Training Infrastructure Feedback from Dr. Fotis Psomopoulos

In November 2020 I was invited to give a lecture on RNA-Seq data analysis in the context of the graduate program on Precision Medicine of the School of Medicine at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. This was part of the first-year course on Bioinformatics and, given that it was aimed for graduate students, I proposed to offer a practical, hands-on course. Given the short time frame, and aiming to minimize any lost time due to differences in computer setup, I proposed the use of the Galaxy TIaaS by the participants.

On the day, the participants were able to directly join and work on the Galaxy.eu instance, easily following-up the individual steps as demonstrated by me, directly following the corresponding GTN lesson. The overall feedback was quite positive; despite the fact the learners were mostly graduate medical students with a few clinicians in the mix, with very little prior experience in Bioinformatics, they were able to follow the steps easily, and the course helped clarify points on QA and mapping. I believe that this particular lesson is well-suited for a short tutorial, even in a traditional academic context, and the use of the TIaaS really facilitated a positive learning experience as it removed any technical barriers and allowed me to focus on the actual content.