COVID-19 has besieged academic institutions worldwide. As countries closed their international borders and imposed lockdowns, faculty have faced unprecedented challenges in finding alternative modes ...of teaching and assessment as replacements for the traditional face-to-face classes. In this piece, we describe the journey of the chemistry instructors in managing and overcoming the disruptions we faced teaching a freshman organic course in the time of tight safety measures. We describe the change in assessment modes in our course and the impacts of such changes to our students’ academic performance and to our faculty’s teaching feedback ratings.
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Technology-enhanced learning (TEL) is fast gaining momentum among educational institutions all over the world. The usual way in which laboratory instructional videos are filmed takes the third-person ...view. However, such videos are not as realistic and sensorial. With the advent of Google Glass and GoPro cameras, a more personal and effective way to educate students on laboratory procedures has been pioneered: the instructor’s point of view (IPOV) technique. To capture the attention of technology-savvy students in the 21st century, educators have to be innovative and reinvent new ways to teach procedures for conducting chemistry experiments. Here, this pilot study made use of Google Glass to film realistic IPOV videos (live and prelab) from the demonstrator’s point of view. Students who have viewed the videos were found to have a better understanding of the tasks at hand when conducting the experiment.
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Currently there are two primary methods of recording flipped classroom videos: (1) using the white board and (2) screencasting a PowerPoint presentation. Both methods have several disadvantages. In ...the former, the presenter’s body obscures the content. Both methods lack an element of human interaction between the viewers and presenter and require lengthy editing. These reasons discourage educators from adopting the flipped classroom. In this article, we share our motivations and experience with the Lightboard, an interesting method of filming with a glass board that addresses the aforementioned problems. This novel format, first introduced and developed by Professor Michael Peshkin at Northwestern University, could help achieve our pedagogy goal of engaging chemistry learners better by providing greater visual connection with the lecturer.
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The current model of flipped classroom ensures that learning is not being restricted to the brick and mortar setting. Lessons can be conducted anywhere, anytime, as long as there is a good internet ...connection. Most of the flipped classroom and e-lectures are videos recording PowerPoint slides with a human voice as the audio instruction. In laboratory teaching, flipped pre-lab is not typical. The closest it gets is the filming of laboratory demonstration using a handheld camcorder. How can we captivate the audience in a manner that will make it an even more realistic demonstration? The application of a small device, GoPro camera, empowers the demonstrator to teach his students with a new perspective.
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The undergraduate analytical chemistry curriculum serves to equip students with the knowledge and skills for work outside of classroom training. As such, instructors face a challenging task in ...deciding the breadth and depth of topics for their courses to ensure their syllabi can remain up-to-date with today’s needs. We propose that instructors consider covering capillary electrophoresis (CE) and lab-on-a-chip (LOC) technologies in their analytical chemistry courses. Past surveys of the curriculum show a noticeable lack of emphasis on these topics, which we feel is a missed opportunity and one that holds potential for the collective benefit of instructors and students. CE and LOCs are utilized in a diverse array of fields like biochemistry, pharmaceutical production, materials science, and environmental analysis, and their applications are becoming increasingly important amidst the growing movement toward environmentally sustainable practices and green chemistry. They are also more accessible in the analytical chemistry classroom compared with typical benchtop instruments due to the flexibility of their size and cost. This makes them easier to obtain, maintain, and transport for use and demonstration purposes. Additionally, interwoven in these topics are core concepts that are fundamental to analytical chemistry; thus, covering them will inherently reinforce students’ understanding of fundamental knowledge. Therefore, we believe increased coverage of CE and LOCs can better prepare undergraduates for modern analytical chemistry work in various industries and fields of research.
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With 360° cameras becoming increasingly available at affordable costs, 360° videos have been gaining momentum online as an exciting visual medium that engages viewers in an immersive 360° panoramic ...view. In this report, we share insights of our experience in using 360° cameras to capture several laboratory techniques in an undergraduate organic chemistry course and raise pertinent issues regarding the 360° videos. In summary, we found that 360° videos add value in terms of its large field of view, but pose some potential problems in terms of disorientation and lack of focus.
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As numerous varsity campuses remain closed during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, educators must look for suitable digital tools to conduct lessons and engage learners online. In this report, ...we discuss how to structure the online lessons using the Community of Inquiry framework (CoI). The CoI was applied to the university elective course “Learning to Choose Better”, taught by chemistry faculty. By using the appropriate digital tools in our course, we found success in achieving engagement, active learning, and team teaching. Until the world finds a resolution to the pandemic, online teaching will continue to be the new normal. Educators could view this time as a prime opportunity to experiment, innovate, and break new grounds in the realm of remote online teaching.
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Online conferencing platforms such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams have been widely adopted as substitutes for physical classes during the COVID-19 pandemic. This dramatic change is accompanied by many ...challenges for educators to keep their students engaged online and promote live interactions to mimic a real classroom environment. While progress has been made in teaching theoretical concepts in the online setting, teaching laboratory skills online remains challenging. Such skills are usually taught and learned and require a high level of human interaction. Here, we share our experience in designing Gather.town as an online learning space for a laboratory course to facilitate social interactions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Gather.town is a video conferencing platform that allows educators to construct individualized 2D spaces and interact with other people through their avatars. The use of avatars is hypothesized to be the key difference that distinguishes it from traditional video conferencing platforms. Gather.town has also been explored by researchers from other fields to be able to enhance online learning through improved interaction between students but not yet in the chemistry education space. Empirical evidence shows that students agree that the designed Gather.town has increased social interaction in the time of online learning.
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