Assessing the Efficacy of Computational Workshops and Participatory Live Coding in Evolutionary Biology

Area of Science:

• Evolutionary Biology
• Computational Biology
• Bioinformatics

Background:

• Computational workshops are vital for disseminating specialized tools and skills in evolutionary biology.
• Currently, there's a lack of standardized criteria for evaluating workshop success and limited research on instructional efficacy.
• Assessing the impact of workshops on participant motivation is crucial for their overall effectiveness.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the success of a computational workshop in increasing participant motivation to use new methods and tools.
• To gain insights into participant perceptions of various workshop activities, such as live coding.
• To emphasize the need for common workshop goals and validated assessment tools in computational biology education.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of pre- and post-workshop surveys administered to research practitioners.
• Focus on participant goals, perceptions, and future plans related to phylogenetic methods.
• Case study of a workshop on phylogenetic methods in historical biogeography.

Main Results:

• The workshop successfully increased participant motivation to apply learned phylogenetic methods.
• Survey data revealed specific insights into the perceived value of activities like participatory live coding.
• Participants' future plans indicated a greater likelihood of using the computational tools post-workshop.

Conclusions:

• Computational workshops can be effective in enhancing researcher motivation and skill adoption.
• Developing collaborative, standardized workshop goals and validated assessment instruments is essential.
• Further research is needed to establish best practices for instructional techniques in computational biology workshops.