Ten Simple Rules for Online Learning
David B. Searls
The success of online courseware such as that offered by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (
http://ocw.mit.edu)
and now by many other institutions, together with a plethora of recent
announcements of major new initiatives in this arena such as Coursera (
https://www.coursera.org), Udacity (
http://www.udacity.com), and the Harvard-MIT partnership edX (
http://www.edxonline.org),
have made it clear that online learning has reached a tipping point.
Many signs point to the possibility in the near future of getting a
quality, university-level education at a distance, and for free. As
exciting as this prospect may be, it behooves online students to follow a
few simple rules for getting the most out of the experience, while
being realistic in their expectations, as outlined below.
An Online Bioinformatics Curriculum
David B. Searls
Online learning initiatives over the past decade have become
increasingly comprehensive in their selection of courses and
sophisticated in their presentation, culminating in the recent
announcement of a number of consortium and startup activities that
promise to make a university education on the internet, free of charge, a
real possibility. At this pivotal moment it is appropriate to explore
the potential for obtaining comprehensive bioinformatics training with
currently existing free video resources. This article presents such a
bioinformatics curriculum in the form of a virtual course catalog,
together with editorial commentary, and an assessment of strengths,
weaknesses, and likely future directions for open online learning in
this field.
Developing an online programme in computational biology
Heather M Vincent and Christopher Page
Much has been written about the need for continuing education and
training to enable life scientists and computer scientists
to manage and exploit the different types of
biological data now becoming available. Here we describe the development
of an
online programme that combines short training
courses, so that those who require an educational programme can progress
to
complete a formal qualification. Although this
flexible approach fits the needs of course participants, it does not fit
easily
within the organizational structures of a
campus-based university.
