Task Books as an Assessment Tool for Demonstrating Basic Lab Skills in a Microbiology Course

Abstract

The demonstration of basic laboratory skills is a valued student-learning outcome in the microbiology laboratory classroom. Typically, students can be accessed via a lab practical where, in a testing situation, they are asked to demonstrate their newly learned skills. However, with this approach, students are usually given one opportunity to show proficiency. If they fail a technique, they do not have the chance to improve their performance. Another solution is needed to verify proficiency in basic lab skills. I have encountered positive results with the use of a proficiency task book created for the microbiology lab.