Emily,
This is EXACTLY what I am working on at the University of New Hampshire --
retention of STEM freshmen by preventing failure in the gateway courses, mainly
chem but also algebra-based physics, precalc and calc.
1) Some high school chemistry courses are abysmal for many reasons, and
students who have "had chemistry" in high school are not really prepared for
college general chemistry.
2) Often the students who most need the prep-course as intro-to-chem, or as a
physical-science or quantitative-reasoning course, either online, before
gen-chem, or concurrent with it, do not know or understand that they need it,
nor the rigor of the upcoming gen-chem course. Therefore, they will not, of
their own volition, access such help.
That has certainly been my experience here at UNH.
3) Sometimes it is naivete, sometimes it is a reflection of poor organization
and study-habits, sometimes it is a reflection of the affective domain -- poor
attitude, over-confidence, many times it is insufficient advising!
4) What is needed is a diagnostic instrument that informs the student (and us)
of their lack of readiness, then distinct and defined barriers erected to
taking gen-chem until they have proven they are ready.
I am presently researching and locating as many such programs as are extant
from roughly 2000 and up, and finding out what kinds of permutations exist as
well as their perceived (or proven) efficacy.
This work stems from my Chem-Math Project, that looks specifically at the
mathematics part of this issue.
However, it cannot be viewed in isolation, so I am also seeking other aspects
of under-preparedness that are intertwined.
I shall look at your materials and get back to you.
I will also discuss this at our NEACT Summer Conference Day Monday.
And there maybe some feedback from the folks at West Virginia University up
above with whom I have been discussing this (their Chem 110A & B courses).
Have you contacted the folks at the AACT yet?
Best,
Dr. W. Cary Kilner
Chemistry Education Research
UNH
-----Original Message-----
From: Bobbie Lamont <blamont@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: neact <neact@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: embugins <embugins@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sat, Aug 8, 2015 4:26 pm
Subject: [neact] MOOC
Via Facebook:
Hello, my name is Emily Buginsky, and I am currently a graduate student of
chemistry at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ. My graduate work focuses
on chemistry education research. My adviser, Dr. Darrin York, and I (along with
the help of our eLearning team), are in the process of creating a chemistry
MOOC (Massive Open Online Course). The class is called "Preparation for General
Chemistry" or ChemPrep. To give you a little background, this class is
typically reserved for students who have been unsuccessful in general chemistry
I. We have been offering a partial online version of it the past year during
summer and winter sessions, but have had trouble getting many students enrolled
because of the cost. To combat this, we are opening it to everyone (not just
Rutgers students), completely free of charge. The course has a suggested
schedule, but it can be done at the student's own pace.
This summer will be the first time we are launching the MOOC. Rather than
targeting students who have already been unsuccessful in general chemistry, we
want to reach students before the enter in, in order to ensure that they have a
proper background. This course can also be used to prepare students for
AP-level chemistry/Chemistry Subject Tests, as it reviews many of the concepts
they will have learned in their first high school-level chemistry course.
The major problem is that we are currently unable to reach out to teachers and
students about this class on a wide-spread scale, aside from contacting
individual schools. My team and I were hoping it might be possible for the
NEACT to post information about this. I can send the flyer if you would like.
Here is the link for the course: https://www.coursera.org/course/chemprep
I would greatly appreciate any help or advice you can offer. If you have
further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me
(embugins@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx). Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
-Emily Buginsky
