Internet-Based Prelaboratory Tutorials and Computer-Based Probes in General Chemistry

Abstract

A strong desire to upgrade the general chemistry laboratory program at Georgia Southern University (GSU) through greater use of more modern laboratory techniques led to an NSF-DUE grant (0088586) to purchase computers and interfaced analytical probes. Included in the project was a complete restructuring of many of the traditional laboratory experiments to utilize the new equipment and also the development of Web-based laboratory tutorials to better prepare students for the experiments and to ease the transition into use of the new technology. Immediate improvements could be seen with the addition of computers for data acquisition, spreadsheets for data analysis, and molecular modeling software. Furthermore, the use of the Web-based tutorials served to familiarize the students with the equipment and techniques involved in the experiment, reducing the anxiety associated with using previously unseen equipment and allowing students to begin with a greater degree of confidence. This has been very important for those students with limited prior chemistry experience and was instrumental in helping students adapt to the new computer-based equipment. A particularly beneficial result of the computers and tutorials has been the savings in laboratory time, which has allowed experiments to be expanded to explore conceptual understandings and related applications.

Analytical Thinking, Analytical Action: Using Prelab Video Demonstrations and e-Quizzes To Improve Undergraduate Preparedness for Analytical Chemistry Practical Classes

“…This reflects previous research in which visual presentations of experimental setups have been found to reduce student anxiety associated with using new equipment in the laboratory. 13 The visual nature of the videos may be appreciated to varying degrees by individual students, depending on their learning styles. 22 The use of online materials to guide pre-laboratory learning appears to fit well with the preferred styles of learning identified by students.…”

“…4,13,21 Visual representations allow students to develop a mental picture of what they will be doing in laboratory classes, which may increase student confidence. 13 Inclusion of visual materials also caters to students who identify as visual learners.…”

“…4,13,21 Visual representations allow students to develop a mental picture of what they will be doing in laboratory classes, which may increase student confidence. 13 Inclusion of visual materials also caters to students who identify as visual learners. 4 Instructional materials which combine visual and audio components ('dual-mode' materials) have been found to facilitate more effective learning than either approach alone, provided that the two modes of presentation occur simultaneously.…”

Reasserting the role of pre-laboratory activities in chemistry education: a proposed framework for their design

“…However, many authors report that as an observation, student confidence improves (or anxiety reduces). (Box et al, 2017;Chaytor et al, 2017;Chittleborough et al, 2007;Keen-Rocha, 2008;Kirk & Layman, 1996;Koehler & Orvis, 2003;Kolodny & Bayly, 1983;Limniou et al, 2009;Merritt, Schneider, & Darlington, 1993;Nicholls, 1998). In the analysis by Seery et al on the use of pre-laboratory videos to prepare for laboratory techniques, it was found that students' confidence increased significantly from before (Seery et al, 2017), although it should be noted that this effect was also observed in the work of Towns (Hensiek et al, 2016;Towns, Harwood, Robertshaw, Fish, & O'Shea, 2015) which also described in-laboratory demonstrations by students, but did not involve preparatory activity.…”

Cooperación en entornos telemáticos y la enseñanza de la química

“…Actualmente no es difícil encontrar cursos telemáticos de química (Liu, Walter y Brooks, 1998;Judd, 1998, Robinson, 2000, Reeves y Kimbrough, 2004 o referencias al uso de Internet o de otras TICs en la enseñanza de la química: Internet como fuente de información (Varjola, 2000;Murov, 2001), uso de foros de discusión (Paulisse y Polik, 1999;Díez, 2005), enseñanza de laboratorio través de Internet y laboratorios virtuales (Cartwright y Valentine, 2002;Baran, Currie y Kennepohl, 2004;Cancilla, 2004), uso de tutoriales en formato web (Jiménez y Llitjós, 2005a;Donovan y Nakhleh, 2001;Koehler y Orvis, 2003), correo electrónico cooperativo (Pence, 1999), hipertexto cooperativo (Jiménez y Llitjós, 2005a), aplicaciones hipermedia (Tissue, 1996;Tissue, 1997) o la realización de ejercicios o deberes a través de Internet (Penn, Nedeff y Gozdzik, 2000).…”