Session Plans for Facilitated Discussions

Course session plans including section activities, reflection prompts, and takeaways tracking

Introduction

The Introduction to Biosecurity course is made up of approximately 1.5 hours of readings per week, followed by a 1.5-hour facilitated discussion session. The readings are made up of three sections, with each section taking approximately 30 minutes.

In this post, we link the session plans for the course. Activities for the sessions were prioritised based on key takeaways we wanted participants to get from the course, as well as being engaging for participants and promoting active participation (e.g. in discussions, ranking exercises).

The learning objectives of the course, as well as how activities were created and tested, will be posted at a later date.

Who This Resource Is Useful For

We expect this will be most useful for:

• People running versions of this course, either as supported local versions or otherwise

However, it may also be useful for:

• People going through the course independently as an extension, e.g. to consider the discussion or reflection prompts

• Those designing their own courses, who might find the overall format useful as a template or starting point

Format of Session Plans

Each week of the session plan has the following format:

[1] Opening

• Participant writes/copies their reflections, takeaways and questions/areas for further research (see document in this resource) into a table

• Facilitated discussion based on participant takeaways and questions

[2] Topic Area Sections (3 sections per week for the 4-week course)

• Session activity

  • On a specific area covered in the readings for that section that week

  • Different types of activities to help with engagement and learning

• Reflection Prompts

  • For a participant to think about further after the session, highlighting other important areas or key considerations

[3] Closing

• Participants write down and discuss:

  • 3-5 takeaways from the session

  • Any updates to their initial takeaways

  • 1-2 specific actions they plan to take

• Any instructions for the following week (e.g. which sections to read)

The first week of the course also allows time for introductions and covers discussion norms.

The final week of the course also encourages participants to think about their next steps: if they had 10-15 hours to spend on a biosecurity-related project, which project would they prioritise.

Acknowledgments + Close

This session plan was put together by Lin Bowker-Lonnecker and Zoheb Anjum for the July 2025 iteration of the Introduction to Biosecurity course. With thanks to everyone who gave input on this iteration of the course.

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