online tutorials and computer animations for the organic chemistry laboratory laurie s. starkey, ali...

Online Tutorials and Computer Animations for the Organic

Chemistry Laboratory

Laurie S. Starkey, Ali Saffari, Zachary Bogorad

Chemistry Department, Cal Poly Pomonahttp://www.csupomona.edu/~lsstarkey

lsstarkey@csupomona.edu

About CHM 317L• 1st quarter of year-long Organic Chemistry Lab

sequence

• Multiple sections offered every quarter

• Taught by many different instructors

• Laboratory Exercises focus on techniques: melting point TLC

extraction distillationrecrystallization IR spectroscopy

Recurring problem: unprepared students

Prelab Survey: How did you prepare for lab?

Lab Challenges & Solutions• Limited lab time

– One 3-hour lab/week

• Lack of incentive

– Easy to copy prelab

• Lab textbook format

– No discussion of common mistakes

– No answers to end-of-chapter problems

• Create an online prelab tutorial

– Use time outside of class

– Audio, video and animations make it interesting, engaging

– Thoroughly explore theory and practice

• Develop animations

Research Plan (FCPD ITaL Fellow)

Collect Pre-tutorial data• Seven sections of CHM 317L (W07, F07)• Administer prelab quiz & survey

Incorporate online Distillation Tutorial

Collect Post-tutorial data• Five sections of CHM 317L (Sp07, W08)• Administer prelab quiz & survey

Creating the Tutorial

• Developed in Adobe Presenter (a.k.a. Breeze, Connect)

• Designed Flash animations(CPP I&IT provided designer)

• Videotaped lab demonstrations(CPP Mediavision)

http://connect.csupomona.edu/distillation

(local copy)

Prelab Quiz: Overall Score

n=150Mean = 31/65Median = 34

n=52Mean = 47/65Median = 50

Percent of Students at each Score(10/52 watched “some”)

Prelab Quiz: Apparatus SketchPercent of Students at each Score (Max Score = 10 points)

Prelab Survey: Confidence in Running Distillation Experiment

Median = 6

Median = 8

Student Comments (Exit Survey)• “Helped in preparation for lab so I felt more

comfortable with what I was doing.”

• “The tutorial was extremely helpful. The notes I took really made the lab run smoothly.”

• “Distillation tutorial was very animated and provided a view that made it interesting to watch.”

• “Please leave the distillation on the Bb so I can review it again for my next class.”

• “More tutorials on other difficult subjects would be greatly appreciated.”

• “Thanks for all the work you put in to find ways to help students learn.”

New Research Question• Which TLC animation is most effective?• Does any animation make a difference?

(Future work: what is the impact of varied multimedia support on student learning?)

Textonly

Powerpoint“animate”

Powerpoint + audio

Powerpoint+ audio

+ animations

Research PlanCreate Four Versions of TLC Tutorial• One tutorial with NO animation• Tutorials with various animations

– One “best” (interactive) + two others

Students watch a tutorial and take TLC quiz• Quiz includes two basic General Chem. Questions

– Distractor– Evaluate students (“Competency”)

Distribute online survey one week later• Any information retained?!

http://www.csupomona.edu/~lsstarkey/ochemlab(local copy)

Student Sample• 84 General Chemistry students

– Week 10, after check-out

• 40 students had NO animation• 44 students had an animation

– 24 of these had “best” animation

• “Competency” rating out of 6 points– 20 had low performance (0-2 score)– 25 had mid performance (3-4 score)– 39 had high performance (5-6 score)

(Woo-hoo!)

Some Results (wrong/correct)

Use of animations improved some results.

A LESS polar compound has a higher/lower Rf (circle one).

All questions were found to be challenging.

w/out with

Prior Experience = Good or Bad?Before watching the tutorial today, how familiar were you with the technique of Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC)?

Students new to the topic performed better

Tutorial challenge: how to confront/correct previous misconceptions?!

Some Improvements w/Animation(wrong/correct)

A LESS polar compound has a higher/lower Rf (circle one).

w/out withw/out with

A LESS polar solvent will cause spots to have higher/lower Rf

Animations May Especially Benefit Weaker Students

A LESS polar compound has a higher/lower Rf (circle one).

Strongest students

w/out with

Weakest students

w/out with

AcknowledgementsAli Saffari, Zachary Bogorad

CPP Faculty Center for Professional DevelopmentInvestigating Teaching and Learning (ITaL) Fellowship 2007/08

Dr. Peggy Perry, Dr. Carol Holder

CSUPERB Programmatic Grant Summer 2008

I&IT LearningKaren Brzoska April McKettrick

Daniel Smith Bo SohErick Zelaya and Jason Beers (Flash animations)

Tutorial Video produced by MediavisionTerry Hogan

Thank you!