Enhancing Chemistry Education through Technology-Enhanced Learning: Supporting Effective Student Learning.

Abstract

PROBLEM

The student cohort in first-semester chemistry at Bond University has a diverse background of chemistry knowledge when they start the subject, as there are no pre-requisite HSC chemistry requirements. This subject teaches students from multiple programs, including health science, biomedical science, and sports and exercise science. With the exception of some extension topics, the subject aligns with high school chemistry curricula across Australia and is delivered at a fast pace over 12 weeks. This fast pace can cause students with little or no chemistry background to have difficulties.

PLAN

Over the years, we have adapted our curriculum to address this concern through highly personalised experiences and breaking down the content into rewarding, bite-sized chunks to alleviate the preconception of difficulty. We aim to ensure that each student feels supported and has resources tailored to their current level of understanding. We scaffold and guide the students through the more difficult concepts to provide a personalised learning experience to help them reach their goals.

ACTION

When teaching, we position ourselves in the zone that is most useful, where the average student is challenged outside their comfort zone, but not enough so that they close off. This approach is combined with a socio-cultural structure where critical engagement between students working in peer groups and students working with the educator is encouraged.

Technology-enhanced learning is an effective approach for enhancing the learning outcomes of diverse student cohorts (Serrano et al., 2019). For the past six years, we have been adapting our chemistry subjects to be technology-enhanced with custom-made resources (lightboard videos (Schweiker et al., 2020) and virtual laboratories (Tauber et al., 2022)) that are blended with our active classroom.

REFLECTION

The student’s enthusiasm for the subject was evident with extensive positive feedback and high attendance. Their appreciation for the extra resources was consistently noted in both normal day-to-day teaching and formal subject reviews. We evaluated the student feedback over the years and found strong support for the subject delivery and learning resources.

  REFERENCES

Schweiker, S. S., Griggs, B. K., & Levonis, S. M. (2020). Engaging Health Students in Learning Organic Chemistry Reaction Mechanisms Using Short and Snappy Lightboard Videos. Journal of Chemical Education, 97(10), 3867-3871. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.0c00619

Serrano, D., Dea, A., Gonzalez-Burgos, E., Serrano-Gil, A., Lalatsa, A., Correspondence, D., & Serrano. (2019). Technology-enhanced learning in higher education: How to enhance student engagement through blended learning. European Journal of Education, 54, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1111/ejed.12330

Tauber, A. L., Levonis, S. M., & Schweiker, S. S. (2022). Gamified Virtual Laboratory Experience for In-Person and Distance Students. Journal of Chemical Education, 99(3), 1183-1189. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.1c00642