s* alliance global bioinformatics online distance education
DESCRIPTION
S* Alliance Global Bioinformatics Online Distance Education. Justin Choo * , Tan Tin Wee, Shoba Ranganathan * Presenter. Bioinformatics & Its Challenge. Rapid growth in past 3 years; rapidly evolving field Few universities can offer the complete range of Bioinformatics courses - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
S* Alliance Global Bioinformatics
Online Distance Education
Justin Choo*, Tan Tin Wee, Shoba Ranganathan* Presenter
Bioinformatics & Its Challenge
Rapid growth in past 3 years; rapidly evolving field
Few universities can offer the complete range of Bioinformatics courses
Lack of trained bioinformaticians in the Asia-Pacific region
What is S* ?
Founded in 2000, S* is a collaboration among 6 universities. 1 university joined.
To meet this challenge using distance learning technologies over advanced networks
Unified learning environment over the Internet freely accessible to everyone
S* Informatics Alliance
Karolinska Institutet
University Uppsala
University of the Western Cape
Stanford University
National University of Singapore
University of Sydney
South Africa
USA
Sweden
Singapore
Australia
University of California,San Diego
Goals of S*
Provide a GLObal Bioinformatics Unified Learning Environment (GLOBULE) made up of modular courses in the disciplines of bioinformatics, medical informatics and genomics
Provide accessibility to the highest possible quality of online courseware approved by the educators from the host institutions.
Develop an integrated modular learning environment that allows a student to select from both pre-requisite modules and advanced modules in order to build a comprehensive program.
History of S*
2000 - Sweden Stanford and Singapore agreement in Singapore - Meeting in Sweden: all founders involved
2001 - AGM in Copenhagen, 1st course 2002 – 2nd course 2002 - BioEd conference in Singapore,
AGM at NUS 2003 – UCSD joins, 3rd course, 4th course
Participants List
Geographic Distribution of Participants
0
100
200
1st Course
2nd Course
3rd Course
1st Course 26 21 7 10 7
2nd Course 65 12 18 32 24
3rd Course 180 41 15 41 8
AsiaAustrala
siaEurope America Africa
S* Course: Occupation
Occupation of S* Participation
6%
24%
7%
34%
4%
10%
8%3%
1%3%
Executives
Researcher/Scientist
Professor/Lecturer
Student
Manager
IT Professional
Engineer/Consultant
Homemaker
Health Care Related
Others
Course Pedagogy
A. Lectures
B. Discussion
C. Assessment
D. Tutorial (New)
E. Practical (New)
F. Course Feedback
Course Syllabus
1. Introductory Molecular Biology2. An Overview of the Computational Analysis of
Biological Sequences 3. Transcript Analysis and Reconstruction4. Comparative Genomics 5. Representations and Algorithms for
Computational Molecular Biology 6. Protein Structure Primer7. Protein Structure Prediction
Course Syllabus (cont.)
8. Protein Physics9. Genomics and Computational Molecular Biology
Genomics 10. Protein and Nucleic Acid Structure, Dynamics,and
Engineering 11. Proteomics12. Proteomes13. Structure Prediction for Macromolecular Interactions14. Protein - Ligand Modeling
Curriculum Cross-CheckEssential Curriculum 5- S* Course Curriculum
Molecular biology, cell biology, genetics
Provide an introductory and overview of the subject
Core Bioinformatics (protein , sequence alignment, protein modeling, threading, structure prediction)
There are still topics which S* will be covering in future. Some will be taught through short tutorials.
Computer science (programming, data structures/algorithms, database, AI, optimization)
Out of scope of S*, however, we are now trying to incorporate this into tutorial/practical sessions.
Statistics (probability theory, experimental statistical design and analysis, stochastic process)
Minimal. Will be looking into providing lecture on this topic.
Ethics (effects of technology on society, privacy and security issues)
This topic is often regarded informal. Currently, this is conducted among the participant in the discussion forum.
Delivery & Pedagogy Via the Integrated Virtual Learning Environment
developed @ NUS
Delivery & Pedagogy (cont.)
Video/Audio Lecture Presentation
Slides made available for reference and viewing
Email as the main communication tool Participant Course Coordinator Participant Teaching Assistant Teaching Assistant Course Coordinator
Sample Lecture
Sample Discussion Forum
Sample Assessment Session
Problems Encountered
Delivery format (video/audio)Made different quality video/audio encoding
files
Bandwidth problemSlow connection
Solution
Overcoming the bandwidth problem
- network of mirror sites
- MoU tie up with APBioNet
Pressing of CDs (to countries like Africa, Iran)
The S* Alliance Mirror Sites
University of Sydney,
Australia
Stanford
SANBI, South Africa
CSTNET+CERNE
T, China
Anna, Pune University, India
NUS, Singap
ore
UKM, Malay
sia
Mirroring and realtime lessons for Asia Pacific studentsMake use of APAN network infrastructure coordinated by APBioNet
Quilmes National University, Argentina
Instituto de Inmunologia,
Univalle, Colombia
UCSD
Strength Of The Course
Online content allow anytime-anywhere access
Presented by world renowned experts from different institutions
Made available to a broad audience Well-organised User friendly system
Advantages Member organizations do not need to
wait until experts in all domains of bioinformatics are hired (if at all possible)
Re-usable courseware Easily updated content Uniformity of curriculum and evaluation Globally accessible education
Feedback To think that a world-class, web based education with such
valued lectures is brought to your desk free of cost is impossible elsewhere. The course was wonderfully well managed. Our requests and problems were quickly and well attended to. I had a great time doing this course and thank the S*STAR team whole heartedly for making me a fortunate participant with this fantastic experience.
~ Naidu Ratnala Thulaja, Singapore
I think it is a very useful course, it is exactly what it says it is: an introduction to bioinformatics. It covers nicely major topics and provides enough information in order for us to understand what bioinformatics is all about. I enjoyed it very much and I am even a bit sad it is over. Thank you very much! ~ Patricia Severino, Romania
Feedback (cont.) Pretty good. A few rough edges but I'm sure you'll work
them out over time. I really enjoyed it. Most of the lectures were very well presented and the participants in the forums helpful. I'm very impressed at the amount of work that has obviously gone into setting up the course. ~ Alan Wardroper, Thailand
The international participation of the lecturers and students. The relevance of the field of bioinformatics in meeting the biomedical needs of today. The level of communication provided by the IVLE system enhanced learning considerably. The range of professional and academic background of students. The technical support provided by SStar was rapid and efficient to queries.
~ C.A.O. IDOWU, England
Problem-Based Learning (PBL)
Started at McMaster University Medical School over 25 years ago
Encourages hand-on and critical thinking. Its hands-on approach is particular suited for bioinformatics where many of the skills require practical execution and the problems encountered are generally open-ended.
PBL encourages : acquisition of critical knowledge. problem solving proficiency; problems tackled are generally open-ended. self-motivated learning. team participation.
Role Change
In PBL, there’s a fundamental change in the role played by the participants.a facilitator guides the entire session.a scribe records the entire session.some participants field questions; others try to
brainstorm and provide answers. There will not be student-teacher relationship,everybody is treated equally. Focus is on peer learning
PBL Session
S* is currently experimenting PBL session using web-based collaboration platform – TWiKi (http://twiki.org)
Consideration/Issues to resolve :How to accommodate so many participantsHow to host so many TWiKi pageWill participants with slow connection able to
access ?
Online Delivery Mechanism
Consider and want to explore various advanced networking technologies particularly on video conferencing software. e.g. AccessGridTM
http://www.accessgrid.org/
AccessGridTM
It is a suite of resources including multimedia large-format displays, presentation and interactive environments, and interfaces to Grid middleware and to visualization environments.
Developed by the Futures Laboratory at Argonne National Laboratory and deployed by the NCSA PACI Alliance, it is now used over 150 institutions worldwide with each institution hosting one or more Access Grid (AG) node.
Each node employs high-end audio and visual technology needed to provide a high-quality compelling user experience.
Immersive Learning
Enable group-to-group interactions across the Grid.
Activities such as large-scale distributed meetings, collaborative work sessions, seminars, lectures, tutorials, and training are made possible.
Fig 1: Controlling Audio/Visual Quality
Fig 2: Group-to-Group Live Interaction
Benefits
Reduce the costs and time of traveling. Enable live lecture presentation by the
prominent lecturers. Allow bi-direction interactive discussion forum Conduct virtual seminars and workshops Empower group-to-group collaboration work.
Example
National University of Singapore (NUS) - Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA) lecture were beamed across twelve time zones from a classroom in MIT to a classroom at NUS
live, "virtual classroom" spanned continents, linking students half a world apart over Internet2
Issues & Consideration
Infrastructure (high speed network, connection/bandwidth)
Cost of setting up Location of set-up Manpower required Technical competency
Contact Information
Emails Justin Choo
Course Coordinator [email protected]
A/P Tan Tin Wee Secretariat [email protected]
A/P Shoba Ranganathan Chairman [email protected]
S* Web Site :http://www.s-star.org
S* Secretariat :[email protected]
S* Mailing Address :BioInformatics Center
Dept of Biochemistry, MD710 Kent Ridge Crescent
Singapore 119260Tel: +65-774-7149
Fax: +65-778-2466
End Of Presentation