A meeting of Educators and Trainers in the Life Sciences
Last month, I had the pleasure of being invited by David Lovell from the Australian Bioinformatics Network to speak about Software Carpentry at the Education and Training breakout session at the International Conference on Bioinformatics (InCob) 2014.
#Incob2014 showcasing the experience with @swcarpentry in Australia
— VickySchneider (@MVickySchneider)
This session featured a series of "lightning talks", 8 minutes in length, from a number of speakers giving student, course coordinator, and tool trainer perspectives on education and training for Bioinformatics research tools.
During the session, everyone in the audience was told to take notes on what they identified as enablers or barriers to training, as well as any other insights they gained throughout the session. Once all the speakers had presented, there was a half-hour interactive discussion between the speakers and the session audience about common themes in these notes.
The next day, I met up with Vicky Schneider, the vice president of the Global Organisation for Bioinformatics Learning, Education, and Training (GOBLET), along with Andrew Lonsdale, Marek Cmero, and Harriet Dashnow who were at InCob to talk about their experience taking the Master of Science (Bioinformatics) at the University of Melbourne, and to promote COMBINE, a national student group for computational biology.
Between us, we a had a productive discussion on the state of education and training in Bioinformatics, solidifying our thoughts from the previous day's session. Vicky Schneider sent out a tweet later, with an image summing up our collective thoughts:
My first impression on Bioinformatics in AU training & education @ausbionet @BioplatformsAus @combine_au @sritchie73
— VickySchneider (@MVickySchneider)
While our discussion on education and training was limited in scope to the field of Bioinformatics, many of the insights we had are also applicable more broadly to education and training for research tools across all disciplines:
More than anything else, researchers want training
At least in the life sciences space, the resource researchers wanted most was tool training. Mark Crowe from QFAB shared the results of the BRAEMBL survey conducted in 2013 of bioinformatics needs. More than 60% of researchers surveyed said that their greatest need was additional training, compared to a meagre 5% who need access to additional compute power.
Although this survey was restricted to the life sciences, our anecdotal evidence at the Research Bazaar suggests that this overwhelming need for training is reflected across all other research disciplines as well.
Translating training to research impact through collaboration
Although the value of tool training is unquestionable, one of the biggest barriers we face as trainers is justifying our involvement in training programs. This was common for everyone in the room, from student to tenured professor. Those we answer to, whether it be our supervisors, or the funding agency providing grant money, see our involvement as detracting from our research priorities.
So how do we go about translating our involvement in education and training into research impact for ourselves? The answer: collaboration. As the saying goes, a rising tide floats all ships, so by providing training to other researchers we open the door to collaborations, as those who attend can now ask, and answer, more interesting research questions with their data. Those who attend training are more likely to collaborate with each other and with the trainers.
Fragmented efforts to provide training
One of the key insights from the education and training session is that there are currently many groups with overlapping training efforts. GOBLET, CSIRO, QFAB, BRAEMBL and VLSCI all provide training in the life sciences, as do we here at the Research Bazaar.
This was one of the main points of discussion with Vicky Schneider from GOBLET. We both saw a need to promote collaborations between these organisations to enhance our training efforts where they overlap. Pooling resources for shared efforts will also help us complement each other for the unique training needs each organisation provides.
Improving the quality of training
What I was most impressed to learn at the education and training session is the increasing focus from all organisations in improving their training. This is one of GOBLET's primary functions: to act as a resource for bioinformatics training curriculum and best practices in teaching, and CSIRO have also run train-the-trainer events in the past.
Improving training quality is also one of our key goals at the Research Bazaar, and we will are holding a massive train-the-trainer conference next February to provide training in teaching pedagogy and best practices.
Students as enablers to training
One of the major barriers identified was a lack of awareness of available training (identified by BRAEMBL survey). Researchers in the life sciences are scattered across across many different labs, departments, and institutions, making it hard to effectively identify and advertise to those who want training.
This is where student groups, like COMBINE, come in. Student groups exist as a professional and social support group for those spread across disparate labs and institutions, so when appropriately targeted, can act as powerful enablers for training. They also bring together students with similar research interests and backgrounds, who thus have similar training needs.
We've recognised this here at the Research Bazaar, and have adopted a model that has been incredibly successful: whenever we run a training event, we approach a student group to co-host it. The benefit of this is two-fold: we can effectively target a large number of students who want training, and can tailor our training to that particular group in discussions with the student group's committee.
Getting students involved as trainers is also beneficial: both to the student and to the training. Those at the student level have a better understanding of the skills that they, and their cohort, lack, and are enthusiastic to gain teaching experience and improve their teaching ability.
Symbiotic relationships between organisations who provide training, student groups, and student trainers is thus a powerful catalyst for enabling effective training for research tools.
Session Slides
The slides for each of the speakers at the Education and Training session are available on slideshare, courtesy of David Lovell and Bruno Gaeta at the Australian Bioinformatics Network.
