195TH 2YC3 WESTERN
CONFERENCE
At
Mircosta College
March 30, 2012
INNOVATIVE INSTRUCTIONAL APPROACHES IN
TEACHING CHEMISTRY
Ngozi M. Onyia
Rockland Community College,
Suffern, NY
EFFECTIVE TEACHING INVOLVES
 Faculty member must always be
engaged in improving their knowledge
and skills in their field.
 Possess pedagogical content knowledge
which;
 Focus on the communication between
teacher and student
 Direct relationship with subject matter
EFFECTIVE TEACHING INVOLVES
 Being aware of different types of
instructional materials
 Being aware of student strengths and
weaknesses
 Building on and adapting curriculum
that has proven to be effective
 Interactive lectures using personal
response systems
 Group problem solving using (POGIL)
 Students participation in classes
 Conduct experiments to learn first
hand about science methods and
experimentation (LabSkills)
 Using computer-assisted learning
 Web-based learning
 Virtual laboratories
 Audiovisual aids (video-based
demonstrations)
 Others
 Online Web learning;
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OWL (Cengage Learning)
Labskills (Cengage Learning)
MasteringChemistry (Pearson)
WileyPlus (Wiley)
SmartWork (Norton)
Sapling Learning (Sapling Learning INC.)
ALEKS (ALEKS Corporation)
Others
 OWL is the only online learning
and assessment system developed
by chemistry instructors specifically
for teaching chemistry
 Developed by teaching chemists
 OWL is a powerful online learning system
for chemistry
 OWL engages students
 Assesses performance
 Improves learning outcomes
 Online homework and tutorial system for
chemistry
 gives students access to the eBook for
reference or study after their regular
course ends or is archived by the instructor
 Tutorials lead students step-by-step
through a problem
 Improves student learning and grades
 Helps students visualize chemistry and
improve problem-solving skills
 Allows students to work at their own pace
until they master concepts
 Saves time in grading homework and
assesses student progress
 Mastery Learning Problems
 End-of-Chapter Questions
 Simulations
 Tutorials
 Visual Exercises
 OWL for Organic Chemistry
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Cengage YouBook
Quick Prep
Go Chemistry Videos
Student Grade Report
Student Risk Report
Assignment Reports
 Led to statistically significant
improvement in student performance
and final grades in chemistry
 Students more likely to do their
homework
 Students found OWL homework
problems, feedback, tutorials, and
simulations extremely helpful
 Instructor Experience (St. Cloud State
University)
 OWL helps students succeed in chemistry
regardless of their background
 OWL helps students of varying aptitudes,
experience, and backgrounds learn
concepts and boost their grades
 OWL’s ability to meet students ‘where
they are’
 Instructor Experience (St. Cloud State
University)
 OWL provides near infinite opportunities to
practice solving problems
 OWL provide immediate feedback, students
can spend as much time on their homework
as they need to master each concept or skills
 Instructor Experience (University of San
Francisco)
 OWL help students to become more active
learners.
 OWL give students get unlimited attempts at
problems with immediate feedback
 Instructor Experience (Portland Community
College, Cascade Campus)
 OWL support was outstanding, patient, and
complete
 OWL is a powerful motivator for students
who want to improve their performance and
grades in the class
 Instructor Experience (Portland Community
College, Cascade Campus)
 OWL is an important part of ensuring
consistency in all our general chemistry
courses
 With OWL, I feel confident that students
have the opportunity for learning, practicing,
and receiving valuable feedback in every
course
 Student Experience
 Students love OWL for its visual, active
learning style, plus the immediate feedback
for incorrect answers
 The OWL assignments improved my course
grade because they made studying easier
 The detailed hints and step-by-step solutions
allowed me to gain a better understanding
 Attended LabSkills webinar in Fall 2011
 Attended OWL National Workshop San
Diego, CA in Spring 2012
 Demo of LabSkills will go live within OWL
on April 2
 Class testing LabSkills in April
 LabSkills available for lab courses in Fall
2012
 LabSkills is designed to prepare students
 For their lab sessions
 With pre-lab assignments that include video,
interactive modules and safety training
 Online solutions to save you time in the
classroom and lab and to better engage your
students
 Media-rich, interactive e-learning for
chemistry
 Built on groundbreaking best practice
 A networked 'Dynamic Lab Manual'
preparing foundation chemistry students
for the laboratory
 Innovative, multifunctional
e-learning tool covering core topics in
experimental chemistry
 Develops skills and builds confidence
 Provides ideal pre-lab preparation for
students with limited experience of
practical chemistry
 Helps all students studying university
chemistry succeed in the lab
 Extends learning opportunities
 Gives students so much more confidence
coming into the lab
 Scarce laboratory time and resources are
used to the best effect
 It helps prepare the ground so that
effective practical work can take place
 It helps improve students' confidence and
capability
 Extremely valuable new dimension to the
study of chemistry
 By helping to reinforce;
 The importance of scientific rigor
 Health and safety
 While being informative and engaging
 Groundbreaking computer program
allowing students to overcome their fears
by experimenting online
 Students found it easy to follow
 Online grading
 More focused intervention strategy
enhances student learning outcomes
MateringChemistry is the
most effective and widely
used online tutorial,
homework, and assessment
system for the sciences
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Individualizes tutoring
Improves learning and grades
Provides insight into student performance
Easily captures data to demonstrate
assessment outcomes
WileyPlus builds students’
confidence, takes the
guesswork out of studying by
providing a clear roadmap
 Helps today’s students succeed both
in the classroom and beyond
 Offers depth and breadth of
assessment through various problem
types including;
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End-of-chapter
Concept mastery
Drawing problems
Mechanism and synthesis
reaction practice
 Thousands of test bank
questions and MORE
SmartWork is the most
intuitive tutorial and online
homework system available
 Motivate student learning
 Offer additional help to students who
need it
 Maintain full editorial control over
questions
 Discourage cheating with algorithmic
variables
 Encourage study and review with an
integrated e-book
 Easily manage assignments and grades
 Spend more time teaching
Sapling Learning helps
improve the practice of
teaching to help ensure
success
 Guarantee the easiest and most
effective online homework
experience possible for both you and
your students
 Maintain full control of curriculum
 Saves time
 Monitor student progress
ALEKS is a web-based,
artificially intelligent
assessment and learning
system
 Targets Gaps in Individual Student
Knowledge
 MyPie Individualized Study Plan
 Robust Course Management Tools
 Automatically Graded Assignments
 Automated Reports
 Monitor Student and Course Progress
 Open Response Environment
 Avoids Multiple-Choice Questions
 Unlimited Online Access - PC and
Mac Compatible
 POGIL (Process Oriented Guided
Inquiry Learning)
 Is a pedagogical method devised to
teach process skills
 As well as content using an inquiry
based education approach
 Originally devised for use in teaching
general chemistry
 The structure of POGIL is broadly
applicable in all subjects
 POGIL activities follow the structure
of the learning cycle of
 Exploration
 Concept invention and application
 Has a strong basis in constructivism
 Students work together in groups of 3 or 4
 Students work together on activities that
are structured to help them build up a
concept
 Which creates positive interdependence
among the students, reinforcing
involvement and learning for each student
 Teaching has to do with helping individuals
acquire knowledge, skills and attitudes in
different areas of learning
 Teaching is guiding, facilitating and
motivating learners
 Professors are required to assists students
to learn
 By making the teaching/learning
environment, stimulating, challenging and
dynamic
 Innovative instructional approaches can
assist the learner reduce the monotony
associated with using only the “chalk and
talk” option
THANK YOU