An Electronic Textbook for a New Four-Semester Introductory Chemistry Sequence
Francis Carey, Chemistry
1995 TTI Fellow
Email: fac6q@virginia.edu
Project website: http://faraday.clas.virginia.edu/~fac6q/
Mr. Carey's project provides a solution for the communication problems that exist in learning environments where complex and subtle scientific concepts are offered in a large classroom setting, to students who have varying degrees of base-level knowledge of the subject matter. In such a setting, dialogue must be limited, physical distance between learner and teacher can be daunting, and traditional teaching tools, such as chalkboard, overhead projector, and verbal lecture often prove ineffective in presenting the highly visible and dynamic concepts of the world of chemistry. In response to these difficulties, Mr. Carey has taken the multimedia computer into the classroom, converting the passive lecture hall into a more cinematic setting in which Chemistry 141 through 242, a four-semester Introduction to Chemistry sequence, will be taught. Using the presentation program Aldus Persuasion, Mr. Carey has converted his lectures into multimedia slide shows in which colorful and detailed images of chemical objects and processes are displayed on a large screen before the class. Students who have taken his classes have responded positively to the new approach, and have taken a greater interest in the subject matter. Mr. Carey has also been able to experiment with course design, thanks to the flexibility and immediacy of technologically-based course material. This has allowed him to integrate the general and organic components of the four-semester course sequence in new ways and facilitated the option of moving easily between the two areas, thus providing students with a more integrated sense of the subject matter.Using MacroMedia Director, Mr. Carey is now enhancing the course with more animations, and is creating more modules to fill out the four-semester sequence. Eventually, the materials will include interactive, workbook-like features that will be used for out-of-class study as well as in-class lecturing. Recognizing that four semesters worth of content-laden material can be difficult for even the best students to manage, Mr. Carey envisions extensive linking of modules via hypertext and the "autojump" feature of Persuasion. He has recently finished a prototype version in which almost 80 organic chemistry modules are linked through a master table of contents.This technique changes the entire focus of the lecture from one of presenting material to one of explaining concepts. The time saved in not having to present complex visual information with crude tools is now available as time to be spent helping students make sense of the information presented.