Training Biologists in Unix Command-Line Skills: From Curriculum to Interactive Online Tutorials

As the generation of data in the life and health sciences expands rapidly, there is a growingneed for professionals and students in these fields to master core bioinformatics skills,particularly those relating to Unix-like systems, most commonly used in bioinformatics. Thispaper introduces two key contributions to address this need: (1) A Unix curriculum for lifescientists with little or no command line experience, based on progressive Unix skill levels forbioinformatics and (2) An implementation of this curriculum into a series of interactive onlinetutorials deployed through Sandbox.bio - an open-source platform for learning bioinformaticsthat embeds a command line in the browser, which removes barriers related to softwareinstallation and access. We performed an overall evaluation of this teaching framework indifferent contexts. This inclusive, sustainable approach provides widespread access toessential bioinformatics skills for Life Science students and professionals alike.