These instructions are directed mostly at drivers who are presenting a piece of software. Each of the drivers should prepare a sample data set and some text to accompany it. (If youare presenting a method or piece of hardware, there may already be an applicable sample data set.) The goal is to develop a body of demonstration data sets that people can work through on their own to learn about the hardware and software and its underlying ideas. Experience levels will range from beginner through advanced. Beginners will have no knowledge of your software and perhaps little knowledge of brain imaging techniques in general. Advanced users will know a lot about brain imaging techniques, a modest amount about your software, and are looking for tips to make your software package more efficient.
Data set:
The data set should be typical of what most people will actually be using, and should also be suitable for demonstrating the capabilities of your software package. Bear in mind that since a lot of people will be playing with this data set, it should not be something you want to submit to Nature next week. Please remember to strip out any personal information that might be contained in the header section.
There is plenty of room on the Keck Lab computer disk system for your data set. Make a sub-directory on /study/training/ (or, in Windows/PC land, Y:\study\training\), and copy your data there. Ask Terry if you need help with this. If you will be demonstrating your software at a non-Keck site, let Terry know if you need any equipment.
Instructions:
The instructions are the key part of this excercise. The idea is to get a good enough instruction set so when somebody later asks you about the program you demonstrate (and they will), you can point them to the instructions and have them work their way through the demo data on their own. Then, when they come back with questions, you will have a basis for discussion.
The instructions should contain:
I. Brief overview of program.
A few paragraphs to a couple of pages describing what the goals of the program are, what features make it unique and profitable to use, and the major steps involved in analysis.
II. Description of data.
A succinct description of the experimental hypothesis and paradigm, data collection parameters, size of data set, etc.
III. Step-by-step description of how to analyze, demonstrate, etc. the data.
A description of each step. More detail is always appreciated here! Feel free to include menu options, pictures of menus, discussion of various options, pictures of the data at each step, quality control procedures, and anything else you think would be helpful.
Put the instructions in the /study/training/ folder where your data are. The instructions will eventually get posted on the Imaging Workshop website, so they should be saved in a format that is web-ready. MS-Word, Adobe PDF, and HTML all are OK. Let Terry know if you need help with formatting, or with any other aspect of writing the instructions!
If you have your own web-based instructions already, or are aware of other helpful online descriptions of your software, send Terry the website address and it will be included in the Imaging Workshop homepage.