The first EXCELERATE Training workshop - organised jointly by ELIXIR and GOBLET - was hosted by ELIXIR Slovenia on 15-17 September 2015 in Ljubljana. The programme of the event provided an overview of e-learning systems used internationally and within these two organisations. The aim was to compare these systems, understand their respective strengths and weaknesses, and define a common e-learning ‘language’ to facilitate communication within and between the GOBLET and ELIXIR trainer communities.
Twenty-one participants, representing both ELIXIR and GOBLET, attended the workshop and presented their views, questions and strategies for e-learning. Three international speakers complemented the expert panel: Phillip Compeau (Computational Biology Department, Carnegie Mellon University, USA), Anthony F. Camilleri (the Knowledge Innovation Centre) and Victoria Nembaware (H3Africa Consortium, South Africa).
The outcome of the workshop will be a White Paper, describing various e-learning approaches and their applications, and providing recommendations for their use. The presentations from the workshop and other materials are already available on the GOBLET website.
ELIXIR-GOBLET collaboration
With this workshop, the ELIXIR-GOBLET Joint Training Strategy has entered its implemetation stage. Published in May 2015, the ELIXIR-GOBLET strategy sets out the areas for collaboration between GOBLET and ELIXIR, including e-learning, joint exploration of training 'accreditation' mechanisms, or sharing of best practice on professionalising bioinformatics training.