Instructor Information

Anybody is welcome to record one of the GTN tutorials, and add it to the Video Library. Even if another recording already exists! Both the tutorial and Galaxy change frequently, having regular and/or multiple recordings of tutorials is great!

Please have a look at our video recording guide for tips and tricks around recording a GTN tutorial.

Procedure around video recordings

1. Update the GTN materials (if necessary)
2. Record your video (tips & tricks)
3. Submit your video (submission form)
4. We will upload your video to YouTube
5. We will put the (autogenerated) captions in a Google Doc
6. You will check/fix the autogenerated captions
7. We will upload the captions and your video will go live!

Feel free to let us know of your recording plans before you start, we are happy to walk you through all the steps involved, and answer any questions you may have.

Have a look at the course page for your event here you will see all the content that will be covered.
If you you see any mistakes, please let us know!

Below each training video, there is a table with all relevant information regarding the tutorial, including link to the corresponding GTN tutorial, which you may wish to read ahead of time.

In table you will also find a link to a Slack channel. This is where participants will ask any questions about this tutorial. Please join all the channels you want to help out with!.

More info on Slack below.

1. Join the GTN Training Slack, using this invite link
2. Ask to be added to the #instructors channel.
3. Browse channels and join the ones you would like to help with!
   • Slack channels for each session can be found under the videos on the event page.
4. Familiarize yourself with the platform (short guide)

We would like to add all instructors to the Video Library Hall-of-Fame! (And to your event page).

1. Familiar with git? Add yourself to the instructors.yaml file and create a Pull Request
2. Not familiar with git? No problem! Just provide us your
   • name
   • affiliation
   • (optional) a profile picture

   We will add you to the list! You can ask us in the #instructors channel of Slack (or via DM)

For some events (such as the annual Smörgåsbord), we like to have a Meet your instructors video as part of the welcome session.

You can help greatly by helping us test materials ahead of time!

1. Check the event web page, does it look correct? any broken links? etc
2. Run a tutorial and let us know if it works or not

To encourage engagement on Slack, many events have icebreaker questions

Instructors are encouraged to answer these the daily icebreakers in Slack as well, and respond to the answers from participants

Our aim with these questions is to provide a fun and welcoming environment for all, which will make it easier for participants to ask their questions about the tutorials in Slack. The more activity there is on Slack, the lower the barrier for shy participants to join in!

1. Join the Slack channels for all trainings you want to help out with.
2. Just keep an eye on Slack throughout the event, when you can.
3. You are NOT expected to be around all the time; we all have jobs and other commitments, just help out when you have some time!

That is totally ok!

You can either:

1. Check the tutorial FAQ page (link in table below video, top of Slack channel)
2. Wait for somebody else to answer it
3. Ping an instructor who you think might know the answer
4. Has question gone unanswered for a long time? post a link to it in the #instructors channel to see if anybody knows the answer (other instructors may not have seen the question)
5. Remind the participant to be patient, some questions can only be answered by a small number of instructors, who may not be around right now, but they will provide an answer eventually.

Many questions may be about a tool not working as expected, or other problems with Galaxy If you suspect that the problem is with the server, rather than a mistake by the participant, please:

1. Ask participant which server they are using
2. Share the message to the #instructors channel (see Slack info page for instruction)
3. Ping one of the admins/representatives for that server
   • Galaxy Main (US): @Nate Coraor, @Jen Hillman-Jackson
   • Galaxy EU: @Gianmauro Cuccuro, @Björn Grüning
   • Galaxy AU: @Simon Gladman, @Anna Syme

GTN events have a Code of Conduct that we expect all participants and instructors to honour.

If you witness any violations, report it in the #instructors channel on Slack, and one of the members of the CoC committee will handle it further.

link to survey to follow.

Often it helps to look at a participant’s history to understand their problem better.

• Ask the participant to share their history via link and post it in Slack.

If a participant can’t find a tool:

1. Make sure they are working on one of the supporting servers
   • see “Available on these Galaxies” section in the overview box at top of tutorial.
2. Tool search sometimes doesn’t return the right results
   • Encourage them to use GTN-in-Galaxy, many tutorials will have direct links to the correct tools this way
3. Think something else is wrong? Report it in #instructors channel and ping the admins of that server (see When there is a problem with the Galaxy server above)

If a participant reports a tool is not working, please ascertain:

1. Which Galaxy server are they using?
2. Make sure they have used the correct settings and input files
3. It can be useful to have them share their history with you (instructions)
4. If you think there is a problem with the server, report it in #instructors channel and ping the admins of that server.

For selected events, participants can use the GTN Certificate bot in Slack to track their progress and request certificates. More information can be found here: Certbot instructions

For Smörgåsbord events, we don’t offer a fixed program, but participants can pick and choose which tutorials they want to follow. This flexibility can be overwhelming for some.

If people are new to the bioinformatics world and don’t know where to start, you can recommend the Bioinformatics Buffet module. This covers the introductory sessions for a range of popular topics.