ITU’s International Success in the Field of Microbiology Education

The study conducted by our faculty member Prof. Dr. Zeynep Petek Çakar and her students on the importance of microbiology education during the pandemic was published in the thematic special issue, "Educating in a Pandemic and Beyond", of the FEMS Microbiology Letters journal, published by the Federation of European Microbiological Societies (FEMS).

The article titled “Analysis of university student responses to the pandemic in a formal microbiology assessment” by ITU Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics faculty member Prof. Dr. Zeynep Petek Çakar and Manchester Metropolitan University faculty members Prof. Dr. Joanna Verran and Dr. James Redfern about the importance of microbiology education during the COVID-19 pandemic was published in October 2021 in the thematic special issue “Educating in a Pandemic and Beyond” of the FEMS Microbiology Letters journal published by the Federation of European Microbiological Societies (FEMS).

In this study, it was observed that the microbiology knowledge and skills acquired by ITU Molecular Biology and Genetics undergraduate students who were taking BIO216E and BIO216EL microbiology theoretical and laboratory courses in the spring term of 2019-2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic started, had very positive effects on their behaviors during the pandemic.

It was revealed that the students displayed social responsibility in terms of public health practices such as informing their families and close circles about the basic concepts of the pandemic and microbiology and complying with the restrictions and rules regarding the pandemic.

The importance of microbiology education during the COVID-19 pandemic and the fact that the achievements gained through microbiology education have been successfully put into practice in real life were shown. The article was made freely available online by the journal and attracted great attention in a short time (Altmetric attention score: 15).

Click for the announcement link for the special issue of “Educating in a Pandemic and Beyond” on the FEMS website.

Click to access the special issue of the journal.

Click to access the article.

Click for the link of the review article where the editor of the journal summarizes all the articles in the special issue.