A CURE for the COVID-19 Era: A Vaccine-Focused Online Immunology Laboratory

During the COVID-19 pandemic, universities across the globe quickly shifted to online education. Laboratory courses faced unique challenges and were forced to reevaluate learning objectives and identify creative projects to engage students online. This study describes a newly developed online immunology laboratory curriculum focused on vaccine development. The course incorporated learning objectives to teach the scientific process, key experimental design components, and immunology techniques to evaluate vaccine efficacy. The curriculum, a course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE), asked students to engage in the research literature, propose a vaccine design and assessment, and interpret mock results. Instructor evaluation of student work as well as student self-evaluations demonstrated that students met the curriculum’s learning objectives. Additionally, results from the laboratory course assessment survey (LCAS) indicate that this curriculum incorporated the CURE elements of collaboration, discovery and relevance, and iteration.