Changing Roles for Changing Times—Social Media and the Evolution

Communication Cite This: J. Chem. Educ. XXXX, XXX, XXX-XXX

pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc

ConfChem Conference on Select 2016 BCCE Presentations: Changing Roles for Changing TimesSocial Media and the Evolution of the Supplemental Instructor Emily Alden* FlyBase and the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131, United States S Supporting Information *

ABSTRACT: This Communication summarizes one of the invited papers to the Select 2016 BCCE Presentations ACS CHED Committee on Computers in Chemical Education online ConfChem held from October 30 to November 22, 2016. The supplemental instruction (SI) model has come a long way from being a peer-assisted study sessions geared toward improving student retention and success. Students now have 24/7 access to handouts, professional tutoring by an SI leader, and group collaboration outlets; several of these services are offered via social media sites. How well these outlets are incorporated into the classroom is now a key component of what makes an SI session successful. With the advent of these innovations, the limits to what the SI leader can provide to their students are far fewer. Some of these innovations include (but are not limited to): video lectures, practice exams, and promotion of group collaboration among students. Through the use of platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Piapp, and Slack, the SI session can be held almost exclusively online and provide just as much if not more benefit to the students involved. KEYWORDS: First-Year Undergraduate/General, Second-Year Undergraduate, Collaborative/Cooperative Learning, Distance Learning/Self Instruction, TA Training/Orientation

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BACKGROUND

second-semester course with student retention and success matching that of a traditional classroom.

This paper was discussed from November 6 to November 8 during the Fall 2016 ConfChem online conference.1 This conference was hosted by the ACS DivCHED Committee on Computers in Chemical Education (CCCE).2 Following are highlights taken from the full paper,3 which is available online (see the Supporting Information). As more chemistry classrooms shift to a nontraditional or flipped classroom model, it is important that the resources being provided to the students undergo a similar paradigm shift. The addition of a supplemental instructor (SI) to the classroom is a relatively new concept, developed at the University of MissouriKansas City in 1973.4 With SI being a simple model, it bridges the gap between instructor and student by creating an additional resource to improve student retention and success. We have expanded the SI model to use a professional tutor (SI leader) actively in the classroom in addition to SI sessions offered in person and online. Hybrid and blended classes tend to suffer from high dropout and failure rates in comparison to a face-to-face course. Our study indicated that a two-semester approach to the general chemistry series allows for a successful transition from a hybrid first-semester course to a blended © XXXX American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.

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ACTIVE LEARNING MODEL As explained by Freeman et al., the active learning classroom can be as simple as students collaborating on a group worksheets and as complex as a workshop course design potentially with peer assistance.5 When students have a sense of community and acceptance in the classroom, it is reflected in their higher commitment to their work and lower levels of anxiety.6 The first step in the evolution of the supplemental instruction model was to increase the sense of community by incorporating the SI leader, in our case a professional tutor, into the face-to-face classroom. We used a nontraditional or flipped classroom model from the beginning, which provided the opportunity for the SI leader to engage with the students. This individual would sit among the students and answer questions, promote group collaboration, and collect handouts and other notes to share in the SI sessions. The more active the SI leader Received: January 3, 2017 Revised: August 11, 2017

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DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.6b01012 J. Chem. Educ. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX

Journal of Chemical Education

Communication

same instructor and supplemental instructor), 76% passed the course and 85% were retained, including the four students who audited the course. Blended and hybrid courses traditionally have low retention rates at Central New Mexico Community College.

was in the classroom, the more interest the students exhibited toward the SI sessions. This model resulted in an increase in student attendance and retention at SI sessions. The active learning model was the starting point for the creation of an even more specialized “integrated” model for incorporating the SI leader into the online chemistry classroom.

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CONCLUSIONS The success of this cohort of students has led to an ideal twosemester general chemistry, or organic chemistry, model. The idea is if students were to begin their General Chemistry I semester in a face-to-face or hybrid classroom it would promote success in a blended General Chemistry II course using a socialmedia-based online classroom. The discussion of the paper (see the Supporting Information) brought up an important point about ensuring that students are honing skills such as questioning, analyzing data, seeking trends, and communicating understanding. This is tied into the skillset of the SI leader. Ning and Downing reiterate that the supplemental instructor develops student study skills and improves the students’ academic performance.8 It is important to encourage students to answer peer questions, find similar examples, and inspire students to see applications beyond their current course. In future applications of the integrated SI model, a weekly Facebook discussion on how to apply the current topics outside the classroom would encourage the students to think beyond how to succeed in the current semester. The discussion during ConfChem focused on the nature of the applications being utilized and the willingness of the students to partake in this optional tool. Many of the readers lacked experience with applications such as Piapp, Slack, and Spark and wanted to know the appeal to such applications in comparison to Blackboard Learn. In selecting a platform to use for SI, it was important that the application be free, easy to navigate, and allow for media content to be uploaded easily by the students. Piapp and Facebook both have a singular news feed that allowed the students to see each others’ posts without the worry that their questions would be lost in multiple threads. These apps also allowed for students to keep their social media personas separate from their educational personas. Facebook and Twitter were much faster routes to reach the students and ensured they would be seeing any updates posted. Initially, there was slight pushback to adding another access point to the course, but this was not a required task and would not negatively impact their grade if they chose to not participate. I found that once the students realized that the social media page was a useful tool for keeping track of assignments and due dates they began to rely on it throughout the semester. I would encourage instructors already using SI leaders to begin incorporating them into their online classrooms and consider the use of a social media platform to promote a greater online presence that appeals to the student population. To promote the growth of students pursuing STEM degrees it is paramount that we continue to serve the needs of the growing number of non-traditional students. It is anticipated that higher education institutions will encourage faculty to incorporate some or all of these ideas into their curriculum as support for the active and integrated SI models grows.

INTEGRATED MODEL Up until this point the online presence of the SI was limited to emailing on a one-on-one basis with students and posting announcements to Blackboard Learn. At Central New Mexico Community College, the number of online sections for STEM courses continues to increase each semester. As Selwyn pointed out in his 2008 paper, higher education institutions allocate a great deal of resources to their virtual learning environments.7 Thus, it made sense that the natural progression of this model was to improve the online presence of the supplemental instructor. We needed to create a means of online communication that mimicked that of the in-person SI sessions. The poor app development and difficulty posting photos and videos through the typical asynchronous communication methods created a need to seek out an alternative platform. We experimented with the use of platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Piapp, and Slack. Each outlet had their pros and cons, but universally, we sought something that had one news feed, a way to differentiate students from the SI leader and professor, and a user-friendly means of uploaded media content. Eventually, due to ease of setup and the students’ existing social media presence, a private Facebook group for each chemistry class was created. The SI leader is still present in the classroom, but now any additional materials provided in the SI session are also uploaded to the Facebook group. The SI leader becomes accessible virtually 24/7 to the students. Questions would be answered within an hour of being posted; daily updates about assignments and helpful videos enticed the students to check the page multiple times a day. With an SI leader who is comfortable using social media and willing to actively participate in the model, he or she can become an unlimited resource to the students.

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RESULTS When following a cohort of general chemistry students from the Fall 2015 to Spring 2016 semesters, we were able to both implement the Integrated SI model as well as experiment with students transitioning from a hybrid to a blended course structure. We found that the student retention and success of the blended general chemistry II course, following a hybrid general chemistry I course, was comparable to that of the faceto-face general chemistry II course. Of the 36 students who continued from the first semester to the second (many with the

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ASSOCIATED CONTENT

S Supporting Information *

The Supporting Information is available on the ACS Publications website at DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.6b01012. B

DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.6b01012 J. Chem. Educ. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX

Journal of Chemical Education

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Communication

Full text of the original paper and associated discussions from the ConfChem Conference (PDF, DOCX)

AUTHOR INFORMATION

Corresponding Author

*E-mail: [email protected]. ORCID

Emily Alden: 0000-0002-9650-2923 Notes

The author declares no competing financial interest.

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REFERENCES

(1) American Chemical Society, Division of Chemical Education, Committee on Computers in Chemical Education. Fall 2016 ConfChem: Select 2016 BCCE Presentations. https://confchem.ccce. divched.org/2016fallconfchem (accessed Apr 2017). (2) ACS CHED Committee on Computers in Chemical Education. http://www.ccce.divched.org/ (accessed Apr 2017). (3) Alden, E. Changing Roles for Changing Times: Social Media and the Evolution of the Supplemental Instructor. https://confchem.ccce. divched.org/content/changing-roles-changing-times-social-media-andevolution-supplemental-instructor (accessed Apr 20187). (4) University of MissouriKansas City Academic Support and Mentoring. Supplemental Instruction (SI). http://www.umkc.edu/asm/ umkcsi/ (accessed Apr 2017). (5) Freeman, S.; Eddy, S. L.; McDonough, M.; Smith, M. K.; Okoroafor, N.; Jordt, H.; Wenderoth, M. P. Active learning increases student performance in science, engineering, and mathematics. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 2014, 111 (23), 8410−8415. (6) Osterman, K. F. Students’ need for belonging in the school community. Review of Educational Research 2000, 70 (3), 323−367. (7) Selwyn, N. An investigation of differences in undergraduates’ academic use of the internet. Active Learning in Higher Education 2008, 9 (1), 11−22. (8) Ning, H. K.; Downing, K. The impact of supplemental instruction on learning competence and academic performance. Studies in Higher Education 2010, 35 (8), 921−939.

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DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.6b01012 J. Chem. Educ. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX