OpenHelix: bioinformatics education outside of a different box.

The amount of biological data is increasing rapidly, and will continue to increase as new rapid technologies are developed. Professionals in every area of bioscience will have data management needs that require publicly available bioinformatics resources. Not all scientists desire a formal bioinformatics education but would benefit from more informal educational sources of learning. Effective bioinformatics education formats will address a broad range of scientific needs, will be aimed at a variety of user skill levels, and will be delivered in a number of different formats to address different learning styles. Informal sources of bioinformatics education that are effective are available, and will be explored in this review.