What Do University Students Truly Learn When Watching Tutorial Videos in Organic Chemistry? An Exploratory Study Focusing on Mechanistic Reasoning

Abstract

Supporting students in building well-grounded explanations plays a crucial role in scientific practice. Research in organic chemistry education on students’ mechanistic explanations, however, has revealed various challenges. When solving mechanistic tasks, students experience difficulties when (I) deriving implicit properties from structural formulas, (II) inferring the influence of these properties on the reaction process, (III) comparing and weighing multiple variables, (IV) using structural properties to make a claim, and (V) linking a structural consideration to energetic considerations. Reasoning steps, namely, (I) and (II), can be considered essential for mechanistic explanations, whereas the other steps depend on the task format. One way of supporting learners in these reasoning steps is to provide an instructional explanation that in a guided manner models these steps in tutorial videos. In this study, the design of tutorial videos on substitution reactions, which addresses known students’ challenges, is reported. The tutorial videos were put to test in a qualitative pre/post-interview study with students of an undergraduate organic chemistry course (N = 12). While tutorial videos are widely used, little is known about the impact of explicitly designed instructional explanations in videos on students’ ability to build mechanistic explanations. Hence, the findings of this study aim to contribute to the growing area of mechanistic reasoning by analyzing how students alter their mechanistic explanations after watching explicitly designed tutorial videos. Differentiated content analysis reveals that students adapt different aspects outlined in the tutorial videos. Overall, students infer more structural properties and use these to make a claim after watching the videos. However, linking this claim to the energetics of a reaction seems to remain challenging. Recommendations for the use in teaching as well as further development possibilities of the videos are presented.

Cognitively Loaded: An Investigation of Educational Chemistry YouTube Videos’ Adherence to Mayer’s Multimedia Principles

“…Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of educational YouTube videos has become more prevalent, meaning it is even more essential that teachers are able to select appropriate multimedia tools to support student learning . Since this project’s inception and the bulk of data collection, which largely occurred before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been numerous studies that detail the use and efficacy of online or other multimedia videos in the classroom. − Some of these studies apply more generally to video-oriented classrooms such as flipped classrooms which use preclass materials (PCM) to introduce content. − In one case, creators included in our study were specifically called out as potential sources for PCM . We maintain that, particularly in this new era of video content usage, not only are content creators responsible for generating pedagogically sound content, but educators also have a responsibility to attend to principles of how students learn when selecting relevant content to include in their courses.…”

Pharmacy Students’ Success with Organic Chemistry Reactions of Small versus Large Drug-like Molecules

“…Students, therefore, need further practice engaging in scientific argumentation, supported by evidence and sound reasoning. To create such support, instructors are encouraged to provide students opportunities to justify how and why phenomena occur. , Previous research also suggests that appropriate support might include significant instructional, assessment, , and curriculum changes …”

Blooming student difficulties in dealing with organic reaction mechanisms – an attempt at systemization

“…While many researchers have suggested how to support students, these suggestions are often general and do not address individual difficulties. For example, changes in instruction in form of group discussions, flipped classrooms or the implementation of video instruction (Cruz-Ramı ´rez de Arellano and Towns, 2014;Fautch, 2015;Popova and Bretz, 2018b;Rodemer et al, 2021;Eckhard et al, 2022), changes in curriculum (Ferguson and Bodner, 2008;Grove et al, 2008;Flynn and Ogilvie, 2015), and more explicit connections (Anderson and Bodner, 2008;Anzovino and Bretz, 2015;Popova and Bretz, 2018b) offer promising potential to support students across the board. A more differentiated classification of specific types of student difficulties, however, could increase the benefits of these approaches by providing the opportunity to adapt these instructional strategies to individual student needs.…”