Chemical Education Today
Report
Chemistry, Teaching, and WebCT by Renée Cole
I have an abiding interest in teaching and am continually looking for better ways to help students learn. During my experiences as a graduate student, a postdoctoral fellow in chemical education, and now as a faculty member, I have participated in many discussions about effective teaching. Often these involved various tools to enhance learning and how best to use them. It was part of my postdoctoral project to investigate ways to provide students with quizzes and homework that include feedback keyed to their incorrect responses. For this purpose, we investigated the capabilities of WebCT, a course management tool (1). It appeared to be able to do what we needed, and we decided to give it a try. Before I started my postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, I had never used the Web for any course-related material, either as a student or as an instructor. I knew very little HTML and had no experience designing Web pages, but I was willing to learn. WebCT is an online course management system that requires very little knowledge of HTML, depending on what you want to do. It offers a wealth of online tools for an instructor: student management/online gradebook, bulletin board, email, chat room, whiteboard, quiz/survey tool, student- and page-tracking, assignment dropboxes, course calendar, student home pages, group-presentation tool, linkable glossary, CD-ROM tool, as well as a variety of ways to include standard Web pages. A bonus feature is the active and supportive list server of WebCT users from all over the world who ask and answer questions ranging from the simple “How do I…?” to complex server issues. I quickly became familiar with the program and found several aspects that I really liked and could use effectively. We used the quizzing tool in a variety of ways, and I very quickly became an “expert” on quizzing in WebCT. We began by having students take pre-lab quizzes online and complete homework problems online. There are two advantages to assigning these activities to be completed online: the computer grades everything except essay questions, thus decreasing the workload for the instructor or TAs, and detailed, immediate feedback can be included for each answer (correct or incorrect). The feedback can explain to students how to solve a problem, refer students to their textbook or other print resources, or link students directly to online tutorials or other Web-based learning materials. Immediate feedback of online quizzes and homework appeals to students since they can immediately see their errors and learn why. Another advantage was the use of anonymous online surveys. Surprisingly, students seemed very willing to complete surveys and almost all filled in the comment boxes. Past experience had shown that only a small fraction of students completed the open-ended parts of pencil-and-paper surveys. Students like WebCT because they find it very easy to use, and they have access to the materials whenever they want. When students encountered problems with the material, they
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would generally email me their questions. The email messages were almost always time-stamped in the late evening, during times when the chemistry computer lab and other resources were not available. This observation corresponds with my own student days when studying times frequently did not coincide with the times when resources and faculty were available. When students have their own computers or have access to computer rooms in their dorms, this mismatch can be overcome. Often email correspondence or immediate Webbased feedback can help a student who otherwise would not take the time to seek out a faculty member or teaching assistant the next day or during office hours. The response from students inspired us to continue considering how we could improve the course from their perspective. Currently, in addition to the pre-lab quizzes and homework, the course syllabus, tutorials for certain topics in the textbook, grades, multimedia problems, a bulletin board, and other resources are available. I have given several presentations on the materials we developed and served using WebCT, and most people find them of interest. Those who balk at using a course management system often do so because they do not want to lose the flexibility and accessibility to materials they have on traditional Web sites. Users of such Web sites are often pleasantly surprised by what can be done with WebCT. WebCT also supports a chemistry community (2) where educators from around the world can share materials and classroom approaches. Content is not limited to WebCT-based materials, and many current resources have nothing to do with WebCT. When I began my current faculty position, I discovered that I did not have access to WebCT. As the semester progressed, I kept thinking of ways I could use WebCT to make the course flow easier; I wanted to put lecture outlines online ahead of time, post homework assignments, corrections, and other items. For posting these items, WebCT has advantages over a traditional Web site. It has built in organization and tools that I want without limiting what I can post, and it keeps the material between me and my students, rather than open to the world. WebCT has the flexibility to allow me to accomplish my goals easily. I can do batch uploads of questions, import Web materials that have already been developed, download materials if I want to use them elsewhere, and use a quizzing tool that has many great options. WebCT’s use of a file manager to help you organize materials and the options in the quizzing tool are definitely pluses compared to some other course management tools I’ve encountered. My experience with WebCT has encouraged me to continue to transfer materials to and develop materials for the Web. That’s part of the wonder of teaching—exploring new tools and deciding how best to use them to encourage students to achieve as much as they possibly can. Now if they could just develop something to add a few more hours to the day…
Journal of Chemical Education • Vol. 77 No. 7 July 2000 • JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu
Chemical Education Today
Report Literature Cited 1. WebCT Home Page. http://www.webct.com (accessed May 2000). 2. Chemistry E-Learning Community. http://www.webct.com/ chemistry/home (accessed May 2000).
Renée Cole a member of the Department of Chemistry and Physics, Central Missouri State University, Warrensburg, MO 64093; phone: 660/543-8704; fax: 660/543-4843; email:
[email protected].
JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu • Vol. 77 No. 7 July 2000 • Journal of Chemical Education
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