Experimentation Skills Away from the Chemistry Laboratory: Emergency Remote Teaching of Multimodal Laboratories

Abstract

Three days into the academic year, the COVID-19 pandemic abruptly led to emergency remote teaching, ERT, of Chemical Experimentationa revised alternative to the majors’ General Chemistry Laboratory at the University of Costa Rica. The course was reoriented to support students’ development of nontechnical experimentation skills and scientific practices relevant to the conventional course. Assignments ranged from problem-based projects to prescriptive online simulations, included team and individual work, lasted one or several weeks, and were hands-on or relied on computer-based animations, simulations, and demonstrations. Assignments were completed asynchronously and supported by synchronous weekly discussion sessions, extended office hours, and online forums. Online modules on topics pertinent to the course were available for perusal at students’ convenience. Instruction of technical skills was deferred until public health conditions allow. End-of-course survey data suggest the ERT course effectively supported development of nontechnical experimental skills and scientific practices, e.g., asking scientific questions, planning and executing investigations, collecting, analyzing, and constructing explanations, creating arguments from evidence, and obtaining, evaluating, and communicating scientific information. Ongoing phenomenological work will advance the understanding of the nature and extent of learning during ERT and how it occurred. Although in-laboratory experiences are not completely substitutable, course designs may incorporate meaningful activities away from the lab to fulfill some of the objectives of experimental instruction. Current concerns over academic laboratory costs make optimization of instructional resources compelling. This communication describes the context, the course model, and basics of the ERT design.

Determination of science teaching students learning of several concepts of radyoactivity subject taught with emergency remote education and students’ opinions on emergency remote education

“…This result is similar to the result of the study. In addition, similar results were obtained in the literature (Aksoy, Bozkurt, & Kurşun, 2021;Altuntaş Yılmaz, 2020;Bostan Sarıoğlan, et al, 2020;Jeffery & Bauer, 2020;Kaumba, Mphahlele, Muleya & Simui, 2021;Önal & Özdemir, 2021;Petillion & McNeil, 2020;Sandi-Urena, 2020;Şenyuva, 2007;Van Heuvelen, Daub & Ryswyk, 2020).…”

“…Sunasee (2020) in his study comparing synchronous classroom participation with face-to-face classroom participation, it has been determined that problem solving exercises in synchronous and asynchronous teaching are effective on student learning and increasing student participation, on the other hand, approximately 64% of students prefer face-to-face teaching instead of online teaching in learning Organic Chemistry. In addition, the researchers found that students experience emotional difficulties during emergency distance education, they face obstacles such as the lack of starting university life, students with no/restricted internet access cannot attend synchronous courses to a large extent and this creates an inequality of opportunity, and it is also obtained that students missed in-person laboratory courses that help to learn chemistry (Giri & Dutta, 2020;Jeffery & Bauer, 2020;Sandi-Urena, 2020;Van Heuvelen, Daub & Ryswyk, 2020).…”

Student engagement in online learning in Latin American higher education during the COVID‐19 pandemic: A systematic review

“…In the reviewed studies, some pedagogical aspects, both positive and negative, were observed during online learning: (a) in some studies, the student drop-out rate was higher than that in face-to-face learning (De la Fuente et al, 2021;Delgado, 2021); (b) students slowly adapted to the new modality of online learning (Lovón Cueva & Cisneros Terrones, 2020); (c) a high percentage of tasks was completed in a timely fashion (Pérez-Villalobos et al, 2021;Sandi-Urena, 2020) and (d) active learning in virtual classrooms was similar to that in traditional faceto-face classrooms (Domínguez-Torres et al, 2021). Ferreira et al (2018) found that online courses featured a high drop-out rate because the learning design and delivery approach did not consider the diverse characteristics of students.…”

Challenge Accepted: Experiences of Turkish Faculty Members at the Time of Emergency Remote Teaching

“…There have been several studies examining FMs' experiences and teaching, students' experiences and learning, as well as the settings and infrastructure of ERT. When these studies are reviewed, it is evident that the most common difficulties encountered in the process were technical problems, including insufficient equipment (Holton, 2020), the low speed of internet connection (Gares, et al, 2020;Sandi-Urena, 2020;Wilcox & Vignal, 2020), disconnections experienced by many students (Kyne & Thompson, 2020), and especially the inability of students living in rural areas to access their course content due to their internet infrastructure (Gares et al, 2020).…”

“…In these studies, findings have revealed the problems experienced during the ERT process (Holton, 2020;Sandi-Urena, 2020;Shim & Lee, 2020), the effects of the process on students (Jeffery & Bauer, 2020;Petillion & McNeil, 2020), the teaching methods implemented and the tools and applications used in teaching (Gares et al, 2020;Johnson et al, 2020;Perets et al, 2020), the supports needed (Johnson et al, 2020), the factors that prevent learning in the process (Kyne & Thompson, 2020), the difficulties in conducting laboratory courses (Gares, et al, 2020;Sikora et al, 2020), and the gains obtained in the process (Osman, 2020). In the present study, the experiences of university faculty members (FMs) at the time of ERT and afterwards in Turkey were examined to shed light on the quick response to the unexpected school shutdowns.…”