As Similar As Possible, As Different As Necessary — On-Site Laboratory Teaching during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Most of the available information on studying under the challenging conditions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic emphasizes a variety of aspects on how to digitalize the whole teaching process. Thus, several useful and potentially game-changing strategies have been reported recently. In contrast to the digitalization of teaching, in this article, we focus on the reverse process: transitioning back to offline teaching, which is unavoidable especially for the acquisition of practical skills during chemistry studies. In this work, we describe our own experience acquired during the Organic Chemistry practical course at the University of Vienna, which was held in June 2020 and onwards. The article contains descriptions of precautions and measures that were taken, additional materials, and necessary changes made in order to safely continue on-site course teaching. We anticipate that this set of precautions can be used in an adapted fashion for any type of laboratory course. Further, we offer a critical analysis of students’ and instructors’ opinions concerning the changes and well-being during the course. Those opinions were collected via a detailed survey. From our experience, with careful planning and responsible behavior, a return to on-site education is possible and warmly welcomed by all involved participants. The detailed description of our course may also be useful for those who need to start a new organic laboratory course or want to improve an existing one.

Teaching Performance of Chemistry Teachers in Chinese Mainland during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Content Analysis Study

“…The Israeli Ministry of Education banned laboratory experiments at home due to students’ safety. To cover this issue, teachers find a way to ensure that students have a high-quality learning experience, for example, the University of Vienna successfully carried out an advanced organic chemistry laboratory course in the laboratory, dividing the experimental course into two parts, thereby reducing the number of students in each laboratory and arranging a fixed number of people to handle all the instruments and chemicals used by students and equipment to ensure the risk of infection is minimized.…”

“…15 The Israeli Ministry of Education banned laboratory experiments at home due to students' safety. To cover this issue, teachers find a way to ensure that students have a high-quality learning experience, 15 for example, the University of Vienna successfully carried out an advanced organic chemistry laboratory course in the laboratory, 16 dividing the experimental course into two parts, thereby reducing the number of students in each laboratory and arranging a fixed number of people to handle all the instruments and chemicals used by students and equipment to ensure the risk of infection is minimized. 5 Guo, a university professor teaching organic chemistry, used two educational software (Rain Classroom and WeiXin) in class, which, on the one hand, is so convenient for students to interact with teachers in time and facilitates their engagement in class discussions then, on the other hand, Rain Classroom can automatically generate and store a large amount of learning data, including slides and discussion topic, questions, and answers in class, which is benefits for students to review after class.…”

Students and Staff in Lockdown: Mental and Social Health in the Austrian Tertiary Education Sector

“…As customizing regular courses for online teaching might come at the expense of research, the evaluation criteria of academics may have to be adapted (Yildirim and Eslen-Ziya 2021) as well. Both staff and students might also require assistance when moving back to class in adapted settings that minimize health risks (Mosiagin et al 2021).…”

Instrumental Analysis Experience-Based Teaching before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Challenges and Opportunities

“…However, unremitting, return to activities, as in many Latin American countries, occurred in progressive, irregular steps. Noticeably, private schools took the lead due to the ability to allocate financial resources in a more flexible way for addressing cutting requests from local and federal governments . In contrast, public schools, which obtain an important part of their financial resources from federal and local governments and have a higher overall enrollment, faced the difficulty to adapt spaces and safety protocols to prevent COVID-19 and resumed activities at a slower pace…”