Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

As a Bioinformatics researcher in South Africa, i am part of the pan African Bioinformatics Network for H3Africa called H3ABionet. As part of this network we wrote a paper on how to design a course model for distance-based online bioinformatics training in Africa. The paper focused on how to overcome logistical challenges in Africa to provide bioinformatics expertise to young researchers in Africa and how to overcome internet instability to provide access to lecture material online. The content of the course was developed to include a range of fundamental bioinformatics topics at the introductory level. For the first iteration of the course (2016), classrooms with a total of 364 enrolled participants were hosted at 20 institutions across 10 African countries. To ensure that classroom success did not depend on internet stability, we the trainers pre-recorded the lectures, and the classrooms downloaded and watched the videos locally during biweekly contact sessions. We the trainers were also available via video conferencing to take questions.