Online course design elements

  • Sessions and Modules learning outcomes:  At the first session of each IBT module, trainers identified and emphasized on the learning outcomes to the participants. This gave the participants a clear idea of what to expect from each session \cite{Gurwitz2017}. At the end of the course, they were able to evaluate to what level the course content met their expectations. Their satisfaction with the course was a good indicator of the course success. This was clearly reflected by the percentage of the successful participants, who were able to meet all the course requirements. 
  • Trainers interactivity sessions with course participants:  Trainers uploaded their session resources in the central panel of the Mconf interface should they have wanted to explain a concept on a particular lecture slide, for example. Trainers activated their webcams while answering questions\cite{Gurwitz2017}
  • Hands-on sessions & Teaching assistants: During this free 3-month introduction to bioinformatics, IBT2017, a large portion of course materials were dedicated to hands-on sessions, where participants are given the opportunity to practice what they are learning \cite{Gurwitz2017}. Nevertheless, these sessions require a large number of teaching assistants, as they offer participants the opportunity to handle real data and run analysis tasks that implement the theory being illustrated in the lectures. This was found to be of great importance, as often trainees fail to appreciate how what is explained in the lectures can be directly applied to real data. 
  •  Video Conferencing System :  IBT classrooms connected the trainer to all other classrooms via the Mconf open-source web conferencing platform (https://mconf.sanren.ac.za/) , and classrooms either activated their microphones or entered text into a chat box to ask questions to the trainer \cite{Gurwitz2017}. Considering it was a free resource, the offered features were to some extent satisfactory in some of the classrooms (real-time chat, screen sharing,  file sharing, classroom mode). Issues with sound clarity and disconnection is motivating the core IBT team to consider alternative platform (personal communication).
  • Learning Management Systems: Throughout the IBT, Vula, the University of Cape Town’s online learning and collaboration environment was utilized to send out announcements, manage participants, track their progress, and allow for live or delayed interaction amongst participants and with trainers and staff \cite{Gurwitz_2017}.