The 3-day course on "Introduction to Molecular Biology Information Resources"
is taught from the course web site:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Class/MLACourse/index.html
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Course introduction/highlights
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1. The course starts with welcome and orientation
Welcome! Thanks for coming. Few general announcements before we get started:
A) General -
Food/Drink policy
Rest Rooms
Cafeteria - 38A/B1 and Natcher
etc.
B) Introductions -
1) instructors introduce themselves
2) participants introduce themselves
(name, insitution, examples of types of questions they have gotten
so far and how many per week, and/or plans for mol bio support services)
C) Purpose of this course is to provide -
1) a foundation of knowledge and skills that will
enable you to handle general questions about mol bio resources
2) a springboard for further learning
D) Don't expect to absorb 100% of what is covered in the course;
get what you can, and for the rest, at least you've
heard it the first time and the term will ring a bell,
then you know where to look to get a review on the concept;
the more user questions you handle, the more deeply you will learn
the resources and the more confident you'll become
2. Computer setup:
please set the "home page" on each computer to the Modules page
1) we'll mainly use IE
2) edit URL for "home" button (Tools/Internet Options) to:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Class/MLACourse/modules.html
3) modules page allows you to jump to first and last slide of
each module
o first slide is brief table of contents
o last slide is complete list of slides in module
if student only wants to review all the exercises in a module,
follow the user questions link.
4) we use 2 windows (one for slides, and one for active searches)
5) Turning computers off - do not use power switch on the computer
itself -- just do a shut down at end of day using
"Start" menu bar. Power to all computers is
controlled with power strips.
6) at end of course, reset each computer's "home page" to the URL
that was originally there
3. Course overview/tour for instructors
A) Modules page -- [GO BACK TO MODULES PAGE]
We will use the course Modules page as our home base.
Each module consists of a combination of lecture, demonstration,
and mastery exercises.
lecture - background information about the topic/resource
being discussed
demonstration - instructor demonstrates use of resource
and participants follow along on their computers
mastery exercise - near end of each module - instructor
poses a user question to the students;
students get 5-10 minutes to try finding the
answer on their own; instructor leads a discussion
asking about the various ways students solved the problem,
then guides the students through the answer method that
the instructor used to solve the problem.
B) Sample module - Entrez -
slides - navigational arrows at top and bottom of each slide -
first slide, last slide, previous, next
first slide = brief TOC
last slide = complete list of slides
slides within a module open in same window;
links to live NCBI and other resources open in a second window.
so course content and live resources can be viewed side by side
Some modules include video clips (mol bio review, genomes and maps)
C) Two gene stories threaded throughout course
We use two gene stories throughout the course to illustrate
the use of NCBI resources across all the modules --
Colon Cancer -- MLH1 gene -- for teacher guided demonstrations
Circadian Rhythms - PER2 gene - for mastery questions
Each story shows how to gather a wide range of information
about each gene.
The exercises related to the gene stories are done across the
three days of the course. For example, we do exercises on the
MLH1 colon cancer gene in the Entrez, BLAST, Structure,
Genome, and LocusLink modules.
In the next video tape, we will pull all of the colon cancer gene
demos together into a single thread. That will give a big picture of
how we gather information from the various NCBI resources.
In the third tape, we will do the same for the circadian rhythm gene.
4. Before we begin going through the actual course:
Orientation to NCBI home page --
At your office, you will generally start searches from the
NCBI home page, rather than the course web site, so let's take a
brief tour of the NCBI home page:
o can get there by clicking the NCBI logo in the
upper left corner of any page
[GO TO NCBI HOME PAGE]
o quicklinks bar - flagship resources
o blue sidebar - resources grouped by category
o right hand "hot spots" column - alphabetical list of
commonly used resources
o site map - complete listing/catalog of NCBI resources;
grouped by category but also accessible alphabetically
o to get from NCBI home page to course home page:
- follow "Education" link in blue sidebar of NCBI home page
- in the blue sidebar of the education page, follow the link
for Medical Library Association Course
5. Now that we are at the course web site, let's get started...
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Conclusion of class -
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A) computers - Internet Explorer (IE):
If you are attending the course at the National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD,
please use Tools/Internet Options to set the "home page" back to the NCBI URL:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
If you are attending the course at another, regional location in the U.S.,
please reset the home page to the URL designated by the host institution.
B) MLA CE evaluations - please complete (also address length of course)
C) MLA CE certificates - given to you at end of class, in exchange for evaluation :-)
Thank you for coming to the course and for your feedback! We hope the course
has provided a useful introduction to the molecular databases and will serve as
a springboard for further learning as you work with the databases and assist users.