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!