The goal of the H3ABioNet and University of Botswana curriculum development workshop is to present success stories of Masters programmes that have been developed elsewhere and then discuss the challenges in starting such a programme at African universities who don’t yet offer them, and how to overcome these challenges. The workshop will also discuss what curriculum should be taught and how to train faculty to do this teaching. Many institutions in Africa have expressed the will to start degree programmes in bioinformatics, this workshop will enable them to discuss the issues around this and how they can share resources and experience to get it off the ground. Several PIs both within H3Africa and those closely linked to the consortium have expressed their frustrations at not having a degree programme in bioinformatics at their institutions. At the last H3Africa consortium meeting, the CafGEN project, led by Botswana, noted their interest in working with H3ABioNet to develop a bioinformatics degree in Gabarone. Further discussions with other groups have shown that there are many institutions in Africa who face a similar issue so it makes sense for all these groups to get together and discuss how to go about starting such degree programmes. If we want to train bioinformaticians in Africa, we need to train them at the postgraduate level, where they can have focussed courses and undertake high quality bioinformatics projects for their dissertations. Therefore it is important that H3ABioNet focusses some of its training efforts at this fundamental stage of career development. This workshop will bring together people who have developed such programmes and people who need them in order to formulate a plan for how to go forward with this.
Those who have developed bioinformatics curriculum and people who need them in order to formulate a plan for how to go forward with this.
Classroom applications
Participant applications
|
11th March, 2014 |
|
|
8:30am - 9:00am |
Registration and welcome |
|
9:00am - 9:30am |
Brief introduction and anticipated outcomes of the H3ABioNet curriculum development workshop by participants. |
|
9:30am - 9:50am |
Dr. Oyekanmi Nashiru: Perspective on the Priorities for Bioinformatics Education in the 21st Century |
|
9:50am - 10:10am |
Prof. Faisal Fadlelmola: Bioinformatics Degree Curriculum Development: The African Challenge and Lessons Learned |
|
10:10am - 10:30am |
Prof. Nicola Mulder: The South African Perspective |
|
10:30am - 11:00am |
Tea / Coffee Break |
|
11:00am - 11:20am |
Dr.Benjamin Kumwenda: A road map to development of Bioinformatics in Malawi |
|
11:20am - 11:40am |
Dr. Etienne de Villiers: KWTRP Masters level bioinformatics curriculum for East Africa |
|
11:40 - 12:00pm |
Prof. Ozlem Tastan Bishop: One-Year Coursework and Dissertation Bioinformatics MSc Programme at Rhodes University |
|
12:00pm – 12:30pm |
Open discussion: A Research vs Structured Bioinformatics programme |
|
12:30pm – 1:30pm |
Lunch Break |
|
1:30pm - 2:00pm |
Dr. Mamadou Wele (via Skype): Establishment of an MSc Bioinformatics programme in Mali |
|
2:00pm – 2:30pm |
Prof. Oswaldo Trelles (via Skype): MSc Bioinformatics program in Spain |
|
2:00pm – 2:30pm |
Prof. Patricia Palagi: MSc Bioinformatics program at the Swiss Institute for Bioinformatics (SIB) |
|
3:00pm – 3:30pm |
Open discussion: Amount of institutional support available e.g infrastructure, trained faculty, etc. How to train trainers |
|
3:30pm – 4:00pm |
Tea / Coffee Break |
|
4:00pm – 4:30pm |
Prof. Lonnie Welch (via Skype): Bioinformatics Curriculum Guidelines Towards a Definition of Core Competencies |
|
4:30pm – 5:00pm |
Break away session: Different models of bioinformatics training / education (single Institution vs cross-Institution) which one is applicable to your scenario? |
|
5:00pm – 5:30pm |
Report back from break away sessions |
|
12th March, 2014 |
|
|
9:00am – 9:30am |
Dr.Gomotsegang Pule: Requirements for the registration and accreditation of an MSc degree programme |
|
9:30am – 10:30am |
Open discussion: Accreditation, registration and Institutional requirements for establishing a MSc Bioinformatics programme |
|
10:30am – 11:00am |
Tea / Coffee break |
|
11:00am – 11:20pm |
Talk: Examples of different curriculums |
|
11:20am-12:00pm |
Open discussion: Core vs elective topics for a MSc bioinformatics curricula and applicability to your scenario |
|
12:00pm – 12:30pm |
Open discussion: Build bioinformatics program according to expertise available at University e.g HIV or malaria research |
|
12:30pm – 1:30pm |
Lunch Break |
|
1:30pm – 2:30pm |
Wrap-up discussion of educational models, curricula and implementation |
Training materials for this course are available as a single downloadable archive here: https://doi.org/10.25375/uct.19106708. Should you re-use any of these materials, please ensure that both the author/s of the material AND H3ABioNet are clearly credited.
