified the answer by asking  follow-up questions, you should describe any additional questions or  instructions you gave, and the revised answers provided by GenAI. This section  does not count towards your word count. 
  
•  Current and future diagnostics for that disease/organism. This should be based  on your review of the literature, written in your own words and supported by  appropriate evidence. I would recommend that this section is between 250-500  words. References, figures and tables do not count towards this word count. 
  
•  Critical Evaluation. In this section, you are reflecting on the usefulness of GenAI.  For example, how accurate was the original answer provided by GenAI? Was  there any false information? Were there any details missing? How robust was  the evidence-base? I would recommend that this section is between 500-750  words. References, figures and tables do not count towards this word count. 
  
• References and bibliography. All references should be provided using the  Harvard referencing system. This section does not count towards your word  count.

Module Learning Outcomes:  

In this assessment the following module learning outcomes will be assessed:

•  ILO1: Integrate complex knowledge of microorganisms and the human immune  system with their associated pathology and clinical findings to assess patient  needs 
  
•  ILO2: Critically evaluate professional practice within medical microbiology and  relate that to current research and publications 
  
•  ILO3: Critically appraise scientific publications, test methodologies and  screening techniques principally within medical microbiology 
  
•  ILO4: Evaluate complex scientific data to accurately interpret and validate  clinical findings within medical microbiology 
  
•  ILO5: Critically reflect on the ways in which current understanding of medical  microbiology and infection prevention impact on methodological design and  patient health 
  
•  ILO6: Justify the importance of a multi-disciplinary approach to assessing  patient health and clinical outcomes 

Assessment Criteria:

The laboratory report will be assessed against the University Generic Marking Criteria  for PG courses.