Chemistry : David Hanson, Troy Wolfskill, & Carlos Simmerling

Online Learning Modules for General Chemistry I

Issues and Objectives• Students come to class unprepared. Implemented McGraw-Hill

LearnSmart/Connect online software. • Students concentrate study time in widely spaced intervals.

Implemented McGraw-Hill ALEKS online software. • Students miss important points covered in class or reading. Preparing

focused video and written learning objects for online viewing. Status• Engaged 10 students to prepare the learning objects in Spring, 2015.• Produced 55 video and 10 text-based modules covering 61 topics.• Collected assessment data. Preliminary analysis very positive.

Impact• Expect improved achievement.• Possibly replace large-class presentations in Javits 100.

Online Learning Modules for General Chemistry I

Abe Castillo, Dana Castro, Daniel Acampa, Dominique Spiegowski, Felicia Khan,Joe Masselli, Manjot Singh, Munifa Wheeler, Nicole Sukkarieh, Verdah Ahmad

Verdah Explains -

Stigma about chemistry learning: It’s all memorization!

Chemistry learning is really about understanding and practice.

S-BOLD Chemistry Videos• Present theory in a concise manner.• Encourage students to try exam-level practice problems on their own.• Provide a detailed walk-through for each type of practice problem.

For example: Atomic and Ionic Sizes

Dana Explains -

Hess’s Law

A Real-Life Analogy

Balancing Reaction Equations

Joe Explains

Joe Masselli

Main points that I have learned

Don’t go crazy over scripting - Don’t worry about perfection: ad libs and correcting

errors help students remember!

- Lame jokes, small mistakes, and off topic asides highlight points in a presentation

- Such marker points are helpful for remembering the material covered before and after

- A stigma surrounding the online class exists

Online courses often are frowned upon. Why?:- A free or close to free course (Kahn Academy or

Moocs) offers no incentive to complete it

- A course offered by an accredited university that somebody pays hundreds or thousands of dollars to take online due to a time constraint should count the same as a standard course!

- Why would a university not take its own classes seriously and assure that online offerings match or exceed the standard.?

Manjot Illustrates -

London Dispersion Forces• Aka van der Waals interactions