Skills Surveys

Computational Needs Assessment Survey

View the data on our integrative app (HMS login required)

Background

The Center for Computational Biomedicine (CCB) conducts annual surveys of HMS graduate students (June/July) and postdocs (Oct/Nov) to assess the computational education needs across the quadrangle. These surveys help CCB identify where to focus education efforts to best serve the computational needs across HMS.

Objective

Determine the bioinformatics, computational biology, statistics, and data management skills that HMS graduate students and postdocs need to succeed in their education program and/or research.

Approach

Respondents are asked the following about bioinformatics, computational biology, statistics, and data management skills:

  1. The importance of each skill to their coursework and research.
  2. Their current level of competency in each skill.

Survey Output

Results from these annual needs assessment surveys help CCB generate a prioritized list of skills for which graduate students and postdocs feel they need additional education/training. CCB then communicates the survey results to groups engaged in education across HMS and helps maximize these efforts through collaborative support and by hosting supplemental workshops, courses, information sessions, etc. needed to fill the gaps in computational education.

Below is an illustration depicting CCB’s approach for contributing to computational education across HMS.