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blogs/Prenomics-Dec-2023/index.qmd

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+---
+title: "New Prenomics Workshop"
+date: 2023/11/15
+author: Sarah Dowsland
+categories:
+  - Prenomics
+  - Open science
+---
 
+For most of our new learners, the idea of doing things like using the command line and accessing the cloud is completely new and a bit overwhelming. But these are skills which, once learned, can totally transform how you do your analysis. That’s why Cloud-SPAN offers a core ‘Prenomics’ course to help you gain confidence in these key skills and prepare you for the Genomics course.
+
+Join us for our next online workshop which will take place on the 6-7 December 2023. 
+
+::: {.callout-note appearance="tip"}
+
+# Register using the [online form](https://forms.gle/MnuYycBuBfkpX7R18)
+
+:::
+
+## **How Prenomics was born**
+
+When we ran our first Genomics course in autumn 2021, we discovered that a major sticking point for many participants was directory structure and navigation. This was making it really difficult to help people log into the cloud, where we could then teach them core command line skills. We spent much more time troubleshooting and going over these basic skills than we’d expected, meaning we had to rush through more complex content later on about analysis tools and pipelines. 
+
+Overall, this meant our learners began their command line journey from a place of frustration (which has a huge impact on confidence) and we were forced to minimise the amount of time spent on the ‘genomics’ part of the Genomics course.
+
+As a result, we split the original Genomics curriculum across two courses: Prenomics and Genomics. In Prenomics, all the focus is on the command line. We teach about files and directory structure, and spend lots of time guiding learners through creating a folder and navigating to it without using the command line. We also teach those crucial core skills - commonly used commands like `ls`, `cd` and `mv`. Later, as learners gain confidence, we move on to more complex commands like grep and redirection with `>` and `>>`.
+
+## **Why is Prenomics important?**
+
+Separating the curriculum into two courses has several benefits. Most importantly, it gives us lots more time to dedicate to core skills and troubleshooting. It also gives us more time to spend on Genomics, as learners start that course already confident about their command line abilities. Plus, those already familiar with the command line can skip Prenomics and go straight to Genomics.
+
+And it works! We know this because we collect evaluation feedback from participants both before and after the course, asking them to evaluate their understanding of various topics. After we ran the newly designed Prenomics/Genomics combo course in Spring 2022, we compared the understanding scores of learners across three general themes of Command Line, Genomics and Project Organisation (a higher number means a higher level of understanding, with no understanding being 1 and most confident understanding being 6).
+
+![.](../../images/logo_cloud_only.PNG){fig-alt="A graphic showing the Cloud-SPAN logo." width="600"}