Exploration Guides as a Strategy To Improve the Effectiveness of Educational Software in Chemistry

Abstract

Guiding students while they explore educational software is important in order to convey the pedagogical pragmatism that many programs seem to lack. This article points out some characteristics that we believe educational software exploration guides must contain for students to benefit from using these programs. The supporting information includes an example of an exploration guide for a chemistry educational software program about chemical equilibrium. We also briefly describe a pilot study of Portuguese high school students; the study’s conclusions show the advantages of using exploration guides.

An interactive computer lab of the galvanic cell for students in biochemistry

“…Beginners are required to build up knowledge on a set of nontrivial basic concepts. To acquire such concepts, an effective and at the same time student-friendly approach is important [23,27]. Visual tools are presented as an alternative to more classical, written material for teaching mathematical concepts relevant for physical chemistry.…”

“…Here, we suggest that the advantage of the proposed interactive tools is not limited to a more efficient representation of the physico-chemical concepts in a dynamical picture. Rather, it allows students to actively participate and interact with the studied subject therefore requiring increased students' involvement [23]. Moreover, it improves studentstudent and student-teacher interactions.…”

“…A known risk associated to learning with computer programs is that students tend to click through the applet without sufficiently reflecting what is necessary to build and consolidate their learning [23]. We avoided this by imposing discussions with the instructor (check-points) and by questions that require the typing in appropriate fields of values that the students retrieve from information within the exercise text.…”

“…We avoided this by imposing discussions with the instructor (check-points) and by questions that require the typing in appropriate fields of values that the students retrieve from information within the exercise text. The students work in pairs, which also enhances student tutoring and discussions among them improve their understanding [23].…”

Leveraging Educational Software With Exploration Guides in Higher Arts Education: The Videolab Simulation Case Study

“…Concerning how to best integrate the educational software with classroom practice, van Merriënboer and Ayers suggest "that a good instructional strategy for teaching problem solving starts with the presentation of worked examples and smoothly proceeds to independent problem solving if learners acquire more expertise" (van Merriënboer & Ayres, 2005). Exploration guides offer such an instructional strategy, providing "signposts that help guide students' learning, avoiding dead ends and dissipation" (Paiva & Costa, 2010). An guide was thus written, describing the steps students should follow in interacting with each of VideoLab's modes, resorting to sample video files which were also included with the software.…”