The 2017 iteration of the IBT
In its second iteration of 2017, the IBT course started on May 9th 2017, with 2 days per week for in-person interactive sessions. Building on its first iteration of 2016 \cite{Gurwitz_2017}, and aiming at building introductory level competence for basic bioinformatics users \cite{Welch_2014}, the 2017 IBT was composed of the following 6 modules: Introduction to databases and resources, Linux, Sequence alignment theory and application, Multiple sequence alignment, Genomics, Molecular evolution and phylogenetics. The design, learning objectives and contents of these modules are already described in \cite{Gurwitz_2017}, so here we only comment on the local supporting set up of the classrooms.
In the H3BioNet Node of Sudan, 73 students registered in the 2017 iteration of the IBT course. The majority of these students (participants or learners hereafter) have been selected from a waiting list from the previous IBT run of 2016. The eligibility criteria was for them to have a basic understanding of the central dogma of molecular biology, and hence they came from a diverse set of specializations (Figure \ref{189578} and Supplementary Figure 3B) , at different stages in their education (6% were at the BSc level, 41% current MSc students, 11% current PhD students and 34% were MSc and PhD graduates not pursuing any degree) and career affiliations (66% in academic institutes, 4% in governmental ministries, 7% in Research centers, 3% in private companies and hospitals, with remarkable 12% unemployment rate) as can be seen in Figure \ref{189578} (C and A respectively). Figure \ref{189578} B further shows that despite these differences, the highest educational institute for the majority of those participants is the University of Khartoum (73% have graduated from the University of Khartoum, compared to 13% percent from the other Sudanese universities, and 4% who studied abroad).
To accommodate this large number, two classrooms were set up for physical interactions within the University of Khartoum main campus: the CBSB laboratory, equipped with 20 PCs and network ports to accommodate an additional 12 PCs/laptops; and the main Library of the University of Khartoum with its larger computer lab that can accommodate up to 70 participants. Collectively, these two locations accommodated the 73 participants who registered in the course, and were split to 33 and 40 between these locations respectively. Those two locations vary in their infrastructure as well: the PCs in the CBSB lab were chosen for bioinformatics training and research with larger screen sizes and more CPU and memory capacities, while those in the Main library needed more effort from the local IBT team and the University of Khartoum Information Technology Network Administration (ITNA) staff to set them up, and fix network issues at the beginning of the course.
This larger intake has been managed and facilitated by a local staff, which besides the CBSB node Principle Investigator (PI), was composed of 7 teaching assistants (TAs) who were themselves previous alumni of the first IBT iteration of 2016. Their prior IBT experience helped them provide actionable advice and guidance to the new course participants, and their facilitation job was tremendously eased with the on-line staff training sessions provided by the core IBT team. Only a single system administrator was available for the duration of the course, but it was manageable with both classrooms being physically close to each other. It is worth noting here that the recruited TAs have background in genetics & molecular biology (1 TA), and molecular medicine (the remaining 6 TAs), which matches the background of participants.