Teaching chemistry online and blended (ACS presentation)

Teaching chemistry online and blended

By Dr. Luis Bello,

Tulsa Community College,

[e-mail]

​About Tulsa Community College

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Tulsa Community College is a public community college in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was founded in 1970 and is the largest two-year college in Oklahoma. It serves approximately 23,000 students per year in classes.

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^[3] TCC consists of four main campuses, two community campuses, and a conference center situated throughout the Tulsa metropolitan area. The college employs about 2,270 people, including 280 full-time faculty and 536 adjunct faculty.

In May 2021, TCC was recognized as #1 in Student Success and Leadership Safety and Planning with two 2021 Awards of Excellence from the American Association of Community Colleges.

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Impact of the COVID-19

The pandemic has compelled colleges and universities around the world to go virtual.

Now, the vast majority of classes are at least partially online.

While some students enjoy learning virtually, others have concerns around focus, engagement, and accessibility.

​Brief Summary

​Blended teaching/learning is an approach to education that combines online educational materials and opportunities for interaction online with traditional place-based classroom methods.

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It requires the physical presence of both teacher and student, with some elements of student control over time, place, path, or pace.

Some advantages of Online and Blended classes

Make learning accessible and flexible to a greater number of potential learners.

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These include students with disabilities, geographical restrictions, or prohibitive work schedules.

​​Teaching blended  Chemistry courses

​Teaching blended  Chemistry courses is one of the challenging tasks presented to me when the college decided to close due to the pandemic.

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Some of the experiences have been satisfactory and others have allowed me to improve as the courses have been developed.

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Some of the tools used for the teaching of Chemistry in the subject Principles of Chemistry are explained.

​Courses taught

(2020-2022)

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1- Principles of Chemistry- 8 and 16 weeks- Online and Blended.

2- General Chemistry- II- 16 weeks- Face to Face

3- General Chemistry​ I -16 weeks- Blended

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1- The Chemical World

2- Measurement and Problem Solving  

​3- Matter and Energy 

​ 4- Atoms and Elements ​

5- Molecules and Compounds 

6- Chemical Composition 

7- Chemical Reactions 

8- Quantities in Chemical Reactions 

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​9- Electrons in Atoms and the Periodic Table 

10- Chemical Bonding ​

11- Gases ​

​12- Liquids, Solids, and Intermolecular Forces

13- Solutions  

​14- Acids and Bases 

​15- Chemical Equilibrium 

16- Oxidation and Reduction ​

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​Principles of Chemistry Chapters

​Principles of Chemistry- 8 and 16 weeks- Online

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Pros

1- More students can access the online classes.

2- Students can work at their own pace.

3- Teachers can use different methods for teaching students: visual, auditory, etc.​

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Cons

1- Limited Lab activities (the students are provided with a Lab kits without balance)

2- Difficult accessing some of the substances to perform the experiments.

3- Technology issues: poor internet connections or limited computer access.

4- Some students don't feel comfortable taking online classes. ​

​Principles of Chemistry- 8 and 16 weeks- and Blended.

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Pros

1- More facilities to do Lab activities, the students can come to the Campus to do some experiments.

2- Meeting with the instructor face to face at least once a month.

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Cons

1- Some students are still missing some opportunities to come to the scheduled class and that makes them fail behind.

2- Still technology is a limitation for some students: poor internet connection, limited access to the computers (they can't do all on their phones)​

Online Tools used for online and blended teaching

1- Quizziz (for Slide Presentations and Quizzes)

2- Zipgrade ( For Online Assessments like Quizzes, test, etc)

3- Whiteboards Software

4- Zoom Meetings

5- Google Meets

6- Online Labs: Titration, Synthesis of Aspirin​

Blackboard

Using Blackboard can be helpful to you and your students.

Blackboard is a course management system that allows you to provide content to students in a central location, communicate with students quickly, and provide grades in an electronic format to students.

Students can submit assignments electronically and work with a variety of built-in Web-based tools such as e-portfolios, wikis, and blogs.

Students can also assess their peers and self-assess if projects are designed for such assessment.

​Quizziz

​For the conferences, the Quizziz application was used, which allows making presentations and at the same time inserting feedback questions to guarantee the active participation of students, this application also allows inserting web pages, images, and videos.

Quizziz for in-person or online presentation.

• Checking Comprehension

• Homework

• Engage Students

• To introduce a topic.

• To share a presentation with the students.

Zipgrade

https://www.zipgrade.com/

What is ZipGrade?

 ZipGrade (https://www.zipgrade.com/ )is a collection of applications and websites that allows teachers to grade multiple choice papers completed by their students and to analyze the results.

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One of the options is to use the mobile ZipGrade App to capture an image of the student's exam paper.

What is a drawing tablet?

A graphics tablet is a computer input device that enables a user to hand-draw images, animations, and graphics, with a special pen-like stylus, similar to the way a person draws images with a pencil and paper.

How do I use the XP-PEN drawing tablet?

• Annotate during Zoom meeting in any active screen I have.

• Writing in another student screen while I am on Zoom.

• Drawing anything using Active Inspire, Microsoft WhiteBoard, Paint, Word, pdf files opened with Microsoft Edge.

• Signing documents on pdf.

Uses of the drawing tablet on my class

• Use Zoom's pen to write on any website.

• I can use any online whiteboard to write on it: Zoom, Microsoft, BB collaborate.

• If you are using BB collaborate there are some apps that give you a pencil.

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​​Screencastify

​Screencastify was the tool used to create videos that were later published on a YouTube channel, this tool has recently included the possibility of including questions within the video that help interactivity.

Screencastify | Simple Video Creation Software

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​Online Labs

​ For the laboratories, some practices that are currently available for free on the Internet were used, such as the Titration and Synthesis of Aspirin, another option was to assign laboratories to do at home, such as the determination of the pH of different products that are in the houses such as detergents, vinegar, coffee, you using the red cabbage for this.

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​Edpuzzle

​In replacement of the face-to-face laboratories, the Edpuzzle tool has helped me to create practical experiences that are very useful for student learning, it shows real videos, where the student has to answer questions as the course progresses. experimental activity.

Edpuzzle

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​​Reflection:

Undoubtedly, blended teaching and learning are one of the trends that have been gaining popularity in recent years, one of the reasons that have stimulated it is the use of technologies and the massive access that has been achieved in recent years. Sometimes, the recent virus pandemic has given a boost to the use of this form of teaching and I believe that it has come to stay as one more option in the teaching-learning process since it allows greater access to the courses that are taught by educational institutions.

​Conclusions

1- The use of technologies contributes to perfecting the process of teaching Chemistry, as it allows greater access to online resources, also allows more students to access the courses offered, as the physical limitations decrease.​

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2-​ One of the challenges of the teaching of online and blended chemistry is the experimental teaching of the students, that is, the realization of experiments in person.

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3- The realization of experiments at home and the use of virtual laboratories partially allow the substitution that students have to attend in person, however the absence of an instructor is still a factor that limits these activities a little.​

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​Special Thanks to Tulsa Community College.

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