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There is an ongoing explosion of scientific datasets being generated, brought on by recent technological advances in many areas of the natural sciences. As a result, the life sciences have become increasingly computational in nature, and bioinformatics has taken on a central role in research studies. However, basic computational skills, data analysis, and stewardship are still rarely taught in life science educational programs, resulting in a skills gap in many of the researchers tasked with analysing these big datasets. In order to address this skills gap and empower researchers to perform their own data analyses, the Galaxy Training Network (GTN) has previously developed the Galaxy Training Platform (https://training.galaxyproject.org), an open access, community-driven framework for the collection of FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) training materials for data analysis utilizing the user-friendly Galaxy framework as its primary data analysis platform. Since its inception, this training platform has thrived, with the number of tutorials and contributors growing rapidly, and the range of topics extending beyond life sciences to include topics such as climatology, cheminformatics, and machine learning. While initially aimed at supporting researchers directly, the GTN framework has proven to be an invaluable resource for educators as well. We have focused our efforts in recent years on adding increased support for this growing community of instructors. New features have been added to facilitate the use of the materials in a classroom setting, simplifying the contribution flow for new materials, and have added a set of train-the-trainer lessons. Here, we present the latest developments in the GTN project, aimed at facilitating the use of the Galaxy Training materials by educators, and its usage in different learning environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trainees can move through workflows at their own pace, with trainers or fellow trainees easily accessible in case they get stuck. ht Graph Table 3 Common learning objectives in virtual course environments and how interaction elevates them. The handbook is an essential platform that helps trainees navigate through the virtual course and facilitates virtual interaction among trainees and trainers. We converted multiple layers of interaction found in F2F courses into virtual counterparts, be it across people (trainees to trainees or trainers) as well as topic (social, learning, and networking) (Fig 1). In "Random trainer guided breakout rooms", trainees were randomly assigned to rooms and given a trainer who either stayed with them through the practical or rotated through groups, thus allowing both group work and trainer support in a smaller setting. [Extracted from the article]

Reference 1 Bacon W, Holinski A, Pujol M, Wilmott M, Morgan SL, on behalf of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory - European Bioinformatics Institute Training Team (2022) Ten simple rules for leveraging virtual interaction to build higher-level learning into bioinformatics short courses. The Acknowledgments section contains spelling errors. [Extracted from the article]