| Author(s) |
 
Wendi Bacon
|
Posted on: 3 July 2025
Back in September 2024, we ran the Open University Bioinformatics Bootcamp—a free, five-day online course introducing students to the core tools and techniques used in single-cell biology. We were genuinely delighted by the level of interest: 120 students signed up, 100 showed up, and around 80 worked through the hands-on tutorials during the week. That’s a fantastic level of engagement, especially for a course that’s entirely optional and doesn’t count towards their degree.
What really made this possible was the support we had from Training Infrastructure as a Service (TIAAS), provided by the Galaxy Project. It gave us the technical foundations we needed to run compute-intensive tutorials for a large group—without the usual hiccups, delays, or fiddly setup. This was the first ever bioinformatics event at the Open University, and the support to pilot it - without any funding - was crucial.
Supporting Open University Students
One of the biggest challenges in running this kind of course is making it work for OU students, who often have very different needs from typical full-time university learners. Many of our students are working, caring for family, or studying later in life—often all three at once. They’re focused, practical, and looking to develop skills they can take into real jobs in areas like healthcare, biotech, and data science.
To support that kind of learner, courses have to be flexible, accessible, and immediately useful. That’s why we designed the bootcamp to be fully online, free to attend, and built around real-world bioinformatics workflows. But we also needed infrastructure that wouldn’t get in the way—something students could just log in and use, without needing to install software or battle with setup instructions. That’s where TIAAS came in.
Why TIAAS Made a Big Difference
Bioinformatics isn’t exactly light on compute. Even relatively simple analyses—like aligning sequences or working with single-cell data—can be demanding. And when 80 students are all running these jobs at the same time, things can grind to a halt pretty quickly on shared public servers.
TIAAS solves this by providing dedicated compute resources for training events. That meant our students could run their jobs quickly, without queuing, and stay focused on the learning rather than wondering whether the system had frozen. For OU learners—who might be studying late at night on an old laptop or shared family device—that reliability makes a huge difference. It also helps with troubleshooting: if a job fails, students can try again immediately, rather than giving up out of frustration.
Smooth for Students, Straightforward for Us
From our side, TIAAS gave us real-time insight into how the course was going—who was running jobs, where there might be issues, and whether anyone needed help. That allowed us to stay focused on teaching and supporting learners, not firefighting tech problems. Even when our numbers grew beyond initial expectations, TIAAS scaled without a hitch. We didn’t have to turn anyone away, and we didn’t have to compromise on the quality of the experience. That kind of flexibility is essential for widening participation and making sure we can say “yes” to as many students as possible.
Open Tools, Open Education
This project really brought home how well open-source tools can support open education. We used training materials from the Galaxy Training Network, delivered through the Galaxy platform, and ran everything on open infrastructure via TIAAS. That combination meant we could offer something that was free, hands-on, and genuinely useful—and it aligned perfectly with the OU’s mission to make high-quality learning available to all.
We’re incredibly proud of what the students achieved, and grateful for the infrastructure that made it possible. If you’re planning to run hands-on bioinformatics training—especially for learners with complex lives or limited resources—we can’t recommend TIAAS enough.
