Lesson motivation and learning objectives
Lesson design
My goal is to teach episodes 1 and 2 and get partway through episode 3 (reading VCFs) on the first two-hour day.
In episode 1, DNAStringSets are not super important for the rest of the
lesson, so cover those quickly.
The code from snpStats in episode 4 for getting linkage disequilibrium
vs. physical distance is hacky enough that I think it is better to just give
them the code and demonstrate it rather than do live coding.
In Dec. 2020, I ended up skipping episode 4. There was more interest in episode 5, and I did not end up with enough time for both.
Learned after/during the workshop:
- If live coding, make sure to follow the Rmd exactly in terms of variable names, or it is useless for students wanting to follow that code or use it to get caught up.
- Use Zoom polls periodically to test knowledge.
- Some students wanted this workshop to be expanded to more than 4 hours.
- Have more of an overview at the beginning, both of the dataset and the workflow that we’re going to follow.
- Get more into what the packages are for, not just the functions.
- Content and objectives of the workshop need to be more clear when signing up.
- Breakout rooms should be more interactive, and instructors/helpers should be prepared with a slide and a demonstration.