Little research exists on college students’ learning goals in chemistry, let alone specifically pertaining to laboratory coursework. Because students’ learning goals are linked to achievement and dependent on context, research on students’ goals in the laboratory context may lead to better understanding about the efficacy of lab curricula. This study characterized undergraduate students’ learning goals for general chemistry laboratory coursework by recording video of students completing laboratory experiments and interviewing the students about their experiences. The data was analyzed utilizing the framework of learning domains as described by Human Constructivism. Students were found to be primarily guided by affective goals, such as the desire to feel good by completing the requirements and getting done early. This stood in conflict with any psychomotor or cognitive goals they held concurrently. The data provide suggestions for reform of the general chemistry laboratory curriculum.

Building on previous success with a digital pipet badge, an evidence-centered design approach was used to develop new digital badges for measuring the volume of liquids with a buret and making a solution in a volumetric flask. These badges were implemented and assessed in two general chemistry courses. To earn the badges, students created videos of their techniques at the end of lab and uploaded them using the Passport app. Students received individual feedback from their instructors and were able to attempt the technique again if their first performance was unsatisfactory. To evaluate the badge as a laboratory assessment tool, students completed surveys about their knowledge, confidence, and experience using each technique with a retrospective-pre then post survey design. Analysis of these surveys showed statistically significant gains in student knowledge, confidence, and experience across both courses and both badges. Student performance on exams and procedural questions within the badges supports the conclusion that the badges positively impacted student learning of these two techniques. This research establishes that a digital badging approach can be used to improve student hands-on skills across multiple techniques and multiple student populations.

Efforts to reform undergraduate chemistry laboratory coursework typically focus on the curricula of introductory-level courses, while upper-level courses are bypassed. This study used video-stimulated recall to interview 17 junior-and senior-level chemistry majors after they carried out an experiment as part of a laboratory course. It is assumed that the students who are taking those courses are inherently more interested and motivated to learn the material, thus requiring less support from the curriculum. The videos and interviews revealed that the upper-level students displayed strong similarities to students in introductory-level coursework: holding conflicting goals and lacking reflection on their progress toward achieving those goals. Upper-level laboratory curricula should be scrutinized to ensure that students receive the maximum benefit from laboratory coursework. #

A sudden pivot to online instruction required instructors to rapidly acquire new knowledge. Several online communities were built to satisfy their need for professional development. One such community, the Facebook group “Strategies for Teaching Chemistry Online”, generated thousands of posts and comments about how to adapt chemistry courses to online teaching. As a reflection of teaching during the time of the coronavirus disease 2019 outbreak, this article interprets the group’s success as an online learning community and presents a qualitative analysis of the content generated by the group according to the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge framework.

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