Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Training syllabuses or programmes will vary massively and be extremely
site-dependent. The most important thing about the training programme
we have implemented is that the people giving the training really see the
benefi t of working in this sort of service model and therefore really want
to do the training. From an enthusiastic trainer all else should fl ow. We
have found that making resources for training constantly available and
operating an open-door question policy are vital in preventing any
frustration a newbie may otherwise feel when learning a new topic. It
goes without saying that web sites are great places to disseminate links to
resources including course recordings and 'how-to' screencasts. We have
used free video servers including YouTube for shorter videos and blip.tv
for longer recordings. Syndication and RSS feeds can be disseminated via
iTunes for free. Screen capture software such as iShowU-HD [29] is
essential; this software has a free version (although it admittedly prints a
watermark onto the video, we have never found this to be intrusive).
Users are very fond of the longer videos, particularly when they have
access to the accompanying course materials and can work through the
course at their own pace later. The most popular training materials are
those that are self-contained, that can be taken away and worked on
when opportunity presents, such as our own PDFs, which deliberately
follow a 'principle-example-exercise' structure and are quite focussed on
discrete tasks. The least effective seem to be the longer reference topics
that aim too wide in scope, the effort required to get much out of these
sorts of resources can be somewhat dispiriting to a beginner.
11.10 Summary
With all these free and open source tools and tricks, we have been able to
implement a bioinformatics service that is powerful and fl exible and,
most importantly, clearly accessible to the user at the levels at which the
user actually cares. By deploying tools and providing sensible and custom
infrastructure in which the user can access what they need without
needless layers of user involvement in between, we can lift the burden of
data management from a scientist and allow them just to get on with the
job of research. Thanks to the fl exibility and interoperability of the free
and open source tools that are now available, we can put together
pipelines and environments for any sort of research our institute is likely
to encounter. Using free and open source software in this way frees a
bioinformatician from having to perform every last analysis themselves,
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