The course of Microbial Ecology consists of two modules, which have been programmed in an integrated way so that the student will have to relate throughout the course the content and activities scheduled to reach the skills indicated in section 5 of this guide.

The two modules are:

Theoretical lectures. Within this module, master or expository lectures represent the main activity to be performed in the classroom and allow basic concepts to be transmitted to a large number of students in a relatively short time. They will be complemented with Powerpoint presentations and diverse didactic material that will be delivered to the students at the beginning of the course.

Seminars. They are group work sessions with a small number of students, based on work proposed by the teachers, that the students will work autonomously and will be discussed and exposed later in the classroom. Attendance at the seminar sessions is mandatory. In case of absence due to unjustified cause there will be a penalty in the seminar module note.

In this activity the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is permitted but in a restricted manner. Therefore, for this subject, the use of AI technologies is allowed exclusively in support tasks, such as bibliographic or information searches, text correction or translations. The student must clearly identify which parts have been generated with this technology, specify the tools used and include a critical reflection on how these have influenced the process and the final result of the activity. The absence of transparency in the use of AI in this assessable activity will be considered a lack of academic honesty and may lead to a partial or total penalty in the grade of the activity, or greater sanctions in serious cases.

Additional Information:

In order to support the training activities mentioned above, individual tutorials can be carried out at the request of the students at the teachers' office Olga Sánchez (C3-335) and Maira Martínez-Alonso (C3-329).

Student will have at the Moodle space all the documentation delivered by the teachers for the good monitoring of the subject. They will also be able to consult the teaching space of the Degree Coordination to obtain updated information.

Annotation: within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.

The evaluation of the course will be individual and continuous through the following tests:

Assessment of the theoretical lectures module (65% of the overall grade): During the course two written exams of this module will be scheduled, the first exam will include topics 1 to 7, and the second exam topics 8 to 12. Each test will have a weight of 50% of the mark of the module and it will be necessary to obtain a score equal to or superior to 5 to average them. Each exam will consist of multiple choice test questions, which will allow for assessment of a large part of the contents, and/or short answer questions aimed at assessing whether the key conceptual objectives have been achieved.

Assessment of the seminars module (35% of the overall grade): Different evaluative activities related to a scientific article will be carried out, which will include the following aspects:

1. Autonomous activities that are delivered through the Moodle space and the work sessions in the classroom (10% of the overall grade).

2. Oral presentation of the work done (10% of the overall grade).

3. Written tests of oral presentations consisting of multiple choice test questions (15% of the overall grade).

It will be necessary to obtain a score equal to or superior to 4 to average them.

Final considerations:

To pass the course the student must obtain a score of 5 or higher in each module. Students who do not pass any of the modules will be able to pass them on the date scheduled for the second-chance examination of the course, where the whole content of theory and/or the written test of seminars will be included. Autonomous deliveries, oral presentations, and the written report can not be retaken.

To be eligible for the retake process, the student should have been previously evaluated in a set of activities equaling at least two-thirds of the final score of the course. Thus, the student will be graded as Non-evaluable if the weighing of all conducted evaluation activities is less than 67% of the final score.

The presentation of the student to raise the mark involves the renunciation to that obtained with the partial exams and he/she will have to perform the re-assessment of all contents of the course on the day scheduled for that purpose.

From the second course registration, those students repeating the course will not have to carry out the teaching activities, nor the assessment of those skills passed in the seminars module. That is, the mark obtained in the seminars module will be saved, as long as it has been passed.

Any irregularity in an assessment act (academic fraud, plagiarism or improper use of AI, unless this use is expressly authorized in the teaching guide), which may lead to a significant variation in the grade, means that this act will be graded with a 0. In the event that the teaching guide provides that in order to pass the subject it is an essential requirement to have obtained a minimum grade in this assessment act or that several irregularities occur in the assessment acts of the same subject, the final grade for this subject is 0. Apart from this, a disciplinary process may be initiated against the student who incurs any of these irregularities.

Single evaluation

This subject considers the single assessment system that consists of a single summary test in which the contents of the entire theory program of the subject will be assessed. The test will consist of short-answer questions aimed at assessing whether the key conceptual objectives of the subject have been achieved, as well as multiple-choice and/or true/false test-type questions, which will allow a large part of the content to be assessed. The grade obtained in this synthesis test will account for 65% of the final grade for the subject and must be equal to or greater than 5 to average with the seminars module. The single assessment will be done on the same day as the subject's assessment 2.

The evaluation of the seminar module will follow the same process as the continuous evaluation. The grade obtained will account for 35% of the final grade of the subject. Theseminar module is compulsory attendance for all sessions. It is required to have passed the seminar module (grade of 5 or higher) in order to pass the subject.