Blurring the Lines Between Online and On-Campus Classrooms

Chapter 11

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Blurring the Lines Between Online and On-Campus Classrooms: Using Voicethread To Foster Collaborative Learning in Organic Chemistry Nanette M. Wachter* Chemistry Department, Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York 11550-1510, United States *E-mail: [email protected].

Engaging students in organic chemistry is especially challenging for online courses. Voicethread is a cloud-based multimedia platform that allows users to edit content and interact via text or video comments. Hofstra University has been utilizing Voicethread to foster asynchronous collaborative learning within small groups of students in our online organic chemistry course. Results for individual learner scores on Voicethread Collaborative Learning Group assignments correlated positively with learners’ average exam scores.

Introduction Voicethread is a cloud-based platform that permits users to share documents, images or video content and, more significantly, to comment on or edit the content (1). Voicethread’s technology has been described as an interactive multimedia album (2). The platform can be accessed by smart phone, tablet or any computer and is comparatively easy to use. Similar to many social platforms and discussion boards, Voicethread users can post messages, or upload images, documents or video content. In addition, Voicethread accommodates both text and audio comments, as well as enabling participants to edit posts using Voicethread’s drawing tool. Students and instructors alike can edit content chronologically so the original content remains intact as successive edits become available. Voicethread files can be shared with select groups of students within a class so © 2017 American Chemical Society Sörensen and Canelas; Online Approaches to Chemical Education ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.

that only members of the group can view and comment on edits made to a file. Because of its many advantages, Voicethread has become popular with educators in middle and high schools, as well as in many universities. In 2013, Hofstra adopted Voicethread as a platform for online courses and Voicethread was used to develop online lectures in organic chemistry.


Background In 2012, Hofstra University dropped its traditional two-semester organic chemistry sequence in favor of a one-semester organic chemistry course that meets five hours per week. The impetus for developing the one-semester course was, in part, a result of changes to the American Chemical Society’s Committee on Professional Training (ACS CPT) guidelines for bachelor’s degree programs in chemical sciences (3). The 2008 ACS CPT recommended that programs have “one semester of at least three semester hours in each of the five traditional subdisciplines of chemistry”. Around this same time, the Association of American Medical Colleges announced significant changes in the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) and medical school applicants were starting to be expected to take foundation courses in biochemistry and psychology (4). An advantage of the one-semester organic course is that it streamlines the course requirements for the MCATs, increasing the likelihood for students to take the exam in their junior year. In addition, the one-semester course allowed Hofstra to offer more sections of organic chemistry to accommodate dramatic increases in enrollments due to the recent opening of the Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Enrollment Trends in General Chemistry since 2008. The School of Medicine at Hofstra University was established in 2011 and likely lead to the significant upsurge in enrollment in chemistry around this time. 144 Sörensen and Canelas; Online Approaches to Chemical Education ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.


Soon after implementing the one-semester organic chemistry curriculum, an online organic chemistry course was also introduced to the curriculum in order to accommodate non-traditional students. In retrospect, developing a completely online organic chemistry offering was timely as it necessitated the creation of online lecture material. Prior to the introduction of an online organic chemistry option, students in organic chemistry had access to Powerpoint presentations provided by the publisher of the textbook, but all the lectures were delivered during class time. Once lectures were developed for the online course, instructors were able to make the videos available to their on-campus classes as well as the online classes so that students could both preview and review lecture material at their own pace. Hence, the online materials allowed for a transition to a flipped classroom, something that many STEM educators are currently experimenting with in order to improve student engagement and learning (5–7). By giving students access to lectures outside of class, more class time can be devoted to conceptually challenging topics and problem-solving strategies. Students in the on-campus course now spend approximately 40 % of their time in class working on problems in small groups (generally, 3 to 5 students per group) in an effort to flip the learning process from the traditional pedagogical model to collaborative peer-learning. The instructor, in turn, spends less time delivering content and more effort fostering student interactions to promote critical thinking and rational interpretation. The flipped classroom model underpins the architecture of online instruction. The online content is necessarily available outside of “class,” but it is more challenging to accomplish the corresponding in-class activity of dynamically exploring content in small groups. Can students interact with one another constructively when they are never physically together? In both the on-campus and online classes, we wanted to promote a flipped learning culture (8) to nurture peer problem-solving interactions. Can asynchronous collaborative learning be effectively instituted in an online course? How can technology be used to encourage student interaction and collaborative learning? And, finally, can we evaluate student engagement in collaborative learning with an online platform? To address some of these questions, we adopted Sapling Learning (9) to provide electronic chapter-based “homework” assignments to promote active learning in both the online and on-campus courses. Our intention was to effectively incorporate the on-campus course’s collaborative learning group environment into the constitution of the online course. Initially, we had attempted to use the online discussion board to foster student collaboration. Problem sets similar to those developed for the group work sessions in the on-campus course were posted on the course Blackboard site for pre-arranged groups of students in the online course. The groups were encouraged to discuss problem-solving strategies and solutions to the problems via the course discussion board. However, the format was limited to text comments and file uploads, and many students relied on one group member to post solutions to the problem sets. As a result, in stark contrast to the on-campus course’s group work sessions, there was no discourse or group analysis of the problems; in short, peer-instruction and collaborative learning did not ensue. In order to remedy this, the next time the 145 Sörensen and Canelas; Online Approaches to Chemical Education ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.

online course was offered, Voicethread was employed to foster asynchronous collaborative learning group problem-solving.


Implementation To promote collaborative learning in the online class, groups of 4 or 5 students are randomly created in Blackboard, the educational technology infrastructure used by Hofstra University. Enrollment in the online course is limited to 25 students, so typically five collaborative learning groups are formed. Problem sets, similar to those created for students in group work sessions in the on-campus course, are created in Powerpoint and transformed into PDF files. The assignments typically consist of 5 slides with questions on concepts from the current lecture material and are posted as individual Collaborative Learning Group (CLG) assignments on Voicethread. The instructor can then share individual CLG assignments posted on Voicethread with the groups. In Blackboard, there is an option to create Voicethread assignments which directly links to the assignment in Voicethread. An announcement is posted on Blackboard to inform students that the CLG assignment is available and alerting them of the due date. Students can access the assignment on any computer or mobile device via an email link or through the link created in the Assignments folder in Blackboard (or a similar platform). In Voicethread, students can respond to questions on the slides by text, audio or video comments, using Voicethread’s drawing tool, or by uploading documents. To minimize the instructor’s workload, one problem set can be generated for the entire class, and copies of the assignment can be created in Voicethread so that each group of students can be assigned individual Voicethread CLG assignments. Upon accessing the group assignment, each member of the group is expected to edit the slides by drawing solutions to the problems or commenting on solutions presented by other members of the group. Students receive points for meaningful participation in the assignments as outlined in Table 1. During typical assignments, an audio recording is generated of each student’s commentary as he or she analyzes a problem and presents solutions using Voicethread’s mouse-operated drawing tool. A screenshot of a sample assignment undertaken by a group is shown in Figure 2. As each member of the group edits or comments on the Collaborative Learning Group assignment, an icon with his or her image or initials appears on the left side of the screen. The individual responses, whether as entered as text, audio or video comments, are added to the assignment and each contributor’s comments can be accessed by any group member as long as the assignment is available on Voicethread.

146 Sörensen and Canelas; Online Approaches to Chemical Education ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.


Table 1. Rubric for Collaborative Learning Group Work using Voicethread in the Online Class Exemplary (5 points)

Good (4 points)

Competent (3 points)

Minimal (2 points)

Unsatisfactory (1 point)

Attempted all of the problems in the assignment; Clear analysis of each problem and explanation for solutions; meaningful comments on solutions provided by other students

Attempted most problems and provided an in-depth analysis of the solutions or meaningful comments on solutions provided by other students

Attempted some problems and discussed solutions proposed; contributed some meaningful comments

Attempted only a couple of the problems in the assignment; minimal or superficial comments

Accessed assignment and only contributed superficial comments

Figure 2. Screenshot of a sample Voicethread Collaborative Learning Group assignment. Group participants are identified by their initials on the left side of the screen as they make text or audio comments and edit the assignment using the drawing tool provided in Voicethread.

In some instances, students upload a document or image file with their solutions and these edits become part of the assignment file and can be viewed by all the group members. In order to receive full credit for their contribution, students must present problem-solving strategies and discuss the solutions they have provided, or evaluate the solutions given by other students in their group. 147 Sörensen and Canelas; Online Approaches to Chemical Education ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.


Ideally, each student in the group will contribute solutions and analysis, or critically evaluate another student’s solutions. If the group arrives at an incorrect solution to the problem, the instructor can provide guiding comments that enable the group to recognize any misconceptions and eventually arrive at the correct answer. While students need adequate time to perform the assignments, it is not surprising that some of them will refrain from accessing the assignment until other group members have posted comments and solutions. However, students who procrastinate risk poor evaluation scores on assignments since the grade is based on their unique assessment of the problems and solutions. Students who only access the assignment but do not contribute to the discussion beyond agreeing with previous comments are only given minimal credit. To receive full credit, students must attempt and provide detailed analysis for most or all of the questions in the assignment, and/or comment and elaborate on solutions provided by other members of the group.

Student Learning Outcomes The online organic chemistry course has been offered each summer and fall since 2014. In general, the overall response by students in the online course to Voicethread and the collaborative learning assignments has been favorable. Students who actively participated in Voicethread sessions expressed satisfaction with the experience and found it to be helpful. The peer-learning format fostered informal discussions on problem-solving strategies. Attrition in the online course is typically around 20%, not all that different from numbers seen in the on-campus course. However, one difference is that students tend to withdraw earlier from the online course than from the on-campus course. Students in the online course quickly recognize the level of participation required to perform the Voicethread CLG assignments. It is possible that some students are attracted to online courses because they believe these courses are less structured and require minimal interaction with either the instructor and/or peers in the class. These students quickly withdraw from the course once they discover the level of commitment expected of them. The instructors of the online organic chemistry course, in turn, noticed a general trend between student participation in the CLG assignments and performance on the examinations. Figure 3 illustrates the correlation between individual students average examination score with his or her average overall performance on the CLG assignments during the Fall 2015 term. Students who participate more actively in the Voicethread CLG assignments tend to have higher average examination scores.



Figure 3. Correlation of average examination performance versus average Voicethread CLG assignment score for students in Fall 2015 Distance Learning Organic Chemistry (n=17; r2=0.66).

While it is tempting to conclude that participation in Voicethread CLG assignments leads to better exam performance, it is equally likely that students who scored better on the CLG assignments and examinations are also more actively engaged in other learning activities (i.e., watching lectures, reading the text, performing electronic homework, etc.). On the other hand, since the students’ responses to the assignments are recorded, the instructor has more time to critically evaluate each student’s response and either address students misconceptions individually or provide detailed feedback to the group. Ironically, since the online course is unfettered by the time constraints faced by typical “bricks and mortar” classes, the instructor can have more “face time” with the online class! Voicethread sessions are only limited by the amount of time a participant has to devote to the online activity, as opposed to in the on-campus class where class time is the limiting factor. Additionally, participants can engage in sessions when it is convenient for them. Many students prefer to work on problems late in the evening, often well after midnight. Instructors, on the other hand, can engage in sessions at intervals throughout the period the assignment is available. In today’s global environment, asynchronous collaborations are increasingly more frequent and technology that facilitates cooperative interaction and productivity is relevant across disciplines. In online chemistry courses, it is important to have technology that is dynamic and multifaceted with options to view and record video and graphically edit content. Voicethread has proven to be a useful platform for fostering asynchronous engagement and promoting peer-learning in an online organic chemistry course. 149 Sörensen and Canelas; Online Approaches to Chemical Education ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.

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Voicethread. http://voicethread.com (accessed Nov 2016). Negash, S.; Powell, T. Increasing Student Engagement and Assessing the Value of an Online Collaboration Tool: The Case of Voicethread. May 28, 2015. http://jitp.commons.gc.cuny.edu/increasing-studentengagement-and-assessing-the-value-of-an-online-collaboration-tool-thecase-of-voicethread/ (accessed Jan 2017). American Chemical Society Committee on Professional Training. Undergraduate Professional Education in Chemistry: ACS Guidelines and Evaluation Procedures for Bachelors Degree Programs; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2008; pp 1–30. Association for American Medical Colleges; AAMC for Students, Applicants and Residents. https://students-residents.aamc.org/applying-medicalschool/taking-mcat-exam/about-mcat-exam/ (accessed Jan 2017). Seery, M. K. Student Engagement with Flipped Chemistry Lectures. J. Chem. Educ. 2015, 92, 1566–7. Rossi, R. D. Improving Student Engagement in Organic Chemistry Using the Inverted Classroom Model. J. Chem. Educ. 2015, 92, 1577–8. Trogden, B. G. How an Organic Chemistry Flipped Classrooom Provided Access to Increased Guided Engagement. J. Chem. Educ. 2015, 92, 1570–1. Flipped Learning Network. http://flippedlearning.org (accessed Oct 2016). Sapling Learning. http://saplinglearning.com (accessed Nov 2016).


Blurring the Lines Between Online and On-Campus Classrooms

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