Focus on the Course Context

Identifying the target audience is important for determining the learning outcomes. Dr Ben Moore explains his experience of creating tailored content.

He also explains why he chose to include in his course the Ensembl Variant Effect Predictor, a tool that can be used with any species, including bacteria, and is really useful for scientists who have performed their own sequencing and have their own variation datasets.

For the exercises associated with the Variant Effect Predictor, Dr Ben Moore used small datasets lifted from publications that studied anti-microbial resistance in different contexts – one in a maternity unit in a hospital in Cambridge, UK, another from a study that focussed on multidrug resistant TB in a health centre in Uganda.

We also learn how Dr Ben Moore adapted the workshop for a virtual learning environment due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We learn how Ben used the features of the Zoom platform, including live-polling, to increase audience interaction and gauge students’ progress against the learning objectives. Ben also used a Google ‘Living Doc’ as a platform for students to collaboratively make notes and ask questions. The Living Doc was a really useful tool to promote interaction and the final product served as a useful knowledge-bank for all of the students to use as a reference.