Maize Genetics, Genomics, and Bioinformatics Workshop
March 7-11, 2004; CIMMYT

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Feedback

This page provides a summary of the feedback given by the students at the Maize Genetics, Genomics, and Bioinformatics Workshop, March 7-11, 2004, at CIMMYT. Instructor comments on the workshop are available here.

Summary Statistics

The students were given these instructions:
Please rate the lectures and computer exercises by circling the appropriate number on this scale:
1 = too easy > 3 = just right > 5 = too difficult

There were 29 students present, thus 29 responses. The forms are on file at the MaizeGDB office in Ames, Iowa.

Download the full statistics from the feedback forms.

Comments

What things did you like most about the workshop?
I learned a lot. I'm going back home with a lot more ideas on what aspects of maize biology should I focus on in order to improve my own research.
Getting to know the databases, basics of plant structure/development, time in the lab
Having lectures that I could understand that brought together a lot of aspects of my research topics. The computer practice was also very helpful. I will be happy to be able to take the exercises and slides home with me. The workshop filled a lot of gaps in my knowledge. Also being able to have good conversations with faculty was useful and enjoyable. I felt very comfortable asking questions that I might be embarrassed to ask in other settings.
Transposable elements and mutants ontology and Gramene-MaizeGDB.
Meeting everyone, learning new ideas that will help my project and future work.
Lectures catering to a diverse audience.
Q&A after the lectures
The maize database
MaizeGDB, Gramene, students from different university/countries and cultures.
The instructors!!!! The computer session, Lisa's lecture, Kellogg's help, the material, the organization, the poster session, the short lectures.
(1) It was a wonderful opportunity to learn a lot. (2) The opportunity to interact with nice and kind researchers open to answering your questions and giving you nice ideas for your research! (3) I learned about new tools I will use in my research
That most recognized researcher in the area really worried about we could understand the items. Also diversity of activities and presentations. Availability of the instructors to explain anything, any time. The mixture of people of different countries.
Usage of maize database
The graphics, the didactics expositions, and the computational analysis. Very useful!
Interaction with instructors; computer exercises; to learn about new maize topics
Great lectures; the instructors were easy to talk to. On Sunday, it was nice to have time to complete MaizeGDB before the workshop began. Diversity of students was nice.
The organization and exercise in program computer.
Quantitative Trait Locus mapping, linkage analysis, transposable elements
Frendly and caring instructors. I think the lectures were very interesting; the images used to explain the different themes were great! The exercises were a good idea to know more about the subjects.
(1) I liked that about 1/2 were international students. (2) I liked meeting the instructors and knowing a little more about their research in addition to the general topic. (3) Fun things were great. Location was great. Topics were broad!
Variety of topics. Felt really comfortable about approaching instructors and asking questions. Great group of students.
Ability to interact with professors and to use the databases while working through on my own.
Lecture and computer exercises were excellent. Warm attitude with instructors was encouraging. Good to see many lady instructors! After training hours, very good social activities.
There was vast information available that I didn't know existed.
Hands-on experience; computer modules self paced; good lectures
Trent [Seigfried] was wonderful The software will be extremely useful. Torbert [Rocheford] was delightful. The instructors presented important material. The food was great. The way the lectures were correlated with the computer exercises and tutorials.
The material was timely; the international flavor of the audience.

What did you like the least?
The transposon lectures; I think there should have been a more introductory lecture for those of us who don't have a very clear idea of the transposons.
Too much lecture, need more hands on!
The poster session was too short. We should have multiple 1 hour sessions starting earlier in the week. More pre-workshop info would be helpful so I could think about questions or issues regarding my project to bring up. Then I could have brought some of my own data to analyze with the help of the instructors.
Computer exercises on QTL mapping did not explain data and how it was collected.
More time to share our posters at the beginning of the course would be great.
Need more discussion
The lectures and computer exercises could have been spread over four days at least instead of three... maybe computer exercises after lunch when people are dazy...
Lectures should be shortened.
The lectures were so specific. They should be correlated to applied research.
I didn't have enough time to talk to all instructors!!!
(1) Maybe that time was a little bit short for computer exercises. (2) Some topics may require more introduction for people with "diverse" backgrounds. (3) Some topics seem "compressed."
I feel I needed more time to make the computer exercises
Lectures were a bit too many
My problem was the vocabulary in many times. I could not understand the exposition in this case. QTL was the most difficult for me to understand.
Discussions, too many people, maize roots missing
Not enough time for computer exercises. These take time and I could not complete enough of them to grasp the concepts thoroughly. 15 minutes was not enough. The lectures were great, but almost too much in a row -- utterly exhausting.
Is very informative and I think that a summary would probably help for students.
Little link to practical uses of some of the techniques.
Timetable - little time to absorb lectures and exercises.
The part of QTLs - I think it was a little difficult to interpret and to understand for everybody.
(1) Have poster session earlier so we get to know each other's work sooner. (2) Review articles to read the night before to catch people up to speed if they don't know the subject matter at all. (3) Trial/error - but appropriate amount of time to complete computer exercises. (4) Tell us to bring our computational work so we can try out more things of our own stuff with experts around.
Too much detail given. Shorten the lectures and give more time for discussions, questions, and computer exercises. A longer poster session or 2 poster sessions would have been nice.
Sitting for long periods.
Sharing rooms!!!
Not enough computer time; maybe could have been better scheduling
The Gramene stuff. It was very complex and the presenters were often too aggressive when questions were asked. They were on the defensive.
We didn't have enough time to finish the computer exercises or tutorials. I think more time should have been spent on this.
Some of the content went a bit too long and then was unable to do computer exercises.

What additional topics would you like to see covered in a week-long workshop?
I think it would have been interesting to hear more about development and perhaps more physiology of maize.
More genomics exercises using "real life" examples. Techniques unique to maize, i.e. B-A or wx mapping.
Maize microarray
More coverage of chromatin structure/epigenetics in maize
Mapping, more lab work
I think the topic coverage was very good. We could easily have spent more time on each topic.
Systems biology
Maize morphological descriptors (needed to release cultivars). Is there any database considering that?
Embryogenesis (deep inside)
I think current topics are right but they need more coverage; e.g., mapping (we all learned the tool but how to use it effectively??)
A little physiology of the plant
More practical exercises
I think the plant development must be done in two or more sessions, as it is so important, extensive, and complex.
Stress responses; plant development; meristem organization
More time on all the same exercises/lectures. Great job - I learned tons.
Relation maize and Ustilago maydis.
More topics on applied aspects
More practical exercises. A bit of background for lectures in which the subject is new.
Maybe something about different stresses in maize.
More genetics maybe.
No more topics! Need more time to do the computer stuff!
New molecular techniques available - QPCR, microarray, etc.
Statistics; transformations / GMO status
Need more applied... relate to end benefit. Overall, good course.
Data management and analysis
More on classical breeding if it fits in.

Other comments:
Ed [Buckler]'s part got too technical w/o enough background explaining terms and equations
The QTL computer exercises were confusing because we didn't get to talk about what we were actually doing. We should talk more about these exercises.
A hand-out would be helpful or some pre-lecture exercises. Perhaps some non-computer concept exercises would be useful for the QTL/association mapping portion.
Thank you!
Lisa Harper's lecture was very good.
Toby Kellogg's exercise was very helpful and lovely!!!
Lisa Harper's lecture was excellent!!! :)
I think that will be good a good idea to have the poster session the first day so the instructors will know what we're working on. [Toby] Kellogg's plant exercises should be right after Sarah [Hake]'s lecture. I am very happy for this chance, thank you a lot!!!
Everything was wonderful. I wish you can make it again next year so more people can benefit. It is my first time "exposed" to the maize community and this was a very nice way to make it!
Do one more lab (hands-on) exercise
Great job for all instructors!!
Congratulations, and thank you to all of the instructors, especially to [Torbert] Rocheford, Trent [Seigfried], Lisa Harper, Susan McCouch, Dave [Jackson], Bob [Schmidt]. It would be better to include some topics to check before this course or send to students: abstracts or basic info to learn before about topics that we don't know a lot. It's great to get us the CDs.
I did the QTL exercises twice; only understood reasons for answers when did 2nd time with instructor.
Thanks for all the computer support! Thanks for copies of the lectures; it makes listening to a lot of information a lot easier. Thanks to the instructors for coming to the lectures and asking questions. Sometimes we don't know what to ask as students but can learn a lot from Qs that someone else may ask. It also showed a strong support/respect for one another.
I did the QTL computer exercises multiple times and was still confused. I really enjoyed Toby Kellogg's plant exercises!
If this will be a week long class, how about morning lectures and afternoon activities. I wish I'd had more time for the activities.
Great workshop!!!
It was great! Thanks for having me!
The scale on the feedback forms is not a great way for us to evaluate. I don't think it gives enough leverage. "Just right" isn't great to me.
Sarah Hake and Dave Jackson both provided beautiful pictures and a great review!
Bob [Schmidt] needed a little more detail. Great info though.
I followed Jean-Philippe [Vielle-Calzada]'s lecture through the first half and then lost it.
Hugo Dooner gave a nice review of McClintock.
The lectures about QTL and mapping were too difficult, but it was because I don't know about those topics.
I think this workshop could be difficult for people with different backgrounds, e.g. breeders.
I did not have time to do many of the computer exercises.

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