Online Tutorials and Computer Animations for the Organic Chemistry Laboratory Laurie S. Starkey, Ali Saffari, Zachary Bogorad Chemistry Department, Cal Poly Pomona ~ lsstarkey

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 pointTLC extraction distillation recrystallizationIR 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) (local copy)local copy

Prelab Quiz: Overall Score n=150 Mean = 31/65 Median = 34 n=52 Mean = 47/65 Median = 50 Percent of Students at each Score (10/52 watched “some”)

Prelab Quiz: Apparatus Sketch Percent 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?) Text only Powerpoint “animate” Powerpoint + audio Powerpoint + audio + animations

Research Plan Create 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?! (local copy)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/outwith

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/outwith w/outwith 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/outwith Weakest students w/outwith

Acknowledgements Ali Saffari, Zachary Bogorad CPP Faculty Center for Professional Development Investigating Teaching and Learning (ITaL) Fellowship 2007/08 Dr. Peggy Perry, Dr. Carol Holder CSUPERB Programmatic Grant Summer 2008 I&IT Learning Karen Brzoska April McKettrick Daniel Smith Bo Soh Erick Zelaya and Jason Beers (Flash animations) Tutorial Video produced by Mediavision Terry Hogan Thank you!