Teaching a large-scale crystallography school with Zoom Webinar

Abstract

In order to address the loss of crystallographic training opportunities resulting from the cancelation of conventional schools around the world due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have started an online crystallography school with live lectures and live Q&A using Zoom Webinar. Since we were trying to reach a large audience in a relatively short period, we have limited the school to ten 1 h lectures covering practical aspects of small molecule crystallography including data collection, data processing, and structure solution. In the school, we also covered some advanced topics that students commonly see in their work: absolute structure determination, twinning, and disorder. To round out the education, we provided lectures on macromolecular crystallography and powder diffraction. For students to practice on their own, we used freely available data reduction and structure solution software, as well as datasets with which to practice. To give students credit for course completion, we provided an online exam and an electronic certificate of completion. In this editorial, we will provide some insight into the issues of holding lectures with up to 750 students of very diverse backgrounds and review the efficacy of the school in teaching crystallography for the two cohorts of students.

FIG. 1.

(a) Distribution of students by country for the June school. (b) Distribution of student by country for the July school.