Development of Curriculum Guidelines for Undergraduate Immunology Education –a Report by a Task Force on Undergraduate Immunology Curriculum Guidelines

Abstract

Until recently, immunology education was primarily introduced at the graduate level. However, in the age of modern medicine, a fundamental understanding of the immune system is becoming increasingly critical. The immune system affects every organ system in the body, and entails many concepts that are critical for training students who wish to pursue health professions or research-intensive careers. In addition to medicine, ecologists and computer scientists have lately been attracted to the field to investigate problems related to ecoimmunology or for development of machine learning tools for disease modeling. The need to focus on undergraduate immunology education has been strongly recognized and advocated for in several recent publications. In response to this need, we, a newly formed task force of undergraduate immunology educators, have identified fundamental concepts that are critical to the understanding of immunology for undergraduate students. We have aligned these fundamental statements with the overarching concepts described in the AAAS report “Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education: A Call to Action”, and are now gathering feedback on these guidelines from undergraduate educators at large. Establishment of these guidelines is consistent with new pedagogical practices that emphasize conceptual understanding of the subject over rote memorization and provides a framework needed to introduce students to immunology. The goal of this project is to solicit feedback from the immunology community in an effort to achieve consensus regarding the fundamental concepts in immunology that are critical for STEM-focused students to comprehend.