Appropriate methods and measures that can be administered, analyzed and
interpreted for evidence of student learning outcomes.
Department of Chemistry
The following document details potential changes that we hope to make to our courses and to our
teaching over several years. It is important to realize that these changes will involve a major
restructuring of our courses and the ways in which these courses are taught. Only with the full
agreement of all faculty in the department will we be able to implement all of the proposed
changes.
Summary that applies across all courses
1.) Goal: To encourage long-term learning in all of our students.
Currently our divisional courses (analytical, biochemistry, inorganic, organic and physical) are
concentrated in single academic years. For example, the organic chemistry courses (CHEM
2/30481 and CHEM 2/30482) are all taken in the same academic year rather than being ‘spread
out’ across the entire degree period. It may be possible to spread out a number of the divisional
courses although this would entail a major re-working of our degree programs combined with
obstacles such as compliance with the OBR transfer credit requirements. Cumulative exams
across multiple courses are possible and materials taught in the first semester of a particular
course can also be tested in the second semester (e.g. material taught in CHEM 30481 could also
be tested in CHEM 30482). This would be expected to lead to the enhancement of long-term
learning by our students and would aid in the strengthening of our program (retention of material
is a major issue at present). Courses that might involve such long-term testing include:
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Organic Chemistry I (CHEM 30481) and Organic Chemistry II (CHEM 30482)
Basic Organic Chemistry I (CHEM 20481) and Basic Organic Chemistry II (CHEM
20482)
General Chemistry I (CHEM 10060) and General Chemistry II (CHEM 10061) or
Honors General Chemistry I (CHEM 10960) and Honors General Chemistry II (CHEM
10961)
General Chemistry Lab I (CHEM 10062) and General Chemistry Lab II (CHEM 10063)
Organic Chemistry Lab I (CHEM 30475) and Organic Chemistry Lab II (CHEM 30476)
Intermediate Inorganic Chemistry (CHEM 40361) and Intermediate Inorganic Chemistry
II (CHEM 40362)
Elementary Physical Chemistry I (CHEM 40555) and Elementary Physical Chemistry II
(CHEM 40556)
Quantitative Analysis (CHEM 30101) and Instrumental Analysis (CHEM 30113)
In addition, in all chemistry courses the exams and quizzes might test the students’ cumulative
knowledge throughout the course (rather than giving non-comprehensive exams that are devoted
to specific topics). Offering identical exams across several sections for introductory courses that
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are taught by multiple faculty will also ensure that we have the same high quality of long-term
learning evaluation across multiple sections and campuses.
At the end of the degree we propose to evaluate the feasibility of offering a terminal exam
(within a new capstone course that we intend to add to our degree requirements) that will be a
requirement for graduation. This will enable us to test long term student learning across all of our
courses. This exam would be designed by faculty across all divisions and would be designed to
test retention of all of the most important key concepts encountered during the course of the
degree. The exam would replace the major field assessment test which does not provide the most
effective means for faculty to evaluate the long-term learning of our students (faculty are not
permitted to see the questions on the major field assessment test). As part of the capstone course
we will anonymously survey our outgoing graduating students in order to obtain their
impressions of the strengths and weaknesses of our program and its impact on their long-term
learning.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------2.) Goal: To foster critical thinking and multi-step problem solving in synthesis,
mechanism, biochemical pathways, analytical and numerical calculations.
The fostering of problem solving and critical thinking is best accomplished in help sessions
rather than in lecture as time constraints allow for only a limited amount of problem solving
during class time. Problem solving sessions are currently offered to students by a number of
faculty who are prepared to offer up their free time to giving these non-credit additional sessions.
Currently help sessions are offered by:
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Dr. Brasch in Intermediate Inorganic Chemistry (CHEM 40361)
Dr. Datta in Biological Chemistry (CHEM 30284)
Dr. Sampson in Organic Chemistry (CHEM 30481), Introductory Organic Chemistry
(CHEM 10052), Advanced Organic Chemistry-Synthetic Aspects (CHEM 6/70472‡) and
Stereoselective Organic Synthesis (CHEM 6/70473‡)
Dr. Seed in Basic Organic Chemistry (CHEM 20481), Basic Organic Chemistry II
(CHEM 20482), Organic Chemistry (CHEM 30482), Synthesis of Organic Liquid
Crystals (CHEM 40478) and Stereoselective Organic Synthesis (CHEM 6/70473‡)
Dr. Stroup (and a teaching assistant) in Physiological Chemistry (CHEM 20284)
Dr. Tandon in Physiological Chemistry (CHEM 20284)
Dr. Tubergen (and a teaching assistant) in General Chemistry Laboratory (CHEM 10062
and CHEM 10063)
Dr Fenk in Chemistry in Our World (CHEM 10030), Fundamentals of Chemistry
(CHEM 10050), General and Elementary Organic Chemistry (CHEM 10054), General
Chemistry I (CHEM 10060), General Chemistry II (CHEM 10061), and Physiological
Chemistry (CHEM 20284)
Help sessions provide an ideal environment for the fostering of critical thinking where students
are asked to solve problems (often without any pre-prepared solutions or even a prior knowledge
of the questions being asked) in teams of 3 or 4 individuals (sometimes this is performed on an
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individual basis). Problem solving may take place at the chalkboard or while seated. The faculty
are able to interact with students on an individual or small-group basis and to provide them with
the tools required to analyze and solve problems that test the students’ fundamental knowledge
and their ability to apply it in the solving of complex problems. Students not only learn from
faculty but also from their peers in a group situation. Analytical and numerical problem solving
should be introduced as early as possible (to develop logical reasoning in preparation for
physical, analytical and organic courses) and should be continually tested by examination and/or
quiz.
Many faculty have made it clear that they are unlikely to offer help sessions unless The
University takes these sessions into account in determining the teaching loads of faculty (which
is the appropriate thing to do in any case) or unless they become part of the curriculum. The
offering of zero credit hour recitation sessions may be possible if faculty have this taken into
account in their teaching load (1 cr. h). It seems that individual faculty generosity will determine
when and in which courses help sessions are offered until the required financial support is
provided by the administration.
Graduate TAs could be utilized where the TAs have the appropriate background although this
would require that we substantially increase our graduate pool in order to supply TAs for all
courses. Again, this would only be possible with significant financial support from the
University administration.
A number of regional campus faculty believe that the smaller class sizes at the regional
campuses are such that there is little benefit in offering help sessions. Individualized attention
can be given in office hours, and the small class sizes give regional campus faculty a little more
flexibility. In large class sizes office hours would not provide adequate time for this form of
instruction.
Problem solving can be introduced in a limited way during class time and this is already the case
in the vast majority of our courses.
Finally, all students have the option of taking Individual Investigation, where a student has the
opportunity to pursue a research experience with a faculty member. This course is tailored to
give the student a broad introduction to the research field and, as part of this experience, problem
solving should be a key factor. Given that students are interacting one-to-one with their faculty
mentors, problem solving skills can be significantly developed. Evaluation of our success in this
area will be evident in the research paper which is required for credit in the course.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3.) Goal: To develop individuals who are competent practical chemists.
This goal requires that our students are taught as many standard and advanced laboratory
techniques as possible, with a hands-on approach being taken wherever possible. In addition, the
knowledge garnered through course sequences must be retained and tested through multiple
semesters to ensure a thorough mastery. Lab courses should have a practical final examination
wherever possible and the practical exam should preferably be an open and investigative process
which tests the students’ knowledge of the chemistry, ability to analyze the given problem and
ultimately the practical ability to carry out the solution. Currently Organic Chemistry Lab I
(CHEM 30475) has such a final exam. However, practical final exams might also be given in the
following lab courses:
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General Chemistry Lab I (CHEM 10062)
General Chemistry Lab II (CHEM 10063)
Organic Chemistry Lab II (CHEM 30476)
Solution Chemistry Lab (CHEM 30102)
Elementary Quantitative Lab (CHEM 20112)
Physiological Chemistry Lab (CHEM 20285)
Biochemistry Lab (CHEM 30285)
Materials Chemistry Lab (CHEM 40053)
Physical Chemistry Lab (CHEM 40557)
Advanced Biological Chemistry Lab (CHEM 40251)
Instrumental Analysis (CHEM 30113)
The Organic and General Chemistry Labs also have the possibility to test lab skills over two
semesters:
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General Chemistry Lab I (CHEM 10062) and General Chemistry Lab II (CHEM 10063)
Organic Chemistry Lab I (CHEM 30475) and Organic Chemistry Lab II (CHEM 30476)
Design of the individual labs should also be revisited to ensure that we are constantly providing
students with exposure to modern techniques that are required by future employers.
Further testing of the students’ skills can be carried out by oral interaction by the TAs or facultyin-charge. This is already the case in both of the Organic lab courses (CHEM 30475 and CHEM
30476).
Individual Investigation provides additional experience for students to develop their practical
skills. Many faculty tailor their research experiences to provide the student with a broad
exposure to advanced practical techniques such as working in inert atmospheres at low
temperature, use of pyrophoric reagents, hands-on use of specialized analytical equipment (DSC,
NMR, MS, thermogravimetric analysis, combustion analysis, single crystal x-ray analysis,
ellipsometry etc.) and the use of specialized chemical equipment (ozonizer, hydrogenation rigs,
cryocools etc.). Clearly this is an ideal platform to develop our students’ practical ability and we
should seek to recruit more undergraduates to our research labs. Again oral evaluation and the
research paper can be used to assess the skills that the students have acquired. The amount of
work put in by many of our faculty should be reflected more strongly in the faculty workload.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.) Goal: To develop articulate individuals who are able to express their knowledge of
chemistry in both oral and written forms to a scientific audience.
Currently the following chemistry courses require that students present both a written paper and
an oral presentation of their paper to the class:
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Synthesis of Organic Liquid Crystals (CHEM 40478) (Seed)
Stereoselective Organic Synthesis (CHEM 6/70473‡) (Sampson and Seed)
Physiological Chemistry (CHEM 20284) (Earley- 1-3 page paper, Blaih- 3-5 page paper)
Chemistry in Our World (CHEM 10030) (Blaih- 2-3 page paper)
Honors General Chemistry (CHEM 10960) (Huang, 15 min. PowerPoint presentation
only)
Physical Biochemistry (CHEM 40263) (Tsai, 10 page paper and 5-10 min. PowerPoint
presentation)
Physical Techniques of Organic Chemistry (CHEM 40476) (Laali)
Chemistry in Our World (CHEM 10030) (Burns, 3-4 page paper)
Advanced Biological Chemistry (CHEM 40248) (Stroup)
Advanced Biological Chemistry Laboratory (CHEM 40251) (Stroup)
A survey of the chemistry faculty concludes that the following courses might also benefit from a
paper and/or and oral presentation. We will investigate the feasibility of such a presentation in
each of these courses:
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Introduction to Materials Chemistry (CHEM 30050)
Inorganic Materials Chemistry (CHEM 40352)
Organic Materials Chemistry (CHEM 40451)
Assessment of the students’ ability to present information in a clear and concise manner will be
carried out through oral questioning (by the Professor and students in the class) and by the
Professor’s evaluation of the written paper.
Individual Investigation also requires the submission of a written technical research report for
credit to be awarded. This type of report requires students to demonstrate a knowledge of the
literature background to their research, a summary of their research objectives and achievements
and finally their conclusions. Clearly this type of written report is an ideal opportunity to develop
a student’s writing skills. We should move to recruit more students to Individual Investigation in
order to better achieve this goal.
We propose to introduce a new 1 cr h senior level capstone course that will be required for
graduation. This capstone course will include a requirement for all students to prepare a written
paper and give a subsequent oral presentation on an aspect of chemistry not encountered in their
prior coursework. Those students taking Individual Investigation will give a paper/presentation
based on their research whereas students that do not take Individual Investigation will give the
paper/presentation on a topic of chemistry to be determined by the faculty (choice will be given
to the student). This course will be team taught by faculty from all divisions.
Our lab courses also provide students with an early opportunity to display their written skills
through written lab reports. Oral expression can also be fostered and evaluated through daily oral
interaction with the faculty and/or TA. Both of these forms of testing can be included in their
course grade. Written skills are currently tested in all of our lab courses through written reports.
Oral interaction is currently tested in the organic lab sequence (CHEM 30475 and CHEM 30476)
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------5.) Goal: To facilitate competency in the use of spreadsheets for data analysis and other
chemically useful software such as Chemdraw, Hyperchem, Beilstein and Scifinder.
It is imperative that students are competent in the use of up-to-date software that will be relevant
to their future careers and will keep our students ahead of the typical Ohio graduate. We have
identified courses that currently require students to use software and the type of software that is
being used. Faculty teaching the same courses do not necessarily have the same
requirements/goals for students who use the software:
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General Chemistry I Lab (CHEM 10062)- Microsoft Excel (graphing)
General Chemistry II lab (CHEM 10063)- Microsoft Excel (graphing)
Aqueous Equilibrium (CHEM 30100)- Microsoft Excel (graphing)
Quantitative Analysis (CHEM 30101)- Microsoft Excel (graphing)
Intermediate Inorganic Chemistry Lab (CHEM 40362)- Spartan modeling software
Organic Chemistry Lab I (CHEM 30475)- Beilstein and Scifinder
Organic Chemistry Lab II (CHEM 30476)- Beilstein and Scifinder
Basic Organic Chemistry (CHEM 20481)- Spartan modeling software
Individual Investigation (CHEM 40796)- Beilstein, Scifinder, Microsoft Excel and
Chemdraw
Physical Techniques of Organic Chemistry (CHEM 40477)- Introduction to Spectroscopy
(Trinity Software) for spectral interpretation.
Advanced Organic Chemistry- Mechanistic Aspects (6/70471‡)- Hyperchem molecular
modeling package to study conformational structures, stability of carbocations and
carbanions, orbitals, Huckel calculations etc.
One of our first priorities will be to try to ensure a uniform use of appropriate software in
individual courses taught by different faculty and across multiple campuses. This will only be
possible through faculty agreement. In addition, we should seek to use an individual software
package across multiple courses to ensure a thorough mastery of the software in question. The
types of software used should be reviewed by all faculty in order to make sure that the software
is relevant to students pursuing a graduate career or entering employment upon graduation.
Testing of our success can be carried out through in-lab exercises, homework and/or
exams/quizzes.
A survey of the faculty revealed that software usage could also be incorporated into the
following courses:
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Analytical and Physical Chemistry labs should require the use of Microsoft Excel.
Physical Techniques of Organic Chemistry (CHEM 40477) might require students to
retrieve spectral data using Beilstein and to simulate 1H and 13C NMR spectra by use of
Chemdraw.
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The proposed senior capstone course should require the use of Beilstein and/or Scifinder
and Science Citation Index in assembling the student presentations.
Individual Investigation (CHEM 40796) should require the use of both primary and
review literature. Other software used might include Scifinder Scholar, Science Citation
Index, Beilstein etc.
Scifinder should also be made available at the regional campuses, which will require significant
financial input from the regional campus administration.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------6.) Goal: To empower students with the tools required to be able to search the chemical
literature for any substance or chemical reaction.
The use of Beilstein and Scifinder in courses described in the above goal will be used as tools to
locate primary sources of literature. This skill will be taught in the above courses.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------7.) Goal: To impart knowledge of the importance of chemistry in the world around us, the
benefits to our society (medicines, fuels, high strength materials etc.), and its centrality to
science as a whole.
In many courses that we teach, faculty will introduce new topics by demonstrating the relevance
and importance of the chemistry being covered to the lives of the students. It is extremely
important that our students understand and are able to convey the message that chemistry is an
important and ‘positive force’ in all of our lives. In addition, chemistry is central in the sciences
and students must be made aware its importance. In the future our graduates may be required to
convey this information to the general public and must be able to present a clear argument to
promote public and governmental support of chemistry. Our service courses are particularly
important in conveying this message since they have the largest enrolments of both majors and
non-majors. Courses that should highlight the importance of chemistry in our lives include:
General Chemistry I (CHEM 10060)
General Chemistry II (CHEM 10061)
Organic Chemistry I (CHEM 30481)
Organic Chemistry II (CHEM 30482)
Basic Organic Chemistry I (CHEM 20481)
Basic Organic Chemistry II (CHEM 20482)
Biochemical Foundations of Medicine (CHEM 40245)
Intermediate Inorganic Chemistry (CHEM 40361)
Introduction to Materials Chemistry (CHEM 30050)
Synthesis of Organic Liquid Crystals (CHEM 40478)
Introduction to Biological Chemistry (CHEM 30284)
Quantitative Analysis (CHEM 30101)
Instrumental Analysis (CHEM 30113)
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Basic Concepts of Physical Chemistry (CHEM 40567)
Organic Materials Chemistry (CHEM 40451)
Materials Chemistry Laboratory (CHEM 40053)
Physiological Chemistry (CHEM 20284)
The capstone course survey could again be used to assess our success in conveying the
importance of chemistry to our students.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------8.) Goal: To develop independent learning skills as a tool for lifelong learning.
We must endeavor to graduate students who are capable of studying and mastering material on
their own without any external guidance. Currently a number of our faculty encourage students
to read material on their own which goes significantly beyond material in the lecture course. In
order to ensure the effectiveness of this process the faculty must examine the material and should
give direction as to how to study. As part of our courses we should give homework to students
that requires critical thinking and some supplementary reading to promote progressive student
independence. This is perhaps the goal which we need to work on hardest and this will require
careful thought if we are to impact the student learning experience. All of our courses might be
expected to have some component of self-guided student learning which should be introduced by
the sophomore year.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------9.) Goal: To teach the scientific method.
Lab courses are the ideal place for the teaching of the scientific method. In labs, students are
guided through the basics of experimental techniques, design and analysis. All of our labs may
be revisited to examine how we might improve the way in which we teach the scientific process
and its application through open-ended investigative experiments designed to develop and test a
student’s knowledge, deductive reasoning and ability to design and carry out an experiment to
test a hypothesis. Labs that we should revise in order to attain this goal include:
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General Chemistry Lab I (CHEM 10062)
General Chemistry Lab II (CHEM 10063)
Organic Chemistry Lab I (CHEM 30475)
Organic Chemistry Lab II (CHEM 30476)
Advanced Biological Chemistry Lab (CHEM 40251)
Solution Chemistry Lab (CHEM 30102)
Physical Chemistry Lab (CHEM 40557)
Materials Chemistry Lab (CHEM 40053)
Instrumental Analysis Lab (CHEM 30113)
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Assessment of our success can be carried out using a combination of oral evaluation (with a
faculty member or TA), written report and final practical examination.
‡
This graduate course is offered to undergraduates who are exceptionally well prepared in
organic chemistry and this is not a common offering. The course is then given as a Special
Topics course.
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