Hello to all of you wonderful BCC2020 instructors,
This is another update for you and it’s a big one!
IMPORTANT: Instruction platform
The conference organisers have changed the technology platform to be used.
We will now be using Remo for the entire conference.
Remo can be found at: https://www.remo.co
Remo has a range of short video clips: https://remo.co/remo-tutorials/
We will set up a Remo room/event space on Remo for each training session, so you don’t have to.
The conference committee is of the opinion that it will look and feel a bit more natural and actually like a conference.
We will be training you all in the use of Remo over the next two weeks.
You should be receiving an invite link soon via the email address you used when you registered for the conference. Please make sure you have registered! These Remo training sessions will run for about 30 minutes plus any questions.
Training Session Times:
In the Western Hemisphere:
In the Eastern Hemisphere:
You may use another platform if you feel the added benefits justify participants’ added learning curve. If you chose to do this then
Please let us know
You are responsible for all setup and fees, and we strongly encourage you to help your participants get set up on the platform ahead of time.
Online training tips and lessons
We have found some useful tips and lessons learnt for online, hands-on training.
Tips for online training from the “Carpentries”: https://static.carpentries.org/blog/2020/06/virtual-software-carpentry-workshop/
Some lessons learnt about online training from Darya Vanichkina of Sydney University’s Bioinformatics Hub: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0DHye2M1IM.
In this video, Darya makes some really good points, including that online training is really sloooooowwww. It really is worth watching.
Conference Discord Server
We have created a conference discord server and set up some generic channels for discussions. There is a special channel for instructors to join (trainers-green-room). This channel can be used to ask us any questions about the training setups etc. You can join this channel at the following URL: https://discord.gg/mePRjxC.
Contact with your participants before the conference
We are encouraging each training session to produce a short introduction video letting potential participants know about any prerequisites that might be needed for your training. E.g. Familiarity with linux terminal or access to certain software etc.
If you have made a video, please post it to youtube and send us the link so we can add it to the Schedule and the mailout for your session.
We also encourage you to make yourselves available on the Discord server to answer any questions that your participants may have from a day or so before the sessions.
Your own training room on Remo will be available for about a week before and after your training so feel free to practice, play with it and even invite your participants to check it out before hand.
We can also provide you with an advance list of your participants and their email addresses.
Please contact us for details of where to put your short introduction videos.
Registration
As an instructor, you will need to register for the conference, but your registration for training, and all other events, is free. To register, please use this link:
https://bcc2020-register.eventbrite.com?discount=BCC2020-Instructor-0087
And please don’t redistribute that.
Cap your participants?
We have capped participation in every session at 90 (or less if requested). We can limit the number of tickets for any training session to less than that, and have done that for 5-6 sessions already. Please let us know if you want participation capped. The 90 limit comes from Remo.
Additional Instructors
Online training requires more instructors than the equivalent in-person material. Please consider additional instructors for your sessions, and please let us know who you want to add.
Advertise!
We encourage you to advertise your session. If you are on Twitter, please use the hashtag #BCC2020. We also encourage using/referencing @OBF_BOSC and #UseGalaxy. The conference organizers are tweeting about each training topic, starting last week.
Questions?
If you have any questions regarding the training sessions at BCC, please feel free to contact us via email for now, and on Discord once we have the instructor channel up.
Thanks for everything,
Simon G and Dave C