It’s not often that a chemistry course is up for a technology award in the same ranks as a popular TV commercial or video game. But with the new online introductory chemistry (Chem 2C) lab formats at UC Davis, this has become a reality. The project was a finalist for the prestigious Macromedia MAX award, presented at a Macromedia conference in Salt Lake City in November. The purpose of the award is to recognize “excellent, innovative and result-proven projects built with Macromedia technology,” according to the Macromedia Web site.

In addition to being a featured nominee, the online lab received special attention as it was exhibited at the conference. The creators of the Chem lab, IET-Mediaworks and the chemistry department, were selected as one of only two finalists in the “Educational Experiences” category.

Previous Issue Introduction to Mediaworks Nutrition and Animation: Students Can’t Get Enough When a PDA is a Hot Potato Macromedia Mediaworks AC4 UC Davis Dept. of Chemistry

How the Lab Works
In the general chemistry series, which is a requirement for most science majors, there are two components: the lecture (taught by a lecturer or faculty member) and the laboratory (taught by a teaching assistant). In the traditional lab, the teaching assistant (TA) must preface each lab exercise with a 30-minute introduction to the guidelines and safety procedures. The students would then do the lab exercise and go home to write up a report. Now, with the online Chem 2C program, the TAs no longer deliver the pre-lab monologue, and students don’t have to use their handwritten lab manual to write up their lab reports.

Instead, students log onto the course Web site and enter a virtual pre-lab (made by Mediaworks programmers with Cold Fusion and Flash design programs). The pre-lab includes an overview of safety procedures, video of people demonstrating how the lab exercise works, and graphical representations of chemical formulas and concepts. As evidence of completing the pre-lab, students must take an online quiz at least one hour prior to physically showing up for the lab. The students are allowed two attempts to answer quiz questions correctly. If they fail both attempts, the TA reviews the lab experiment with the student to determine if they understand enough to proceed with the in-person lab.

The online pre-lab puts both students and TAs at an advantage. Students now have the assurance that presentations and grading will be consistent among TAs; TAs can spend less time on logistics and more time assisting students during the in-person lab. On a broader level, class time is reduced so that more classes can be scheduled. In turn, the large number of students who need to take Chem courses at UC Davis can be accommodated and graduate on time.

“The role of the TA and the role of the student are changing,” says Bill Fink, the Chemistry Professor Emeritus who originally helped provide content for the online lab. “The TAs are now much more mentors than evaluators.”
In addition to the pre-lab, the post-lab report has also gone online. Students input the data that they collected during their lab exercise and the computer program actually forces them to get their calculations correct by responding to their specific data entries, providing up to three levels of hints to assist them. And since the labs are graded by the computer, there is less room for grading variation among TA’s.

“Online labs eliminate the human errors and subjectivity that can result from grading, and make the labs generally a less tedious process,” continues Rachel Joseph, a Chem 2C student. “If only o-chem [organic chemistry] labs were online!”

Another added bonus, according to Chem 2C TA William Price, is that the online labs “help in organization—all the materials are together in one location and it is a paperless system. TAs no longer have to decipher writing styles in order to grade labs.” The system also stores an online gradebook, which the TAs consult throughout the quarter.

Best of all, the online lab provides students with a better analysis of their work to help them understand concepts. With the immediate assistance that the computer provides, students can’t help but get the labs done. “Students can ensure immediately that they do not turn in incorrect work and that, additionally, they understand the mistakes they are making, whether logical or technical,” Joseph says.

The students’ response has been overwhelmingly positive, according to surveys. In fact, 85 percent said they would recommend the online lab program for other chemistry courses.

In addition to the Chem 2C online lab, Chem 2B will have an online component starting this winter, with both 2A and 2B offered concurrently in the spring. Each course averages 1000 students per quarter, but by the time both courses are offered together, they are projected to have 2500 students combined. Eventually Chem 2A will be phased in as well, reaching even more students who need to take the most basic of the Chemistry series courses.

How the Lab was Developed
While the Chemistry department is responsible for the content of the online labs, Mediaworks helped develop and animate the content, drawing from its corps of videographers, photographers, animators, programmers and educational technology experts. Mediaworks also provides continuing technical support once the module gets some use by the students.

The lab exercises are getting smarter and will eventually take advantage of artificial intelligence capabilities.

A challenge for Mediaworks is that technology is constantly changing, both in the lab and on the network. “There are always upgrades and advances in technology we have to take into account after the initial release of an online course supplement,” says Lisa Wilson, Project Manager.

Accessibility is also a major concern. In order to participate in the online lab components, the student must have a computer capable of handling a heavy media load, including movies and sound files, says Earl Schellhous, a Mediaworks programmer. Mediaworks developed a CD version of the lab for those students who have slow modems or poor processing capabilities. If accessibility is still an issue, students are encouraged to take advantage of the campus computer labs, which are equipped with multimedia software and high-speed Internet connections.

Though a few other technical problems have surfaced, Mediaworks has been diligently working to smooth out the kinks. “By working out each one of those bugs and problems, we’ve made it reliable for most students,” Schellhous says.

Other UC Davis departments, and even other institutions, have expressed interest in creating similar online programs and using Chem 2C as a model. For example, Fink notes the large interest among microbiology instructors for an online pre-lab exercise, and adds that the chemistry department is working to get other instructors involved. However, Fink is quick to point out, however that instructors should expect to have their work cut out for them, as it takes a great deal of time and effort to get an online program up and running.

The Foundations and the Future of the Lab
Mediaworks is working on formulating the course into a shared content format so that others may use it. Like other popular learning management systems, such as WebCT and Blackboard, Mediaworks’ system can serve as a template for other future projects.

In fact, the Chemistry lab benefits from a learning management system concept initially created in the late 1990s when the dean of the chemistry department, Peter Rock, approached UC Davis educational technology pioneer and then Professor Harry Matthews about finding solutions to overcrowded labs and an influx of safety procedures and chemical experiments. At the time, Matthews was knee-deep in research on the effectiveness of hybrid online/in-class courses, thanks to a grant from the Mellon Foundation. His research confirmed that an online supplement might be the answer to Dean Rock’s problems. Diane Meador (a Chemistry Lecturer) and Bill Fink then helped provide content for the lab, and the rest is history.

“The project is really an illustration of the power of collaboration, from the Provost and the AC4 [the Academic Computing Coordinating Council] who initially approved Dean Rock’s proposal to the students who have adapted their learning behavior to take advantage of new opportunities,” says Matthews.

Fast forward eight iterations later, and the online lab is receiving attention from educational conferences such as Educause and garnering accolades from private industry groups such as Macromedia.

Nonetheless, the developers and instructors involved in the project are more concerned with continuing to perfect the Chem 2C lab for the students. Matthews says that the post-lab exercises are getting smarter and will eventually take advantage of artificial intelligence capabilities, making it possible for the computer to individualize instruction for each student, based on his or her specific needs. As for the here and now, Schellhous says current construction plans include expanding the lab with 3-D simulations and finding even more ways of getting those formulas to stick in the students’ minds a little more.