4.2 Course Descriptions and Summary of
4.2.3 Active Learning During Synchronous Meetings
In Chem 111a, after watching a sequence of asynchronous lectures, students were required to attend synchronous zoom sessions taught by the same instructors in the asynchronous lecture videos. The synchronous sessions focused on problem-solving, served as the space in which students heard announcements about logistics and related course events (such as help ses- sions), and acted as a forum where students could ask questions about the recorded lectures. In these sessions, students were presented with prob- lems related to the topics of the asynchronous videos. The instructors then opened breakout rooms for students to work together on these problems, with the option to move to a breakout room for students who preferred to work by themselves. During regular in-person classes, students are encour- aged to work together during questions in the class. The zoom breakout rooms allowed for more varied opportunities for students to work with other people they would not have met otherwise. Once the breakout rooms were closed, students had to answer the question via a zoom poll (shown with multiple-choice answers). These sessions occurred three times a week, for 45 min each time. Instructors used the data obtained from the zoom poll as a way check attendance and to monitor student participation in each session.
The course also featured other synchronous components:
● 45 min problem-solving recitation sessions
● instructor zoom help sessions four times a week, for about 1.5 h each
● weekly optional residential peer Mentoring (rpM) sessions via zoom
● weekly peer-Led Team Learning (pLTL) that took place mostly over the weekend or Monday nights.
Entry to the pLTL program was optional at the beginning of the semester, and attendance was strictly enforced and followed throughout the semester.
attendance was recorded by peer Leaders, which was shared with the pro- gram Coordinator who checked for absences. This information was sent to the Director of the program, who contacted students to warn them about dismissal or being close to program dismissal.
another resource for students was piazza (https://piazza.com/), an online forum in which students can ask questions about the course material to each other and instructors. This platform was embedded in the Canvas course, and students could post questions anonymously. Questions were typically answered by someone from the instructional team and/or other students within 24 h.
Downloaded from http://books.rsc.org/books/edited-volume/chapter-pdf/1746400/bk9781839165238-00031.pdf by RMIT University user on 06 February 2024
Chapter 4 44
To accommodate students in different time zones, instructors offered syn- chronous lecture meetings, recitation sessions, and help sessions at times that would accommodate these time zone differences at 8 p.m. Central Time, allowing all students to engage with the instructors in a synchronous manner.
We had students who liked this course format and mentioned this in course evaluations:
● “Synchronous lectures were very engaging with the professors with the use of polling questions.”
● “I’m not really sure what in-person classes would look like or if these are already normally included, but I liked the pathway questions because they were simple ways to check my understanding and they would let me know if I needed to spend more time on that topic or not.”
● “I really liked that the lecture videos were a series of shorter videos that had flexible timing. I liked that they weren’t overwhelmingly long, and I enjoyed completing the pathway questions to test how much I’d learned through the video.”
● “I think the flipped classroom worked well for the most part, and I would encourage continuing that. It’s easy to look at the CCV’s (course content videos) or recordings of zoom if I feel there’s a gap in my notes or if I have a question but can’t remember what was said in lecture.”
● “I would keep the flipped classroom approach because it really helped me take the time and think about the ideas before I needed to ask ques- tions and apply the material. It also forced me to spend more time on work for the class that I might not have spent in a normal semester.”
● “a feature of the remote course I would encourage the instructors to retain when the course returns to in-person format would be the avail- ability of the professors and other members of the teaching team, as I feel the extra help played a large factor in my success in the class.”
Even though the instructors provided several opportunities for engage- ment, and although we were trying to prevent zoom fatigue, for some stu- dents this fatigue was unavoidable, and they also felt disengaged from the class:
● “I have had to watch course content videos many times after being men- tally exhausted from an exam. Maybe after major quizzes or exams, or random days sprinkled throughout, there should be breaks from these videos.”
● “I think that having more opportunities to meet classmates during class would make it easier to find people to work and study with. Being able to choose breakout rooms was nice but I often found myself going into the individual workspace room because it felt weird to join a room with people who decided to join together.”
● “The course content videos were very long and often left me confused because I would take notes on them but I didn’t fully understand them until days later when it was talked about in class.”
Downloaded from http://books.rsc.org/books/edited-volume/chapter-pdf/1746400/bk9781839165238-00031.pdf by RMIT University user on 06 February 2024
45 Adapting Large Intro-level Chemistry Courses to Fully Remote or Hybrid Instruction
In Fall 2021, this course was held in-person. The instructors continued to offer several opportunities for students to connect with them and each other, as well as maintained the active learning components in class with questions throughout lectures that make students reflect on the newly learned material and apply the new knowledge.
4.2.3.2 Summer Courses
Due to the rapid pace of a summer course, for students to learn effectively—
especially in science—they need to practice and apply learned knowledge.7,8 In both summer general chemistry (Chem 105/106) and organic chemistry (Chem 251/252), synchronous office hours and problem-solving sessions were provided to students. The advantages of this structure include the benefits of a traditional flipped classroom.2 The time students spend outside of “class time”
is more productive—they watch lecture videos as many times as they need, take notes, and start working on practice problems. Then, if they get stuck on the practice problems, they do not need to struggle alone. Class time is dedicated to working through problems. It also leaves enough time to discuss problem- solving strategies and sets students up to be more successful the next time they work on the problems. all contact with the instructor is interactive and there is very little passive information transfer. For general chemistry a specific module was designated for each synchronous session. This was to help keep students on track with content. Synchronous sessions were more like office hours in that students were required to come with questions prepared on the related module.
For organic chemistry (Chem 251/252), synchronous sessions were more about problem solving and building application skills. asynchronous lectures would assign questions for students to work on their own during mid-lecture or at the end of a lecture, providing a point to begin discussions related to problem solving techniques. Some synchronous sessions were devoted to pOGIL (process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning) activities where students would work in small groups to extend their understanding on a specific topic (such as conformational analysis, spectroscopy, and substitution reactions).
The students were divided into breakout rooms and urged to explore and make conclusions about topics or reactions that they would then present to the class as part of a discussion. another use of these sessions involved divid- ing students into small groups using zoom breakout rooms to work on class problem sets or a challenge problem that required extending and combin- ing major concepts from lecture. Upon return to the large groups, students would engage with each other and the instructor to establish methods for approaching problems rather than focusing on finding the answer.
here are some student comments on aspects of the course that they liked related to synchronous sessions (organic chemistry):
● “The problem sets and you–do material were generally very helpful and arguably the activities that helped me learn the most from this class.”
● “practicing the problem sets allowed me to actually learn what the video lectures said.”
Downloaded from http://books.rsc.org/books/edited-volume/chapter-pdf/1746400/bk9781839165238-00031.pdf by RMIT University user on 06 February 2024
Chapter 4 46
● “Synchronous sessions that included break out rooms for either sched- uled group activities or just time to discuss problems from the problem Sets or you Dos from the lectures were the most helpful.”
● “The group sessions working through problems with other students are extremely helpful.”
The comments on these evaluations were only positive about the lectures and their benefits. In passing, students did comment to the instructor that it was occasionally hard to manage time to watch the asynchronous lec- ture before synchronous sessions. Students commented to the instructor that they did feel that given the pace of the class during the summer there were too many assessments (in the form of quizzes). however, students also expressed liking having several assessments because this helped them stay on track with their studying of the material. Because these comments were communicated verbally to the instructor, we do not have direct quotes that we can share.