Spring 2020 was the semester that started a challenging stretch of semesters. The Bioinformatics project started in person and finished online. The students' performance was comparable to an in person modality. This can be attributed to the fact that students received ample in person instruction prior to conducting their independent investigations. Starting from Fall 2020 the real challenge begun. Initially, I thought that it should not make too much of a difference for the in silico part of the course to be conducted online rather than in person. However, from the start in felt more challenging. Students seemed more confused and less confident about the research objectives. Students were required to write research reports and present their findings to their peers at the end of semester. To compare the outcomes of the course the students presentations and their research reports were assessed using rubrics. The results were compared to the oral presentations and written reports from the semester's taught fully in person. Spring 2020 semester was not compared as it was complicated. The major challenges were the participation in synchronous sessions and keeping the time line. Overall the analysis of students presentations showed that the level of understanding of project was comparable to the in person delivery. The amount of including misconceptions was a bit higher. One of the observations that was a bit surprising was that students were more likely to ask for clarifications and help when meeting in person. Online delivery resulted in hesitancy to seek help and ask questions. I am going to discuss here the ways to engage students in their bioinformatics research. I will also describe the challenges, achievements and failures on my par while instructing students online in their bioinformatics projects.