March 28, 2016. The Center for Bioinformatics Learning Advancement and Systematics Training (cBLAST) under the authority of the University of Dhaka was established in October, 2014. It is the goal of this center to build a modular series of lectures to be prepared by relevant experts and disseminate these online through a Center under the auspices of the University of Dhaka. Such online education system is new in Bangladesh and this is the first approach to spread bioinformatics education to all. Lectures consist of both static and animation and composed of both English in power point and voiced in Bangla for better understanding of students in our country. Each course will be of 12-weeks duration, with video lectures of a total duration of up to 2 hours per week. Each week will end with an assignment or quiz.
The student can log-in/download as long as he/she needs in order to assimilate the lectures, which will be a series of screen prints with complete instructions (voice) on how to understand and tackle problems. Thereafter he/she can log in for the assignment/quiz. The assignment/quiz is mandatory and the student will not be able to move forward to the following week unless the HW is done. Certification after completion of the course will only be in the form of hours and assignments completed. The final exam will be via a face-face workshop. The center will be launched on the 3rd of April 2016 by the Vice Chancellor of University of Dhaka and Chairman of cBLAST, Prof. Dr. A.A.M.S. Arefin Siddique.
Dr. Zeba I. Seraj has been appointed as the Director of the Center to serve a term of 3 years from January 1, 2015. The center is located at the 3rd floor of department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Dhaka. At first six courses out of seventeen will be started between April and May. For details of the course you can go through the official website of cBLAST:http://bmb.du.ac.bd/cblast/. Anyone who is enrolled as a student in a public or private university and any interested professional can do the courses. This facility will be available to students outside Bangladesh on payment of the tuition fees. [Communicated by Ms Farida Yasmin
Lecturer, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, DU.]