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Chemistry: Blending Virtual
and Home-based
Labs
"This whole thing started because you couldn't find enough science teachers to teach all the classes we were trying to offer. A valid option was online learning to share one chemistry instructor between seven colleges in a consortium."Dr. Robert Klepper: ILCC Chemistry Instructor
Iowa Lakes Community College (ILCC) is a member of a consortium established five years ago to make the best use of their scarce instructors. Dr. Klepper was one of seven instructors who created the first seven courses. In spring 2004, around 200 instructors met at the consortium's annual meeting, but Dr. Klepper remains the only one teaching Chemistry online. "People are going into industry. We're still having a hard time trying to find science teachers."
For the students, both high school and college students, learning Chemistry online is a solution to the increasing difficulty to actually make it to a face to face class. Dr. Klepper explained, "So, really it's a two fold solution, we're providing a class for somebody who can't come to campus because they are already in a full-time job, and also for those high school students who can't come to class because they are too far away from a college, or they miss too many class periods. High school students can also get what is called dual credit courses, so they'll sign up for the college credits plus they get the high school credits for the chemistry courses."
SC174A Introduction to Chemistry I, 4 cr.
This is an introductory chemistry course which will provide a survey of general and inorganic chemistry. During the course of the semester we will cover: matter; measurements; atoms, molecules, and ions; formulas and equations; stoichiometry; atomic structure and bonding; nomenclature; gases and the gas laws; water and solutions; acids and bases; oxidation and reduction; chemical equilibrium; and nuclear chemistry. Lecture and Lab.
This is not a self-paced course. You are free to work ahead, but you must at least keep up with the schedule. When you send an email I will try to answer all questions within a 48 hour period(Klepper: Syllabus, 2004)
Dr. Klepper's Introduction to Chemistry 1 was designed for online students to have the same experience as the traditional students who came to his well-equipped laboratory and seminar room in Estherville, northwest Iowa. Each semester between 2 and 4 high school students join his online course of 28 students between 16 and 65 years of age.
Case Quick Reference Subject: Chemistry Assessment Technologies Used Organization Resources |
Dr. Klepper, known as Doc to his students, took great care to ease the students into their new learning environment by using emails that chunk information and establish good practice: "About one week before the course starts, I start sending out welcome email. Little by little I send students notes about the aspects of the course. It seems like the biggest stumbling block of learning online is that first week, because in the first week all of a sudden students are dealing with new technology and trying to get the same kind of information out of a different source." Therefore, the first e-mail only said: "welcome to the course, I hope you are going to enjoy the course. I am now going to start sending you some e-mails. It's very important to your success in this course to read these e-mails in their entirety."(See First Email) The next message directed the style of email communication with him, especially the subject line, which should contain the students' first name, course and the topic, e.g. Subject: Frank - Chemistry 1 - assignment 1. Subsequent emails described activities, including labs and facilities provided through eCollege. (See Introduction Emails) For example, students practice use of the drop box where they will submit their lab reports and term paper. A link to each e-mail was also posted on main page, in case an email was waylaid.
The majority of the course content was in ten units, one for each week. (See Syllabus) The first week activities introduced students to the course's approach and online tools. (See Announcements) There was also a term paper. Each unit had a threaded discussion where students discussed the materials, labs, text book chapter, lecture notes, and an assignment provided by Doc. The course materials were progressively uncovered each day, including the answers to the assignment on the page of the assignment for the day. Doc also posted a sample quiz and permitted students to copy the answer sheet. Every unit had these components, and all of Doc's online courses have the same look and feel because he believed it was important to help orient his students.
Each unit started with a lecture presented as a Power Point file in eCollege. Students were instructed to review the lecture and to read a specific chapter in their textbook (a quick skim read followed by slower reading for comprehension) before they moved to the detailed assignments. The assignment provided directions for at least two labs: a simulated lab that depicted traditional scientific equipment was accessed from the CD, and the kitchen lab was undertaken using the directions (a recipe) in the assignment. Doc noted that chemists made great cooks! In the example of a lab on titration, students first checked out a simulation which showed the chemical reaction between an acid and a base. Students made the observation that the indicator's color changed when an acid neutralized the base. Following the simulation, Doc's kitchen chemistry for titration required students to use the dye from red cabbage as the base and vinegar or lemon juice as the acid. When the students saw the blue dye turned to red after the vinegar or lemon juice was added, they saw the neutralization effect. This kitchen chemistry allowed the students the opportunity to do a neutralization reaction in their home, and this made the concept real for them. However, some labs are too risky in either location. For instance, Doc has not figured a lab to accompany the lecture on radioactivity.
In addition to the labs, students had to write up their assignment report. Students were recommended to read their assigned chapter in the textbook for the third time to pinpoint the concepts they now understood and take notes. These notes also clarified things that had not been understood and assisted the formation of questions for clarification. Although Doc was available for questions via email, with the maximum of 24 hours for a response, Doc noted that students usually found the answers to their questions from their classmates through the threaded discussion for that unit. It was as if the class pulled together the answers from individual pieces of the jigsaw contributed by individuals. Once completed, the students submitted their reports via the eCollege's drop box. The students then proceeded to take a practice test before the end of unit quiz.
The threaded discussions were used extensively because Doc's biggest challenge was to ensure the human aspect: "I must bring students to the point where they are not interacting with the computer; they are interacting with each other, and with what instructor knows. ...one of the e-mails I send out introduces them to the threaded discussion, whereby each student simply introduces his or herself. And then I'll post a little note about myself, where I was born, and those kinds of things. Kind of get them started." Students got points based on the type of postings they made to discussions; two original posts were required plus at least one factual response to another student's post. After they had done one thoughtful response, they usually kept going.
Course grades and assessment relied on the integrity of the student, which was emphasized with an ethical agreement that each student signed as part of preliminary introduction. Doc had found similar incidences of plagiarism, cheating, questioning or engagement between his online and on-site courses. He found that he could easily identify a plagiarized term paper (draft or final) due to an inappropriate style of writing. Neither the final exam nor the unit quizzes were proctored. Each unit's quiz may be taken twice. An exception was made for the introductory quiz, where Doc permitted an unlimited number of attempts because he wanted his students to develop mastery of the processes that supported learning online. Doc writes a new exam each semester, a price he is happy to pay to keep the courses self-contained so that his students can study in any location.
Doc had the ability to give an incomplete for both online and on-site students. The same strategy applied: a signed agreement listing the items required for completion and their due dates. The range of situations that gave rise of the need for an incomplete was what changes. For example, Doc found that a student moving out of state hardly missed 'a beat' of his online course, whereas a student on a ship going into action might require more flexibility.
Doc found that grades and dropout rates were similar for in-college and online students. The students' grades were picked up by the local community college registrars and communicated to the students' high schools. Doc expected that the same grades will be shown on the high school transcripts, and would be disappointed if they were changed: "I would mind if they did that. The reason I didn't give them a B is because they are at a C. If they don't want to do the same work as a college student, then they really shouldn't be in a college class. I don't know that you'd be doing them a service by increasing their grade either. That's sending the wrong message to the student and demeaning the student too."
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"The virtual lab used by my online students is the same as the one used by my class who come to my college lab. Adding a virtual lab as a supplement is just phenomenal for both distance and on site students, and I have evidence to support that. There is no substitute for suspending $600 of glassware in the air in the lab. But, rather than not being exposed to chemistry, I would much rather have students do some hands-on labs in their own kitchen. Using the virtual lab alongside, they can see where the kitchen lab fits with the college chemistry lab."
Dr. Robert Klepper: ILCC Chemistry Instructor
Doc firmly believed that science courses should never be offered without a lab. "Labs provide the link between theory and reality. You can read about a concept and you can understand what you read, but until you actually start manipulating it, the concept doesn't become real to you. This is especially so in science because we talk about things, atoms for example, but students don't get to see atoms and it is difficult for them to understand the reality of something they can't see. But if you take water and freeze it you will see the water expands. Although you are not seeing the atoms now, all of a sudden you're seeing something happen. That lab experience provides a link between what actually happened and what you were hypothesizing was going to happen." Because of his belief, he incorporated the use of simulated labs and kitchen labs into his online course. Although Doc would prefer for all his students to have hands-on lab experiences, in a face-to-face lab, he thought simulated labs with the kitchen labs were better than not having any labs. Conceptual content was provided through Doc's ten units, which resided in eCollege, accompanied by one chapter of the course textbook. The textbook was chosen for readability; the chapters were broken up into logical sections, the presentation of all the basic content were included for the year, and there were a lot of good problems for students to work on. These problems helped students demonstrate the concepts. Doc tried to avoid a very local context, so he might ask about fertilizer content but not fertilizer content in Iowa. Although the course content had been carefully designed and structured into ten units in eCollege by Dr. Klepper, the key to the course was communication about the concepts between the students themselves and their instructor. The two tools used are a class discussion in eCollege for each unit and emails between the instructor and individual students using their personal email accounts. In addition, Doc occasionally sent out an email to the whole class via eCollege. These emails were also linked to the home page in eCollege in case a student's email system junked mail to multiple addresses. (See example of email posted in eCollege) Doc did not use synchronous communication, such as chat, having found that his students valued flexibility (many adults' schedules differ each week). Doc also incorporated the use of threaded discussion into his course. The discussion was between the students. Doc realized early on that the discussions often came to a stop when he contributed to the thread. Students appeared to view his contribution as a period or a signal to conclude the thread. However when left alone, students posted continually to the threaded discussion, often to the point where they debated a concept. Occasionally, students jumped back several units to post in the discussion there, because they had realized that there was something learned in the earlier unit that was useful. |
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Doc communicated with students privately. He tried to e-mail every student weekly using their first name. He emailed his best students to say, "I love the way you are doing," or something along those lines. He emailed other students to try and get them back into the class. He wrote encouraging things like, "We're kind of missing you, you're not logging on; I really want to see you do well in this class." These emails served as feedback on the students' progress.
The first week's careful induction to the course by short emails was described earlier. Doc also valued students' use of the test for readiness for online learning that was provided on the public web site of Iowa Community Colleges Online. The first week's quiz gave students a few points for taking these aspects seriously and they were allowed to take it repeatedly to encourage mastery of the technology.
In common with all colleges in the consortium, Iowa Lakes Community College has a Distance Education office to ensure high quality of distance learning. Although most recruiters include high schools in their travels and carry the brochure for the PSEO courses, one recruiter specializes in working with K-12 schools in each of the seven participating colleges.
Every semester the students are taken to an exit evaluation on an eCollege web site. It's a pretty extensive rating system, including: "How satisfied are you with the eCollege learning system?" and "The instructor gave me individual attention." In addition to the instructor's report, the anonymous evaluations are used for consortium-wide evaluation reports.
Statewide negotiations are underway to increase the limited fee of $250 for PSEO. Currently ILCC loses money each time the PSEO option is used. Therefore the college registrar is unlikely to encourage more than the current 2-4 high school students to study alongside students paying full fee in each course. The $250 PSEO fee must cover a textbook costing over $100, a CD ROM of simulations, and eCollege, which leaves little to contribute towards the instructor and other support.
Thanks to Dr. Klepper and Theresa Zeigler, of Iowa Lakes Community College, Esterville, Iowa. Also, Steve Rheinschmidt, Iowa Community College Online Consortium Director for support in gathering this case study of good practice.
This case developed by:
Niki Davis, Ph.D. and Lily Compton, M.A.
Center for Technology in Learning and Teaching
Iowa State University
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Case Studies
Web Links:
Iowa Lakes Community College: http://www.ilcc.cc.ia.us/
eCollege Managed Learning Environment: http://www.ecollege.com/indexflash.learn
Iowa Community Colleges Online: http://www.iowacconline.com/
Course textbook: Denniston, Topping, and Caret 2004. General, Organic and Biochemistry. 4th ed. McGraw-Hill. http://catalogs.mhhe.com/mhhe/viewProductDetails.do?isbn=0072469056
ChemLab v 2.0 Standard software: http://www.modelscience.com
Download free Adobe Reader: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html
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'Good Practice to Inform Iowa Learning Online' case studies were developed by the Center for Teachnology in Learning and Teaching at
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Last updated: January 2005