Train the Trainer: Design Genomics and Bioinformatics Training

Duration: 3 weeks, 5 hours per week
Free Certificate of Achievement available on satisfactory completion

Start Date: The course is run ‘live’ for 3 weeks from the start date above. Once this period is over there will be no live monitoring of the forums, but you can still join and complete the course during the remaining period.

Why join this course? 

Genomics and bioinformatics is a growing area of research with important practical implications for sectors as diverse as healthcare, food production, and environmental research.

On this course, you’ll learn how to train students, peers, professionals, and future experts in genomic techniques, and come away able to plan and design engaging lessons for adult learners.

Who is this course for? 

This course is for people who want to train students, peers, professionals, and future experts in genomics techniques. It will focus on practical skills for teaching adults as well as educational theory.

Learners are assumed to have knowledge of laboratory or bioinformatics techniques relevant to genomics. No prior knowledge of teaching, training or educational theory is assumed. There are no formal prerequisites.

Course start dates

This course will be repeated twice a year.

What topics will you cover?

• Adult learning and teaching principles and approaches for small or large groups
• Social learning through knowledge sharing; role of teacher/trainer in a learner centred environment
• Iterative process of learning design and development applied to genomics training
• Common educational methods to teach and assess bioinformatics and laboratory methods required for genomics
• Peer review project: design training in genomics, evaluate, reflect and improve

What will you achieve? 

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to…

• Discuss adult learning theory and illustrate how an active, learner centred approach guides course design
• Apply good practice learning and teaching skills of communication, group work and facilitation
• Identify opportunities for creating learning experiences from subject content
• Plan and design learning for a selected audience encompassing aspects of generation and analysis of genomic data, suitable for own context and environment
• Evaluate and reflect on learning design and identify areas for improvement using peer review feedback

Lead Educators

Rachel Berkson

Rachel is the Education Manager at Wellcome Connecting Science, UK, and leads on the development of online courses within the courses and conferences team. She has a background in cancer genetics and education, and is particularly interested in inclusive education.

Dusanka Nikolic

Dusanka is an Senior Education Developer at Wellcome Connecting Science, UK. She specialises in the application of ICT in education, and works on the design and development of online courses within the courses and conferences team.

Monica Abrudan

Monica Abrudan is a researcher in the Wellcome Sanger Institute Centre for Genomic Pathogen Surveillance, where she studies the emergence of high risk clones, using genomics and bioinformatics.

Alice Matimba

Alice Matimba manages the organisation and development of training in genomics and bioinformatics training, at Wellcome Connecting Science, UK – focusing on training for researchers and healthcare professionals in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Benjamin Moore

Ben Moore is an outreach officer for Ensembl based at EMBL-EBI. He delivers training and provides support to scientists using the Ensembl genome browsers and APIs.

What do people say about this course?

“The need for bioinformatics education in the life sciences far exceeds the trained instructor pool … this course does an excellent job of defining and meeting that need” – Russell Schwartz, Professor and Head, Computational Biology Department, Carnegie Mellon University

“Great opportunity to learn something real and essential for every professional involved in Bioinformatics Teaching/ Training” – Harpreet S, Reviewer

“It was a very informative course. As a Lecturer, there are methods I have been using in designing courses, teaching and assessment but had never known why and in this course I got to know.” – Barbara N, Reviewer

Wellcome Connecting Science are offering everyone who joins this course a free digital upgrade, so that you can experience the full benefits of studying online for free. This means that you get:

• Unlimited access to this course
• Includes any articles, videos, peer reviews and quizzes
• Tests to validate your learning
• A PDF Certificate of Achievement to prove your success when you’re eligible