Workshop on Education in Bioinformatics - ISMB 2015

Sunday, July 12, 2015
Convention Center Dublin, Spencer Dock North Wall Quay, Dublin, D1, Ireland

Workshop on Education in Bioinformatics: Unlocking the super teacher inside you - Becoming competent in delivering bioinformatics training
Sunday, July 12, 10:10 a.m. - 4.30 p.m.

Presentation Overview:

Whether in response to a collaborator’s question (e.g. Can you show me how to…) or in a formal academic setting, we all have experience with being the bioinformatics teacher. Yet we often feel ill prepared for this role. Providing excellent training is a challenge in any domain, and bioinformatics is no exception. Excellent training requires good planning and careful thinking, just like a well-formulated research plan.

This session will be a forum to learn best practices in how to establish successful bioinformatics courses, with particular emphasis on NGS training, and to discuss and exchange ideas with experts in the field. The CoBE CoSI, GOBLET, and the ISCB education committee are presenting this session as a joint effort.

Part A: Top Ten Tips for Setting up a Bioinformatics Course (10:10 a.m. -11:10 a.m.)
Speaker (bio):Gabriella Rustici , University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
Bio: Dr. Gabriella Rustici is the Bioinformatics Training Manager for the Bioinformatics Training Facility at the University of Cambridge. Dr. Rustici has conceived, designed and implemented over 100 bioinformatics training events and activities, and trained more than 2,500 individuals. Dr. Rustici is currently working on “Best practices for training in NGS Analysis” programs, which aim to create a community of NGS trainers and build an open collection of NGS teaching materials.
 
Session Description:Dr. Rustici will present the ten best tips for setting up a good bioinformatics course, from defining what students can expect to learn and ensuring you have well-prepared students in your class, to putting the right infrastructure and environment in place to make you look like a superstar teacher.
 
Part B: Learn Bioinformatics by Doing Bioinformatics (11:40 a.m. -12:40 p.m.)
Bio: Dr. Myrto Kostadima is a postdoctoral fellow in the Haematology Department of the University of Cambridge. Dr. Kostadima has completed the University of Cambridge’s Teaching Associate Programme and is an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Dr. Kostadima has been involved in organising and delivering NGS courses for the past 5 years in the UK and abroad.
 
Session Description: This talk will focus on the pedagogical aspects of bioinformatics training, with special emphasis on the hands-on experience. Dr. Kostadima will focus on the art of teaching as it applies to bioinformatics courses: what teaching methods are best suited to bioinformatics?
 
Part C: Train-the-trainer: from bioinformatics turned to bioinformatics trainer (2:00 p.m.- 3:00 p.m.)
Bio: Dr. Annette McGrath is the Bioinformatics Core Leader at CSIRO, Australia’s national science agenda. A significant part of that role is building Australia’s bioinformatics capability through provision of bioinformatics tools and training. Dr. McGrath attended a Train-the-Trainer event at EBI, which led to her role in creating a network of trainers drawn from CSIRO and Australian universities who have trained over 600 students in 18 locations across Australia.
 
Session Description: What aspects and perspectives change as one transitions from being behind the desk to being at the front of the room in a bioinformatics course? Dr. McGrath will speak on her experiences of shifting from a bioinformatics trainee to becoming a bioinformatics trainer.
 
Part D: Experience Exchange: Focus on NGS Course (3:30 p.m. -4:30 p.m.)
Speaker: Francis Ouellette, OICR, Canada
Speaker: Gabriella Rustici, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
Speaker: Annette McGrath, CSIRO, Australia
Speaker: Dave Clements, Johns Hopkins University, United States
 
Session Description: This panel session will be a forum for discussion and exchange of strategies and approaches for developing and delivering a successful next generation sequencing course. Come share your experiences and ideas on putting on an NGS course with the panel and audience.
 
Organizer(s):

Patricia M. Palagi, SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Switzerland
Javier De Las Rivas, Cancer Research Center (CiC and University of Salamanca), Spain

Registration:
 This workshop was one of the ISMB 2015 sessions. Follow this link to the ISMB description.
 
Files: 
AttachmentSize
PDF icon WEB15_Rustici.pdf2.73 MB
PDF icon WEB15_Kostadima.pdf7.14 MB
PDF icon WEB15_McGrath.pdf6.68 MB
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