Lack of literature on flipped lecture rooms

Compiling literature on flipped/inverted classrooms for higher education isn’t easy. A lot of returns are of the “I couldn’t believe my ears!” type blog, which is fine for what it is, but not an academic study. Yet more literature, typically of the Chronicle or Educause type, tends to say flipped classrooms are great, and they lead on to MOOCs (as in the case of this recent C&EN piece), with a subsequent discussion on MOOCs, or tie in flipped classrooms with Peer Instruction, with a discussion on peer instruction. In these cases, and especially so for PI, this is the intention of the writer, so it is not a criticism. But it makes it hard to say what value flipped lectures have in their own right.

I want to think well of flipped lectures, and have piloted some myself, the concept being an extension of pre-lecture activities work that I have spent a lot of time on. While looking for methodologies to rob for a future study of my own, I had a look in the literature. The study most people seem to refer to is an article published in 2000 in the Journal of Economics Education which described the implementation of the inverted lecture. The paper is a nice one in that it describes the implementation well, with the views of students and instructors represented. But there is not much after surveying students in terms of considering effectiveness. I come from the school of thought that says if you throw oranges at students in a lecture and survey them, they will say it helped their learning, so I’m surprised that this study is referred to by evangelists in the flipped lecture area. The course site is still available, and while it looks a little dated, it does seem to align nicely with what the Ed Techs would consider good instructional design (resources, support, social area, etc).

A more recent study is that in Physics Reviews Special Topics: Physics Education Research. While it appears this is more of the pre-lecture type of activity rather than flipped lecture (ie there is still some lectures involved), the lecture room seems quite active. This study found that students who completed the pre-lecture work did better in exams than those that didn’t.

Not much else in my initial trawl. I’ll keep looking, as of course people might have done this and not called it flipped or inverting the lecture. Of course part of this is that education research takes time, and perhaps in the next few years, we will see lots of flipped lecture room literature.

 

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A Guide for Students on Preparing Posters in Chemistry

A student guide on Preparing a student poster in chemistry and a video on how to prepare student posters in chemistry. We have found posters a great way to engage students in a topic relevant to their degree specialism.
CLick on HD for higher quality…

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If scientists designed the history curriculum…

We’ve been here before. Such was the fever to promote science at the expense of everything else in the mid nineteenth century that Thomas Wyse told an audience at the Waterford Literary and Scientific Society in 1833 to ‘banish all modem politics and controversial theology from their arenas’ and look to ‘Priestley, Brougham, and Watt as the true Promethei of our present race – the true architects of our civilisation’.

So it is again, with Ruairí Quinn taking up Wyse’s role, plotting to squeeze together history and geography at school to make room for science. To paraphrase Gerard Collins begging Albert on national TV: please Ruairí, for the good of science, don’t do it, don’t bust the curriculum. I can’t imagine Ruairí thinks this is a good idea, but he probably thinks it will impress our global neighbours, showing that We Take Science Seriously.

What skills does history bring to the curriculum? Spending most of my spare time pretending I am an historian, I have found that history requires me to research, evaluate, interpret evidence, cross reference, criticise, etc etc. These are some pretty good learning outcome verbs that can translate into any discipline – especially science, In fact, one might argue that it is these skills gained in history which develop research and problem-solving skills more than in science. What’s more, history offers the curriculum something science sorely lacks: the requirement to form a written argument.

And can you imagine if we gave the masochists who designed the science curriculum at school—and I reserve special rage for those Satanic ritualists who designed the Leaving Cert chemistry curriculum—even more time? Lots more rules to learn off, lots more model answers to practice. Requiring more time to teach science is like making new laws to add on to existing ones. Resources are required, not more lack of resources. A rookie journalist hoping to make a break would do well to go investigate the NCCA, the people ultimately charged with what defines our “knowledge economy”. These few people know what they are talking about, have some great ideas, based on solid research, but are held hostage by a lack of resources and an elite mafia who don’t want to let go of “their” curriculum.

To illustrate this, an interesting drinking game this Good Friday would be imagine how the masters of our current science curriculum might design a history curriculum. We like to build up on the basics in science, so obviously you’d start in the neolithic era, moving each year until reaching the entire early modern to modern era in 6th year. Bonus shots go for squeezing together more than one topic in a lesson plan—the Lockout and the Nazis perhaps—or requiring completely irrelevant recall of facts, why not learn off the Annals? They’d have a field day. Jokes aside, you can’t give these people more time on the curriculum.

If anything good for history is coming out of this, it is that there is a well-known academic coming out in support of his discipline at school. Well done Diarmaid Ferriter, you are now forgiven for The Tenements. In science, our big-wig academics are too busy telling the media, the grant agencies, and probably themselves how amazing their research is and how it should receive more money. I wish they would take a look school-wards occasionally so that the students who will eventually come to complete their research have the curriculum they deserve.

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Paper Conservation Chemistry in our Curriculum

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My latest article in Education in Chemistry is on paper conservation. The article was inspired by hearing and reading about the great conservation work that goes on at the National Library of Ireland.

I would also like to initiate a conversation with anyone interested in developing/collating material for including paper chemistry and conservation in the curriculum.

The article also made the cover – click on the image to go to it. A PDF version of how it appears in the magazine is at the end of the page linked.

 

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Journal of Chemical Education should be free

A recent editorial in Journal of Chemical Education appeared to be a pre-emptive strike at those in favour of maintaining a print edition of the Journal, and one assumes that web-only will be encouraged in future years. The editor explained that the cost of postage and packaging was barely covered by subscription, and advertisement income is plummeting. Perhaps as a foretaste of what online only journal would entail, the January issue was made freely available to all. But it begs the question: why does Journal of Chemical Education (online) cost anything at all?

The Journal is a fantastic resource for chemistry teachers, with articles stretching back to 1924. No one working in college/university level chemistry could have escaped using an article or practical activity drawn from its pages. But for us in third level, first world, institutions, it is easy to forget that most people can’t actually access it. It is very frustrating to talk to teachers about using resources from its pages only to find they can’t access them. This seems crazy.

The journal is co-published by the Division of Chemical Education and the American Chemical Society (ACS), which is a professional society for members, and I presume somewhere in its mission, it is keen about the promotion of chemistry. It would be a very easy thing indeed to make the journal open access. Not everything needs to make money.

Such a bold move isn’t without precedent. The Royal Society of Chemistry, the professional body for UK and Irish chemists has two publications in chemistry education. Its journal Chemistry Education Research and Practice is free for all to view (member and non-member). While it is part of the RSC publishing platform along with all its profit making journals (aimed at 3rd level researchers) and hence costs money (editorial and production costs), the RSC have had the foresight to make it freely available. Its cost is offset, one assumes, by the highly profitable suite of journals offered by the RSC. I think this is a very good way a professional Society can tangibly demonstrate its commitment to promotion of education, teaching, and learning in chemistry. Furthermore, the RSC publishes Education in Chemistry, a bimonthly periodical that is sent free of charge to every school in the United Kingdom, as well as all university chemistry departments. The majority of its articles online are freely accessible and the remainder as accessible for an annual fee of £20, which includes the excellent Chemistry World. The RSC is implicitly generous in other ways; for example in releasing images from its publications for re-use free of charge for educational purposes. It has recently announced that all of its articles prior to 2007 (and I assume this will be a moving wall) are free of charge to members.

Both the RSC and the ACS are not-for profit professional societies. The President of the ACS is a noted chemistry educator. I would ask him (of course he will read this!), and anyone with any influence in the ACS to lobby for the opening up of the Journal of Chemical Education to the global audience it deserves.

Note: I am a member of the editorial board of Education in Chemistry, but these views are my own.

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RI Christmas Lectures: An Irish Connection

In Spring 1812, Michael Faraday attended four lectures at the Royal Institution by Humphrey Davy, Professor of Chemistry at the RI. Davy’s lectures were given every Friday night and were open to the public. Faraday was to go on and work at the RI, thanks to Davy’s influence, and inspired by Davy he initiated the famous Christmas Lectures in 1825. He delivered 19 of these himself—the last being the famous “Chemical History of a Candle” in 1860.

Also in the audience in Spring 1812 was Edmund Davy, a cousin of Humphrey and also a chemist. The following year he moved to Ireland, and was elected professor of Chemistry at the Royal Cork Institution, and in 1826 he became Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Dublin Society. While Edmund’s work was always over-shadowed by his elder cousin, he made some significant discoveries, including that of acetylene in 1836 as well as significant work on oxidation reactions at platinum while at Cork. He studied the composition of air in fever hospitals in the hope of finding something impure present (he didn’t) and also explained the sacrificial action of zinc in preventing corrosion using buoys in Dun Laoghaire harbour. But of relevance here is his work in popularising science through public lectures.

Science Public Lectures

The appetite for public lectures in science grew rapidly in the early nineteenth century. The efforts of Humphrey Davy and Faraday in England and Justus von Liebig in Germany gave rise to a cultural shift, whereby an interest in science was becoming increasing popular among the public. This was the case in Ireland. Thomas Wyse told an audience at the Waterford Literary and Scientific Society in 1833 to ‘banish all modem politics and controversial theology from their arenas’ and look to ‘Priestley, Brougham, and Watt as the true Promethei of our present race – the true architects of our civilisation’. Public lectures in science became so popular so much so that the medical journal, the Lancet, joked that Dubliners knew the coming of autumn by the appearance of advertisements for science lectures on the walls of the city and a Scottish visitor reporting that the Irish are all agog for science. Such was the demand that the president of the Royal Irish Academy warned in 1860 that the public taste for scientific and utilitarian pursuits was so strong that the literary arts were in danger of extinction.

It is in this context that Edmund Davy promoted science through public lectures. While Faraday initiated the Christmas lectures, in Ireland money was provided for popular lectures in science through the provinces, something that was not replicated anywhere else in the United Kingdom. The scheme was proposed by Isaac Weld and Richard Griffith, and supported by Edmund Davy. While the early years of the scheme demonstrated an eagerness on the part of local scientific societies who were charged with the organisation and promotion of these “missionary lectures”, lack of funds and logistical capability meant that the government turned to the Royal Dublin Society to organise these lecture tours centrally. The request took the form of a threat; the RDS were informed in 1829 that if they did not organise such lectures, their funding would be withdrawn. This happened, but after some political hand wringing, the RDS finally agreed in 1836 with a proposal that they would provide lecturers for provincial lectures, which began in 1838. The government grant was £200 in 1838 and increased to £300 in 1842, such was the demand. In the 15 years from 1838, 127 lectures by 23 lecturers were given to the four provinces; Ulster: 30, Leinster 36, Munster 55, Connaught: 6. Edmund Davy delivered 28 of these, often on the topic of how chemistry related to agriculture. (He delivered a further 11 from 1854 to 1866). While the high number indicates a dedication and sense of the value of these lectures, he was not among the most popular of chemists. When Waterford were offered Davy in 1853, they refused, because the risk of low attendance would cost them financially.

However, chemistry was a popular topic for a lecture as it was visual and could use the audience’s senses. Experiments included the manufacture of ammonia and sulfuric acid and the electrical decomposition of water. Things didn’t always go to plan: a lecture in Kilkenny in 1845 produced phosphoric acid and chlorine gas in a poorly ventilated hall, the audience had to evacuate.

From 1854 onwards, a scheme of offering an examination to attendees was introduced, but it had a low uptake. However, these lectures though are seen as an important step in getting science onto the Irish education curriculum, and I think it is interesting that both Faraday and Davy were influenced by those early public lectures they saw delivered by Humphrey Davy.

Sources

Italicised quotes taken from ref 2 and 3. 

  1. J. Russell, Journal of Chemical Education, “Edmund Davy”, 1953, 6, 302-304.
  2. E. Leaney, Irish Historical Studies, “Missionaries of Science: Provincial Lectures in Nineteenth-Century Ireland”, 2005, 34(135), 266-288.
  3. E. Leaney, Éire-Ireland, “’Evanescent Impressions’: Public Lectures and the Popularization of Science in Ireland, 1770–1860″, 2008, 43, 384.

 

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Information Sources for Student Chemistry Posters

Compiling a list of information sources for student posters – they should be suitable for introductory level college chemistry. These articles provide a good overview of a topic and usually give details of further reading. Please feel free to suggest additions and I will update regularly. Suggested references should be suitable for student reading and be available in a typical college library.

* =updated Dec 2012

Poster Title Initial Reference to Source
Cisplatin in Chemotherapy Chemical and Engineering News , 2005, 83, Issue 25.
Chemistry of Quitting Smoking Chemistry World, 2007, Jul, 44.
Eradicating Malaria Chemistry World, 2008, Apr, 50.
A whisky tour Chemistry World, 2008, Dec, 40.
Drugs in Drinking Water Chemistry World, 2008, Sept, 48.
The Artificial Leaf Chemistry World, 2009, May, 42.
The Science of Cocktails Chemistry World, 2010, December, 35.
Insect Repellants Chemistry World, 2010, Sept, 44
Counterfeit Medicines Chemistry World, 2011, Jan, 56
Nitrous Oxide Chemistry World, 2011, June, 44 *
Particle Size Analysis Chemistry World, 2011, Mar, 51 *
Coffee: Friend of Foe Chemistry World, 2011, May, 36
Chemistry of Coffee Chemistry World, 2011, May, 36.
Hydrogen Fuel Cells Chemistry World, 2011, Oct, 44 *
New materials for lightweight aircraft Chemistry World, 2011, Oct, 60 *
Chemistry of Diamonds Chemistry World, 2011, Sept, 48. *
Photodynamic Therapy Chemistry World, 2012, Apr, 52.
Nanosilver in the environment Chemistry World, 2012, Feb, 37 *
Desalinating Water for future supply Chemistry World, 2012, Feb, 44 *
The chemistry of early life Chemistry World, 2012, Jul, 51 *
Explosive Detection Chemistry World, 2012, May, 49 *
the Discovery of DNA Chemistry World, 2012, Nov, 59 *
Smart Clothing Chemistry World, 2012, Oct, 59 *
Nanoparticle Plasmons Chemistry World, 2012, Sept, 56 *
Solid Oxide fuel cells Education in Chemistry InfoChem Supplement, 2011, Sept.
Uses of Electrochemical Cells Education in Chemistry, 1996, Nov, 154 *
Ozone: Protector or Pollutor Education in Chemistry, 1999, July, 99. *
Ecstacy Education in Chemistry, 2001, Sept, 123. *
Acid Rain Education in Chemistry, 2002, Jul, 101 *
Fingerprint Detection Education in Chemistry, 2002, Jul, 105 *
Modern Fibres for future clothing Education in Chemistry, 2002, Mar, 43 *
Clean Water Supply Education in Chemistry, 2002, May, InfoChem page 2 *
Detecting Chemicals in the Universe Education in Chemistry, 2002, Nov, 152 *
Air Analysis Education in Chemistry, 2003, Nov, 154 *
Chemistry of Paints Education in Chemistry, 2003, Sept, 123 *
Thallium Poisoning Education in Chemistry, 2003, Sept, 132 *
Explosive Chemistry Education in Chemistry, 2004, 159 *
Photodynamic Therapy Education in Chemistry, 2004, May, 71. *
Cleaning Up: Formulation Chemistry Education in Chemistry, 2004, May, 77 *
Chiral molecules Education in Chemistry, 2004, Sept, 123 *
Chemistry at the origin of life Education in Chemistry, 2005, Jan, 21 *
Paracetamol Education in Chemistry, 2005, Jul, 102. *
Preparing and Characterising Nanoparticles Education in Chemistry, 2005, Jul, 99 *
DVD Chemistry Education in Chemistry, 2005, Mar, 42 *
Smart Glass Education in Chemistry, 2005, May, 75 *
CFCs and the Environment Education in Chemistry, 2005, Sept, 124 *
A new generation of anti-malarials Education in Chemistry, 2006, Jul
Synthesis of Ammonia Education in Chemistry, 2007, May, 82
Hydrogen Fuel Storage Education in Chemistry, 2007, Nov, 176
Greenhouses Gases Education in Chemistry, 2008, Jan, 17
Nanomedicines Education in Chemistry, 2008, Jul, 113
Isolating drugs from traditional medicines need to check
The chemistry of smell Education in Chemistry, 2009, Mar, 45
Ocean Acidification Education in Chemistry, 2009, Nov, 182
Photocatalysts for Self-Cleaning Surfaces Education in Chemistry, 2010, Jan, 14
Breath Analysis Education in Chemistry, 2010, Jul, 110
Carbon Capture and Storage Education in Chemistry, 2010, July, 114
Detecting Drug Abuse in Sport Education in Chemistry, 2010, March, 44
Mass Spectrometry Education in Chemistry, 2010, May, 75-82
Lead in the Environment Education in Chemistry, 2010, Sept, 153
Medicinal Applications of Iodine Education in Chemistry, 2011, Jun, 120
Catalytic Converters Education in Chemistry, 2011, Jun, 107
Medicinal Properties of Radium Education in Chemistry, 2011, March, 56
Curare and the case of Mario Jascalevich Education in Chemistry, 2011, May, 84
Isolating Fluorine Gas Education in Chemistry, 2011, Sept, 148-151
What’s in your strawberries? Education in Chemistry, 2012, May, 23.

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The Application of Technology to Enhance Chemistry Education

Call for Papers

Contributions are invited for a themed, peer-reviewed issue of CERP on The Application of Technology to Enhance Chemistry Education which is scheduled for publication Autumn 2013. Guest Editors: Michael K Seery and Claire McDonnell.

Topics for contribution may include but are not limited to:

  •  Blended learning to support ‘traditional’ instruction (e.g. online resources, wikis, blogs, e-portfolios)
  • In-class technology (e.g. clickers, iPads or equivalent)
  • Online learning (e.g. distance learning initiatives, online collaborative learning, active and interactive eLearning, computer simulations of practical work, modelling software for online learning)
  • Cognitive considerations for online learning (e.g. designing online resources)
  • E-assessment (e.g. formative assessment strategies, automated feedback)
  • Reviews and Perspectives (‘State of play’ of current trends, historical perspective)

Contributions should align with the principles and criteria specified in the recent CERP editorial (Chem. Educ. Res. Pract., 2012, 13, 4-7). To summarise, there is a requirement that papers provide an argument for some new knowledge supported by careful analysis of evidence; either by reviewing the existing literature, analysing carefully collected research data or rigorously evaluating innovative practice.

Submission of Manuscripts

Manuscripts should be submitted in the format required by the journal using the ScholarOne online manuscript submission platform available through the journal homepage http://www.rsc.org/CERP/. Enquiries concerning the suitability of possible contributions should be sent directly by email to: Michael Seery michael.seery@dit.ie and/or Claire McDonnell: claire.mcdonnell@dit.ie.

Important Dates

Manuscripts should be submitted by 4th January 2013 to be eligible for consideration in the theme issue, subject to authors being able to address revisions without too much delay. Manuscripts received after the deadline can still be considered for the theme issue, but the usual peer review process will not be compromised to reach decisions on publication, and if such articles are accepted for publication too late to be included in the theme issue then they would be included instead in a subsequent issue.

As with other CERP contributions, articles intended for the theme issue will be published as advanced articles on line as soon as they have been set and proofs have been checked, ahead of publication in the theme issue itself.

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Variety in Chemistry Education Meeting, 2012

Variety in Chemistry Education is one of my favourite conferences which I attend annually (2010 and 2011 reports here). This year’s meeting was held along with the Physics Higher Education Conference, providing the catchy Twitter hashtag #vicephec. The meeting was opened with a keynote by Prof Martyn Poliakoff, inorganic chemist from Nottingham, but better known to 102,403 YouTube subscribers as the star of the Periodic Table of Videos series, which have been viewed over 25,243,185 times. Prof Poliakoff received the 2011 RSC Nyholm Prize—awarded every other year for Education. He spoke about the development of the videos, working with video journalist Brady Haran to create 120 videos with over 4 hours film time in a little over a month. The urgency was caused by the pending end of a financial year! After completing the periodic table, they continued to work on videos (everything from concrete to Viagra). What struck me most though from this presentation was the sense of collaboration—a world-renowned scientist sharing his knowledge with that of a skilled video journalist. Hopefully it is a collaboration that might inspire others. Prof Poliakoff’s talk—which was personal and beautifully delivered—ended with a special tribute video to Ronald Nyholm (one of the two men behind VSEPR theory), which I suspect had even the quantum physicists choking back a tear.

With the onset of presentations (15 mins) and bytes (5 mins), it became clear that the organisers had carefully thought about the programme, with clear themes emerging. The first of those is the increasing use of technology in education. These included several talks on supporting in-class learning using multi-media resources. Simon Lancaster (UEA) spoke of a trial regarding flipping the lecture, and on a similar concept, David McGarvey and Katherine Haxton (Keele) spoke about pre-lecture activities they developed for their students (See September 2012 Education in Chemistry for a full article on pre-lecture activities). Dylan Williams talked about using multi-media clips for supporting lectures, and David Read on some fantastic worked answer videos for allowing students to engage in self-assessed work (during the summer, which they liked!). Technology continued into workshops on screencasting, wikis and online practicals.

The keynote from David McGarvey (Keele), the 2011 RSC Higher Education Teaching Award winner, stayed with the technology theme. He has used a wide range of technologies to support innovations in laboratory practicals, presentation skills and most impressively, audio feedback. His work on feedback—especially interim feedback—is inspiring. We were spoiled with a preview of this talk at the Irish Variety in Chemistry meeting earlier this year, which I wrote about here. I always come away from his talks with  lots of great ideas, so well thought out, and a concern that he can’t be sleeping much if he is working on so many great innovations at once.

Another theme that arose was that of student support in terms of college experience. Transition from school to college, international students, and distance learning students all have specific issues. An example was the talk by Gita Sedghi (Liverpool) spoke about supporting international students so that they integrated and interacted fully in their new environment, with a suite of supports such as pre-arrival planning, peer mentoring and student monitoring (interviews).

Context and problem based learning continues to be popular, and the recent focus by the RSC and the HE-STEM programme has generated several new resources available to use. These included an excellent package on costing and developing a fireworks display developed by Gan Schermer (Bath), a scenario on the theme of energy by Dylan Williams (Leicester) and talk on the process of redesigning a traditional hardness of water practical to give a multi-week C/PBL scenario for first years (Karen Moss, NTU). Two workshops on this theme were on designing ill-conceived problems and on developing commercial skills for chemists.

The third keynote was given by Paul van Kampen (DCU). This excellent talk outlined his personal journey in becoming a science education researcher as well as being a scientist. It was interesting as he highlighted what aspects of being a scientist could translate into education research, as well as illustrating what was different in the two research fields—for example the inability to “control” the sample in a science education “experiment”.  Many in the audience are actively at the boundary of scientist/science educationalist and the talk was a useful marker in the considerations around designing, implementing and validating educational materials. His talk also highlighted the great advantage of co-hosting the meeting with physicists; as even though we are based in the same city, we as chemist and physicist had never previously met. The closing forum agreed the experiment of co-hosting was successful, and if #vicephec13 is half as successful as this busy, informative, and entertaining meeting, it is a must-see on next year’s calendar.

Some highlights

  • There is a kid in us all: “We made chlorine gas!” Over-excited delegate after the Microscale Chemistry workshop (delivered by Bob Worley, CLEAPSS/Brunel)
  • Useful tip: Use personal whiteboards as a low-tech version of interactive teaching (Simon Lancaster, UEA)
  • Talk that changed my mind: A trio of talks on Peerwise, including Kyle Galloway (Nottingham) whereby students developed quiz questions to help each other study. Students liked having questions specific to their course, and enjoyed writing questions.
  • Simplest idea is the best: Katherine Haxton (Keele) on getting students to do a screencast instead of an oral presentation. It is self, peer, and tutor assessed. Some excellent meta-cognitive concepts included in this well designed innovation.
  • Time saver: Stephen Ashworth (UEA) on using Excel to generate a large number of questions for online VLEs with specific feedback. CONCATENATE is my new favourite Excel function. Absolute genius.
  • Change to teaching: More interim feedback, David McGarvey’s work on using interim audio feedback illustrates what can be achieved.

The entire meeting’s tweets have been added to Storify, which includes many links and references to resources and websites mentioned. I plan to compile a list of these and add them here.

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Showing Worked Examples in Blackboard Quizzes

I’ve been thinking of ways to include worked examples and hints in Blackboard VLE quizzes. Cognitive Load theory has something called the Worked Example effect, whereby learners who receive direct instruction in the form of worked examples perform better than those who don’t. The reason is attributed to providing novice learners with an approach to solving a problem that they can replicate, thus alleviating the working memory load while solving a problem. There’s some more on worked examples here.

The question then was how to provide a worked example (or a hint, a slightly less informative way to guide students) in Blackboard quizzes. I want to have them at the point where students can click on them as they need them, rather than having to leave the quiz and go off somewhere else to get help. I did this in this trial with Javascript buttons. The video below goes through how it looks and the mechanics of it.

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8th Irish Variety in Chemistry Teaching Meeting

DIT played host to the 8th Irish Variety in Chemistry Teaching meeting, modelled on the very successful UK Variety in Chemistry Education (ViCE) meeting on Thursday May 10th. There was a workshop in the morning covering two aspects of technology in chemistry teaching; using wikis, by Claire McDonnell, who demonstrated how to set up, edit and modify a wiki, along with highlighting the advantages of a wiki for monitoring group work – the ability to be able to track who did what and when. Claire identified this as the most useful aspect of wikis from her perspective in teaching. My own part of the workshop was on podcasting using Audacity, as outlined in the recent article in Education in Chemistry.

The remainder of the day was divided into two themes, Supporting Student Learning, and Broadening the Curriculum; followed by the keynote talk from David McGarvey at Keele.

Supporting Student Learning

There’s no doubt technology is becoming more and more common-place in chemistry education to support student learning. Christine O’Connor (DIT) opened this session describing her implementation of the use of podcasts to support lecture material and annotate worked examples. Her ongoing work involves investigating how students use these resources; some key points were that students liked the audio files with their lecturer’s voice, but they liked having print outs too as they could quickly scan through that material, which they can’t do with audio files.

Simon Collinson (Open University) described his work with Eleanor Crabb on the use of online chat-rooms to run tutorials (using Elluminate). The software allowed for voice, video, drawing and text from both instructors and students. Simon reported that while students liked the chat function, he was worried that with a large group the text box may get distracting. While students liked the idea of a microphone, they were reluctant to use it “on the spot”. Simon’s interested in looking at how providing students with some advance material ahead of the chat-room sessions might help reduce the cognitive burden involved in both being online and thinking about chemistry.

Pat O’Malley (DCU) used Articulate to prepare some pre-lab activities for students. Some clever ideas here included a virtual map of the lab, with Articulate Engage used to annotate the image so that students could navigate around the lab and familiarise themselves with where things were kept. along with videos on various techniques, he had a nice resource on how not to use a pipette, along with the result of a broken pipette meeting with a hand and some red stuff appearing. Pat assured us no students were harmed in the filming. In terms of getting students to use the resources, Pat described how he made some questions very specific to the resources, for example; what label (a) referred to in a particular slide.

Finally in this session was Mike Casey (UCD). Mike described the implementation of a student poster assignment, whereby the student had to take a medicinally relevant drug and make a poster on it, including the chemical structure, 3D structure, annotate functional groups in the drug and illustrate some physical properties. The students had to independently use resources to work out how to draw the structure and prepare the PowerPoint slide so it had a professional feel. What was most impressive was that this assignment was administered to class sizes of up to 450 students, and achieved a 96% completion. This was facilitated by using a lab session to introduce the assignment, and assign lab tutors to help students with queries. Each student gave a 5 minute presentation where the core organic chemistry of the slide could be discussed. It was a really simple, effective strategy, and Mike showed some clever ways of highlighting Ireland’s role in the development of pharmaceuticals.

 Broadening the Curriculum

The second session of the afternoon was on the theme of broadening the curriculum. First up in this category was Tina Overton (Hull) who took us through some of her work on dynamic problem-based learning. The idea is that after presenting students with their problem and context as in a normal PBL scenario (for example, designing a green-campus, costing the impl,emtation of bio-diesel for a bus company), students are given some condition change mid-way through the project—for example: changing costs of materials, changing legislation, a natural event (e.g. earthquake), etc. Students would then have to re-assess the intial information they rquested and see how to adjust their project given the changing conditions. All of this was carefully implemented through well-organised card system, which probably accounted for the fact that students didn’t seem to mind the changing conditions, which they were not expecting. Feedback from students was positive. Tina is making several of these resources available on the RSC’s website later in the year.

Marie Walsh (LIT) spoke about her involvement in the “Chemistry is all around us” project—an evolving network of chemists from around Europe collating resources for chemistry education. The website from the original project is http://www.chemistry-is.eu/and the new project is focussed on three themes: (1) Students’ motivation; (2) Teacher Training; (3) Successful experiences. The new website is being developed at http://projects.pixel-online.org/chemistrynetwork/info/index.php.

Odilla Finlayson (DCU) spoke about integrating research awareness into the curriculum, by getting students to talk to research staff and postgraduate students. The process was organised through a lab-session where students would meet researchers in their teams and find out about their research/process of research, and then report their findings in a group presentation. Students reported that they liked the idea, and were much more aware of the research activities within the School.

Keynote Speaker

David McGarvey (Keele) was the meeting keynote speaker, having won the 2011 RSC Higher Education Teaching Award. David gave a broad ranging talk covering various innovations he has initiated over the last number of years. These included developing context-based spectroscopy labs using sunscreens as a basis. As well as experimentation, the labs involved preparing a poster, completing a simulation on sunscreens depending on location in the world. One of the other novel features about this project was getting students to complete a mock assessment exercise using provided assessment criteria, so that students could really get a feel for how the assessment worked. David’s work on sunscreens is available in full at this Education in Chemistry Article.

Another project described was some impressive work with audio feedback. In the example shown, students had to prepare and deliver a PowerPoint presentation on a lab experiment. Rather than just providing feedback after submission, students were offered interim feedback on their PowerPoint slideshow. This was done using audio feedback, recorded with annotations using a tablet PC on the student’s work. David played a few of the sequences, showing the student’s interim submission, his feedback, and the student’s final submission incorporating the feedback points. It was very impressive, and a nice antidote to the notion that students don’t take feedback on board. Perhaps it might be better as a rule to give feedback on an interim basis rather than at the end? David’s work on audio feedback is available from page 5-9 in the July 2011 issue of New Directions [PDF].

David also managed to find some time to talk about his screencasting work, whereby he uses Camtasia to record screencasts to cover material causing difficulty to students, worked examples, etc. He recommended the use of a table of contents feature to allow easy navigation for students so they could jump to the section they wanted to listen to. David has also used screencasts as a means for feedback, in a collaborative project with Katherine Haxton, also at Keele (see New Directions, July 2011, p 18-21).

Thanks to all for a great day. The presentations will be available on the conference website by end of May.

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