Providing effective professional education for the genetics and genomics community outside of the Annual Meeting has been a primary focus of the ASHG strategic plan for the past two years. ASHG has been growing and expanding our online program offerings available year-round to more easily allow our members to keep up with emerging findings from across the field and access digital content related to career development, advocacy, education, and diversity, equity, and inclusion.
New formats and topics for these programs are regularly being developed to ensure that each member can find what they are looking for. Overseeing this expansion, along with ASHG staff, are the volunteer members of the Online Programs and Professional Education (OPPE) working group. The working group has been so successful in growing the digital learning offerings that they have recently been converted to a standing committee, the Digital Learning Committee, starting January 1st.
“Providing scientists from across the genetics and genomics field with the highest quality professional education is a high priority for ASHG and the newly formed Digital Learning Committee (DLC). With input from as many ASHG members as possible, my fellow committee members and I will continue to grow and expand our programming in this area to ensure we can provide valuable content on behalf of the society.”
Chris Gunter, PhD, DLC Chair
To learn more about what this group of members has been working to prepare for the full ASHG community, be sure to check out the new easy-to-use ASHG Learning Center where content including webinars, podcasts, and interactive workshops are all discoverable by topic, type, or creation date.
The ASHG Learning Center
The new ASHG Learning Center offers a more interactive and accessible user experience to help you find the content that matters most. The homepage provides easy access to award videos, webinars, workshops, and highlights upcoming content. Once logged in, users can register for upcoming webinars with just one click. If you have missed any of the past events, they are all available on-demand, easily findable by topic or type. Additionally, personalized recommendations based on your preferences and enhanced navigation features make it easier to access the digital learning content that you need. With advanced search features, users can more efficiently sort through the library of content available for viewing. By visiting Your Learning Profile, users can select topics they care about the most, leading to recommended content tailored to their interests. Social sharing features make it easy to post content to Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, offering deeper engagement with your friend and colleagues.
Interactive Workshops in January
This year, ASHG’s interactive workshops were hosted as year-round content outside of the Annual Meeting for the first time. Launched in September, they serve as a wonderful example of the type of informative, digital content that ASHG will continue to offer our members! These first four workshops are now available on demand and include all the recordings and materials created by the workshop instructors. Tickets are now on sale for the second set of interactive workshops which will take place throughout January. Interactive workshops are an educational or instructional event that relates to scientific scholarship, research tools, innovative technologies, skill development, or public science education. They provide additional opportunities to engage with colleagues and learn about tools and techniques directly from the experts.
Upcoming Webinars
In 2022, ASHG will continue creating a series of educational webinars on topics ranging from the newest science from across the field to career development, advocacy, ELSI, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. Additionally, the popular monthly journal club events will continue to highlight articles from ASHG’s journals, American Journal of Human Genetics (AJHG) and Human Genetics and Genomics Advances (HGGA). The first journal club webinar of 2022, Population-Scale Discovery of Genetic Risk Factors, is coming up on January 12. The new Digital Learning Committee, with input from many ASHG committees, will develop additional content based on member interest and scientific importance. In addition to the engagement available during live webinars, users can also continue to access events on-demand via our ASHG Learning Center.
ASHG’s Genetically Speaking Podcast
Over the last two years, ASHG has expanded into many new territories to reach our members where they are. In early 2020, we recorded the first season of our new podcast, Genetically Speaking, and we are already in the early stages of planning a third season. If you do not have a preferred podcast listening platform, the new ASHG Learning Center makes listening to all the available episodes amazingly easy – you are able to register for bundles that include all the episodes for both Season One’s Career Chats and Season Two’s Paper Chats. The bundle will keep track of the episodes you listen to so once you finish one episode, you can return to the full list and easily choose your next episode.
Support
The programs mentioned above are available in part thanks to a grant from the Illumina Corporate Foundation. For more information, please refer to this ASHG press release.