Development of a Social Networking Platform as a Methodology for Teaching in the Degree of Chemistry Ana María Diez Pascual,1,* Pilar García Díaz,2 Rafael Peña Capilla2 1Department of Analytical Chemistry, Physical Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Biology, Environmental Sciences and Chemistry, Alcalá University, Madrid, Spain; 2Department of Signal Theory and Communication. Polytechnic High School, Alcalá University, Madrid, Spain

CONTENTS Objectives of the project Introduction to social software Examples of social software Potential use of media Use of blogs in teaching process Use of wikis in teaching process Results: Wiki of Glossary of terms in Chemistry Conclusions/Future work

Objectives of the project Promote the use of social software as a complement in the development of on-site teaching Analyze the potential of new technologies in the context of University Higher Education Encourage collaborative work among students Improvement of the teaching quality

Introduction to social software Learning on-line Social interaction Collaboration Participation Communication Use cases for education Micro-learning

Examples of social software Blog: create/update personal website. Shared learning journal to document experiences, opinions, etc. Wikis: collaborate in the creation of a resource Shared learning process YouTube, Broadcast Yourself. Produce & publish your own videos. Shared projects Podcast Yourself. Produce & publish your own audio messages. Shared projects

Examples of social software Social Network Sites: communicate & collaborate with other professional. Receive/provide feedback. Pictures online: publish your pictures, share them and receive feedback. Micro-blogging: communicate with your network through brief messages. RSS: notify automatically you about others are publishing and sharing Web telephony. Communicate audio/video/chat in real time

Potential use of media Media Mode Basic Intermediate Advanced Text One-way Print webpages blogs Interactive e-mail Computer conference wikis, blogs Audio Audio clips Podcasts Downloads Telephone support Telephone conference Audiographics Images Photographs CD, DVD Animations Image banks (e.g. Creative Commons) Share/edit (e.g. Flickr) Simulations, games Video Video clips Vods Webcasts/TV Skype Videoconference Mason, R. and Rennie, F. (2008). E-learning and Social Networking. Handbook, New York, Routledge

Use of blogs in teaching process A very simple webpage where the entries (or posts) are organized in reverse chronological order Readers can post comments like with a guest book on a website Educational uses Class notice board, announcements Collaboration or discussion tool with the students Explanation of concepts Learning reflection tool Embed slides, documents, audio-visual material, added archive links from class Practice problems

Use of wikis in teaching process Wiki is more of a “total website” than a blog is. Can be used in place of a typical class website. Wikis are designed for collaboration (e.g. Wikipedia) Use in Mathematics: Problem solving “Real world math” Problems of the week Glossary of terms Collaborate with other schools Visual arts Case studies

Results: WIKI OF Glossary of terms in CHEMISTRY Wiki that belongs to the subject “Basic Lab Operations”, practical compulsory course of the first year of the degree in Chemistry. Implemented during 2016-2017. Voluntary task, with a positive effect on the final mark of the subject. Wiki “glosarioterminosanaliticos” Created within Wikispaces environment. Collaborative glossary among the students. Includes the most relevant and specific terms they had learnt during the practical lessons and make an alphabetically arranged list. Each term should be joint to its meaning, similarly to Wikipedia. The glossary should be bilingual, both in Spanish and English. The teacher provides “feedback” through the wiki, in a way that the students can improve the contents as the course progresses.

Results: WIKI OF Glossary of terms in Chemistry Extract of the glossary developed by the students in the wiki of the subject

Results: WIKI OF Glossary of terms in Chemistry List of participating members in the wiki of the subject

Results: WIKI OF Glossary of terms in Chemistry Participation in wiki Students (%) Referring to the total number of students 5,2 Referring to the number of them who made the final exam 5,9 Referring to students passed the final exam 15,6 Participation in wiki who passed the subject 100 The participation in others degrees was similar; e.g problem solving activities in Degree of Engineering: 13,2 % referring to students who made the final exam 28,6% referring to students who passed the final exam

Conclusions Low participation of the students it is a voluntary activity and without direct influence on the qualification of the subject The scarce level of participation could be related to their lack of time and the lack of flexibility of the activity The students showed greater interest in solving exercises than in contents development The most committed students in the subject usually get involved in the activity All of the participants in the wiki passed the subject

FUTURE WORK Flexible criteria and deadlines for working with the wiki should be established, in agreement with the students Design multiple activities; hence the students will be able to choose those that they consider more interesting to boost their learning. (1) a critical analysis of a scientific document in the area of analytical chemistry and related to the topics studied, which will then appear in the wiki. The students should carefully read the document and analyze the aims, methodology, results and conclusions. (2) Writing on a hot topic related to the subject so that the students could apply their knowledge and the specific terms they had learnt. It would consist in a collaborative writing,. They would also choose the topic to develop, hence they would have to carry out literature search on the subject. (3) Answer to specific questions related to the field of the subject. This activity would require the use of the specific terms and capacity of making a summary in order to answer the specific questions. The students would answer in a collaborative way.

Ana María Díez Pascual am.diez@uah.es