Assignments & Grading

Weekly homework will consist of online knowledge assessment quizzes and application assignments together with pre-class reading and video screen-casts.

Specific grading criteria (assessment rubrics) for each week will be given at the time of assignment. Weekly grades will be posted on BlackBoard. Each student is responsible for checking BlackBoard to ensure that a grade has been entered for their submissions. Documents submitted by email do not always arrive at their intended destination and late submissions will not be accepted after one week past the original due date. Collectively homework performance will account for 35% of the course grade.


Mid term and End of term assignments:
A total of 20% of the course grade will be assigned based on both the mid-term “find-a-gene project assignment” (10%) and end of term “social impacts and ethical implications presentation assignment” (10%).

1. Mid term: Find a gene project assignment. The purpose of the mid-term assignment is for you to grasp the principles of database searching and sequence analysis that we cover in the course (see additional assignment instructions (PDF) » ).


2. End of term: Student presentation and discussion.
Each student will prepare a 5-10 PowerPoint slide presentation on a topic of personal interest related to the ethical implications of genomic data use and availability. This presentation will be uploaded to a discussion section on Blackboard and students are required to post at least two questions that will feature in their respective Discussion group sessions.

Example student led presentation topics include:

  • The importance of genomic data de-identification.

  • How to best balance privacy concerns with the desire to share and re-use data generated by taxpayer funded research?

  • Should doctors know and preemptively act based on our genetic disease predispositions?

  • Do YOU want to know your genetic disease predispositions?

  • Should patients be given access to their own data and be able to share it?

  • Should my child be ‘tracked’ in school according to her DNA sequence?

  • How are racial DNA differences impacting racial prejudices?


Final Exam:
There will be one final exam that accounts for 45% of the final grade for the course.