Announcing new RNAseq courses from fredhutch.io

3 minute read

Written by: Kate Hertweck - Bioinformatics Training Manager (2018-2021)

Announcement: Pilot testing of these courses has been cancelled. Course materials will remain publicly available, though completion of them will be delayed.

We are pleased to announce pilot testing for a new course series on RNAseq analysis!

The fredhutch.io training program has previously focused largely on teaching general skills in data and computing, with the intention that these skills can be applied to a variety of research areas. Since the training and community team joined Shared Resources at the end of 2020, we’ve begun working with experts from the Core facilities to develop training resources for more specific areas of research, such as genomics.

The new RNAseq course series follows existing design practices for fredhutch.io courses, which we have developed specifically to support our research community. Things you can expect from all fredhutch.io courses include:

  • specific learning objectives for both the entire course and individual classes that relate to common research tasks
  • integration with Fred Hutch data and compute resources, and a goal of applying the skills taught immediately following completion of the course
  • instructor-led sessions following best practices in adult technical education
  • materials that are publicly available for course participants to reference later, as well as for self-directed learning

Please continue reading to learn more about the RNAseq courses and how you can enroll!

About the RNAseq course series

The RNAseq course series currently includes two classes:

  • Concepts in RNAseq analysis: This lecture-style class focuses on general concepts associated with experimental design and analysis of bulk RNAseq experiments. Participants are expected to have a general understanding of the central dogma of molecular biology (DNA->RNA->protein), but coding skills are not required (and will not be included in this course).
  • RNAseq analysis: Unix and R: This hands-on coding course teaches application of bioinformatics software to perform bulk RNAseq analysis using guided tutorials and coding exercises. Participants are expected to have a firm grasp of ideas covered in the Concepts of RNAseq analysis course, either by co-registering for the courses or from previous educational experiences. Prior experience with both R statistical programming and the Unix shell (command line) is also required.

Please visit the links above to read the full course descriptions and course objectives. Please note that these materials are currently under development, but the main themes and objectives will not be changing.

Pilot testing for the RNAseq courses

We are currently planning to teach the two RNAseq courses concurrently in May:

  • Concepts in RNAseq: (four one-hour classes) Tuesdays from 2-3 pm on May 4, 11, 18, and 25
  • RNAseq analysis: Unix and R: (four two-hour classes) Thursdays from 1-3 pm on May 6, 13, 20, and 27

Because experience with R and Unix are required for the skills course, we will be covering the pre-requisites in separate courses at the end of April:

  • Introduction to R, 1-3 pm on April 20, 22, 27, and 29
  • Unix crash course, an abbreviated version of Introduction to Unix (under development), scheduling to be determined.

All of these courses are open to current Fred Hutch employees, and will be held virtually via Microsoft Teams. If you are interested in enrolling in the pilot sessions for one or both of the RNAseq courses, please complete this form. Since this will be the first time these courses are taught at the Hutch, we’re taking extra care to select participants for these first sessions to ensure everyone feels prepared to succeed. We will contact interested participants directly to finalize enrollment.

Following this pilot test, the RNAseq course series will be included in the regular rotation of instructor-led courses available to the Fred Hutch community. As with all fredhutch.io courses, the complete course materials are publicly available while in development, and will continue to remain available for anyone to use for self-directed learning. Check out all available course materials here!

Please contact us at coophelp with any questions about these courses. We’re also happy to hear any other questions or conceror training and documentation for data-intensive and bioinformatics research.

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