Description
Single nucleotide variant (SNV) curation is a key step in translating genomic sequencing data into actionable clinical insights and thus an important skill to develop for students in genetic counseling, genomics, and bioinformatics programs. While the number of evidence categories and scoring criteria can be intimidating for new learners, the process lends itself to team-based, active learning approaches in the classroom. This 2-day short course will guide participants in developing variant curation curricula and active learning activities to meet the needs of variant science students.
Considering that new guidelines for the interpretation of SNVs are soon to be finalized, educational materials and continuing education workshops may need to be significantly updated in the coming year. Through this short course, participants will be equipped to employ active learning and team-based approaches to increase students’ learning outcomes. While the workshop will focus on in-person educational formats, there will also be discussion of how to adapt the same activities for synchronous and asynchronous online learners.
Target audience:
- Educators who teach undergraduate, master’s and PhD students in genetics, genomics and bioinformatics
- Clinicians who supervise genetic counseling students
- Variant scientists who develop in-house training modules
- Those interested in standardizing and improving the variant interpretation processes
Teaching Variant Curation Short Course – Session 1
The first session will focus on curricular approaches to prepare students to apply variant interpretation guidelines. Through hands-on activities, participants will:
- Craft specific and achievable learning outcomes for training sessions
- Construct an instructional scaffold to guide learners to mastery of the curation process
- Develop activities to introduce clinical nomenclature and useful curation tools
- Create hands-on activities to orient students to the purpose and general workflows of variant curation
Teaching Variant Curation Short Course – Session 2
The second session will center on using the ACMG/AMP/CAP/ClinGen standards and guidelines for germline SNV interpretation to develop classroom activities that engage learners to appropriately apply curation criteria. Through hands-on activities, participants will:
- Design hands-on activities at multiple Bloom’s and SOLO taxonomy levels to apply individual curation criteria appropriately.
- Discuss the benefits of team-based approaches in educational settings
- Identify frequently encountered challenges for students and develop approaches to help navigate them
Teaching Variant Curation Short Course – Session 3
The last session will focus on assessment of curation skills as an important part of building confidence in learners and for continuous quality improvement of educational programs. Through hands-on activities, participants will:
- Design formative and summative assessment questions to gauge learning progress
- Apply assessment data to refine hands-on learning activities
- Develop program-level assessment approaches to adapt to new learners and updates to variant curation guidelines over time
We will conclude the course with an open discussion of lessons learned and an opportunity to connect and share resources with others engaged in variant science education.
