Training Infrastructure Feedback from Marcel Schulz

Galaxy helps virtual teaching!

Due to the Covid-19 outbreak and the need for online teaching in these unusual times, the Computational Epigenomics course at Goethe University Frankfurt conducts all excercises online using the Galaxy Europe platform. As computational access is limited and spontaneous solutions had to be found, Galaxy with its large training material and vast amount of available genomics tools, was just right to fill that gap.

The course teaches standard analysis routines for RNA-seq and different kinds of epigenomics data, including ChIP-seq and ATAC-seq data. A dataset that includes RNA and epigenomic data after before and after treatment is used by the students as part of different excercises were they first learn to analyze the individual datasets and then integrate these data to arrive at final conclusions. The excercises were designed to expect more self-engagement from the students to solve the tasks in later excercises when they got used to Galaxy mimicking experiences with tools designed by researchers as what they would have to deal with later in their careers.

Thanks to the Galaxy community for providing such a fantastic resource!