Getting a Bigger Picture in Less Time: Viewing Curriculum Reform in a

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Getting a Bigger Picture in Less Time: Viewing Curriculum Reform in a Chinese Graduate Chemistry Program through the Lens of an Organic Structure Analysis Course Jiahai Ma* College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Graduate University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China ABSTRACT: As China’s university enrollment has been rapidly expanding since 1999, along with a steady increase in graduate enrollment, graduate-level chemistry education is confronted with many challenges, such as how to enhance the connection between fundamental knowledge and advanced frontier knowledge, and how to encourage students to do self-directed study with creativity and passion. In the 2009 2010 autumn and spring terms, the Graduate University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences undertook curriculum reform; one change made reduced the instructional time for most courses to 40 hours from the previous practice of 60 hours, with the intention of freeing up more time for students to do self-directed study. This paper reports on curriculum reform efforts implemented in one fundamental graduate course, Organic Structure Analysis, identifying changes in teaching topics, assessment results (including students’ feedback), and the syllabus (guest lectures were added). During the teaching process, greater efforts were made to introduce new spectra developments as well as broad “practical” applications gathered from top research papers or related to daily life, which are highly welcomed by the students. Students’ feedback data were analyzed and used to guide adjustments to curriculum reform. KEYWORDS: Graduate Education/Research, Upper-Division Undergraduate, Curriculum, Organic Chemistry, IR Spectroscopy, Mass Spectrometry, NMR Spectroscopy, UV Vis Spectroscopy

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very year, the Graduate University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (GUCAS) shoulders the responsibility of educating thousands of graduates for the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), which has more than 100 research institutes, including some world-renowned ones.1 For the past 10 years, the curricula at GUCAS have remained relatively constant; most courses have 60 academic hours allotted per term for instructional time to teach content ranging from basic concepts to advanced research materials.2 Usually, most of the graduates work in academic institutes or pursue a doctoral degree either in China or abroad after being granted the master’s degree. Enrollment numbers keep increasing, and have almost tripled recently,3 with some of the graduates directly pursuing the doctoral degree (the same as those in the U.S. universities), while some of the graduates would terminate their academic studies entirely after getting the master’s degree. On the basis of these facts, it is urgent to recognize and address the obvious gap between the old curriculum provision and what is desired for the current students.

three to two because of the reduction of instructional time; therefore, students have to take more courses for the same credits. The author taught the course, Organic Structure Analysis, at the College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering of GUCAS during the 2009 2010 autumn term. As a fundamental graduate course on the ever-changing spectra techniques and applications, it offers a good view to probe this curriculum reform effort.

’ THE COURSE AND ITS PARTICIPANTS Organic Structure Analysis (also known as Spectral Identification of Organic Compounds) is a fundamental course at the College of Chemistry, covering the content of UV, IR, NMR, and MS methods. Because of the importance of the course, it has a high enrollment. In 2009, the autumn term course had 400 students, with two sections of 206 and 194 students, respectively. The students came from 35 research institutes, covering 25 subdisciplines in chemistry, biology, materials sciences, and environmental sciences. The students’ background knowledge was quite varied because cross-disciplinary learning is an important characteristic of GUCAS. Many participants had taken only general chemistry courses at the undergraduate level, which they had completed two or three years previous to taking this course.

’ PROGRAM REFORMS AND ORGANIC STRUCTURE ANALYSIS Corresponding to this, and “to encourage the graduates’ autonomous learning ability in order to further improve the teaching quality”, the management of GUCAS declared the year 2009 as the Curriculum Reform Year, mandating that all subordinate colleges and departments complete curriculum reform based on the recommended plan. The instructional time for most of the courses was reduced to 40 h from the previous 60 h, with the intention of giving students more free time to do self-directed study. However, the 2009 reform did not adjust the previous credit policy, that is, the credits for a single course decreased from Copyright r 2011 American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.

’ IMPLEMENTING CHANGES IN THE COURSE Today, those teaching organic structure analysis are faced with the challenge of bridging the gaps between delivering basic content knowledge and truly achieving graduate classroom goals. Published: October 10, 2011 1639

dx.doi.org/10.1021/ed1007537 | J. Chem. Educ. 2011, 88, 1639–1643

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Table 1. Teaching Syllabus Comparison before and after Reform Topics Culled from the Old Course

Topics Added to the Revised Course

(60 academic hours, 3 credits)

(40 academic hours, 2 credits)

Chapter and Spectral Method UV

Franck Condon principle

Electromagnetic spectrum

Absorption intensity, molecule multiplicity,

Beer Lambert law and measurement

and selection rule of electron transition

deviation; absorption of aromatic compounds

UV spectra of simple molecules and conjugated molecules

D-π-A type molecule Visual detection Diffuse reflectance spectra

IR

Diode array detection ATR

Electromagnetic spectrum and molecule absorption spectrum

Principles of Raman spectroscopy Comparison between Raman and IR spectra New developments in Raman spectroscopy NMR

Principle of CW NMR

Development of NMR

FT NMR

1

1

PFT NMR

H-chemical shifta

H-chemical shift and empirical calculation equations

Relationship of J and molecular structure C-chemical shift and empirical calculation equations

Movement of nuclear magnetization vector C-chemical shifta

13

13

Relaxation time Introduction to solid-state NMR MS

Analysis of a mixture

Various ion production methods Various mass analyzers

Combination of spectral methods a

No change

Introduced ChemNMR in place of empirical calculation equations.

Table 2. Spectroscopy Topics for the Added Lectures Presenter Affiliation

Lecture Topics, Summer 2010

Institute of Physics

Single-molecule surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy

Institute of Chemistry Institute of Chemistry

Detection of “dark” state of complex molecules in condensed phase 2D-NMR in life and material sciences

Institute of Biophysics

Protein crystallography in biology


Application of CryoEM on structure study of biomolecules


Bio-MS in life sciences

Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences

MS study on the environmental behavior of emerging contaminants

To address this, the author’s teaching philosophy in designing this course was to smoothly increase the relevance of this course to current trends in chemistry, while maintaining attention to the basic principles. Broadening the Scope of the Course

Table 1 outlines the syllabus change during the reform. Some of the changes were relative minor, such as refinements in the teaching order; some topics were removed and a few were added. Importantly, the teaching standard was not lowered even as the scope was broadened, especially in the introduction to solid-state NMR and new developments of Raman spectrum (such as surface-enhanced resonance Raman spectrum). One objective was to incorporate useful concepts into teaching UV (see the additions in Table 1), such as D-π-A molecules to form the basis of organic molecule devices; visual detection (using an article4 of the author’s colleague); and diffuse reflectance spectra, which are increasingly used for catalyst. An overarching goal is to cultivate the timely use of appropriate spectral tools. For the IR chapter,

Figure 1. Distribution of final grades of section 1 (N = 206) of the course, Organic Structure Analysis, following curriculum reform.

Raman spectroscopy was introduced because of its rapidly increasing applications; ATR technology was given importance equal to traditional preparation of samples for the same reason. For 2D NMR, the COSY NOESY TOCSY order was culled 1640

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Table 3. Students’ Feedback Concerning the Reform Changes Suggestion Ranking Highest Importance

Comments on

Comments on

Positive Aspects (N)

Inadequacies (N)

Teaching material is closely related to real research, strongly practical, the knowledge is very useful and applicable, closely related to the research field Knowledge of frontier techniques’ is very good, and broadens perspectives

Medium Importance

“Hot” research topics (74) Introduced important scientists for the

Further Actions

It is better that the teacher goes a little deeper

Clearly emphasize key points

Some key (difficult) points need detailed

Assign specific after-class

explanation

reading materials

We want to understand everything (principles), rather than just remembering the conclusions— we want to know “why” (30) The time allotted is too short to adequately cover

No solutions so far

development of instrument methods,

the contents, and students’ time outside of the

it is very interesting and helpful

course is already overscheduled, so it is difficult

20-hour supplementary class

There are many supporting resources

to have enough time to study more to make up

providing additional materials

like background knowledge, operation

Future reforms could include a

for this (12)

videos, and even some stories (24) Minor Importance

Invoking to self-study ability and

Need more worked examples using various

Provide more worked examples

self-interpretation of spectra (7) Good consideration of students from

spectra (6) The lecture is so fast that the principles are not

Assign more nonmandatory homework

different majors Good balance between breadth and depth of the content (5)

sufficiently explained (4)

Arrange a two-hour visit to the

Too many students in one class (4)

analytical center of the Institute

Teacher should assign more homework (3)

of Chemistry, at the Chinese

Exercises are not enough (2)

Academy of Sciences

Material is simple; expecting more challenging content (2) It lacks the lab-based experiment material; we should visit an analytical center (2)a Materials should have more connections among each other (2) Basic knowledge is not enough, so it is hard to understand the principles (1) Less student participation in class (1) a

In fact, there is an experiment course, Chromatography and Spectroscopy Analysis (including UV, IR, and HPLC, etc.); however, owing to space and facility limitations, only 32 students may enroll at one time and NMR or MS experiments are not available.

owing to the difficulty of students understanding it within the limited instructional time available. Instead, the author used CH3CH2OH as a simple example to elucidate 1H 1H COSY, 1 H 13C COSY, J-resolved spectroscopy, and so on, which plainly built the basic concepts of 2D NMR and will be helpful for students’ future needs; further, 2D spectra of several relatively complex organic molecules were introduced. For MS, various soft ionization methods, as well as mass analyzers, were highlighted. All the instrument operations are shown by videos. Focusing on Applied Aspects and Current Research

Considering what current students need and in light of the above-mentioned syllabus changes, the course focused on “chemical applications” instead of the pure “organic chemical applications” of the spectral tools. Worthy of note, actual research cases were shared with the students, which students found quite interesting and useful (see below). For UV, an easyto-read paper4 was used to broaden the students’ view of D A interaction. Further, colorimetric detection of Hg2+ using DNA and nanoparticle conjugates was recommended as supporting reading material.5 For IR applications, the traditional jewelry

identification was selected for case study;6 for IR microscopy, an interesting forensic application was used.7 For introduction to solid-state NMR, a report of synthesis of water-soluble graphene was used,8 as solid-state 13C NMR assignment of carbon nanomaterials is increasingly popular.9 For MS, there are many research fields with numerous applications, and these wide applications do not require great background knowledge; thus, the students were encouraged to find and read interesting papers for themselves. For example, students can easily read a recent MS application in atmospheric chemistry.10 This course is not the only example of making changes as described above: some textbooks have been revised in similar ways. The text Spectroscopic Methods in Organic Chemistry11 states that the approach adopted in the sixth edition “kept discussion of the theoretical background to a minimum”, and “described instead how the techniques work” to “respond to changes that have taken place, both of emphasis and of fact”.11 Another text, Spectroscopic Identification of Structure of Organic Molecules,12 written by Yaoxing Zhao (a professor who taught in GUCAS for decades until 2003), explains that the book “deleted certain introduction materials, added new developments in spectroscopy, especially in MS and NMR”.12 1641


Journal of Chemical Education Supplementing the Course with Additional Summer Lectures

As a supplement to classroom education, GUCAS has organized a summer term since 2004. During the summer of 2010, seven prominent professors from several institutes of the CAS gave a series of lectures on topics relating to spectra (Table 2). For example, Hongxing Xu is a prominent scientist and author who first detected the surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy of single biomolecules; he gave an excellent lecture in which he explained the mechanism by theory and experiments.13,14 These lectures are highly admired by the students. In the future, the author intends to expand the range of topics covered to include electron paramagnetic resonance, for example.

’ ASSESSMENT Final Course Grades

Figure 1 shows the final exam grade distribution for students in section 1 of the course (N = 206), which is quite similar to the results of section 2 students. Compared with previous course offerings, the final grade distribution was a little lower. This might be caused by two reasons. First, the instructional time was reduced from 60 to 40 h, while the exam standards remained the same. Second, the credits for a single course decreased, yet the required total credits were not adjusted, so students had to take more courses than before, possibly decreasing the time students had available to study for the exams.

Students’ Feedback

Near the end of the class, the author collected feedback from students; 115 comments related directly to the reform efforts.15 As indicated in Table 3, the feedback comments generally included observations such as these: • Students like to be made aware of practical applications and new developments (including easy-to-read top papers) • Background information about leading figures, namely Fuchun Yu and Koichi Tanaka, inspires the students • Some students were interested to learn more about the principles, which was, to a certain degree, an unexpected finding • Some students have experienced greater learning pressure because of the shortened instructional time It is remarkable that most of the students comment on this course as “practical” (Table 3). First, that implies that previous teaching focused instead on establishing solid background knowledge followed with step-by-step study rather than “practical” knowledge. Second, this indicates that some students are so ambitious that they are eager to start their own research as soon as possible after this one year of study. Another theme emerged from students’ comments: many students are not practiced at self-directed study outside of the class; they are accustomed to going over what the teacher has highlighted in class.

’ CONCLUSIONS Chemical education at GUCAS has made significant achievements in the past 30 years; many graduates become outstanding scholars in China or abroad based on the solid academic grounding they received at GUCAS. However, frankly speaking, with the rapid expansion of undergraduate enrollment in China since 1999,16 the average knowledge level of first-year graduates is lower than before, while finding related employment is becoming more difficult. This is a fact not only in GUCAS but also across the nation. All of these issues caused by enrollment expansion and related effects need to be appropriately addressed. Corresponding to this, GUCAS started

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curriculum reform, which has lasted for a year; the instructional time for most classes has been reduced to 40 h, and more courses, such as literature-reading courses and seminars, have been added. Obviously, teachers are quite busy under this pressure. How are the students faring? They are even more busy, and experiencing additional pressure. As mentioned before, this reform did not adjust the required total credits for students while the credits for a single course decreased; therefore, the students have to take more courses than before. To a certain degree, this may cause the reform efforts to have the opposite effect of what was originally intended because most students cannot afford enough time to study in depth on their own. Thus, the author would like to suggest that more flexible policies be implemented on mandating credits. Generally, the ongoing curriculum reform could be characterized as “shorter but broader”, meaning shorter instructional time but broadened education, which demands more than ever from both the students and the teachers. Most importantly, the reform should be subject to dynamic self-adjustment for its sustainable development. Effects of the reforms might only be realized five or more years after students graduate and enter into industry for some while to showcase their research or career achievements. Change is the core characteristic of chemistry, and accordingly, we shall always welcome change in chemistry education. Hopefully, reform efforts at the level of individual courses, the program level, and for the whole university are on the right track.

’ AUTHOR INFORMATION Corresponding Author

*E-mail: [email protected].

’ ACKNOWLEDGMENT The author thanks all the students who took the 2009 2010 class of Organic Structure Analysis, especially those who gave valuable suggestions for the class. Special acknowledgment is expressed to Leilei Zhang for her kind and valuable input on English language refinement. The author also thanks the NSFC (No. 21007089) and the Presidential Fund of GUCAS for supporting his teaching and research. ’ REFERENCES (1) The education of students enrolled by CAS is “two-step”, that is, full-time study at GUCAS at Beijing (and some universities at other cities) for the first year, and the next two years (for M.S. candidates) or four years (for Ph.D. candidates) is dedicated to lab or field research without formal class studying. The top chemical institutes of the CAS include the Institute of Chemistry, the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, and the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, et al. (2) One academic hour at GUCAS is 50 min. (3) GUCAS enrolled about 7000 graduate students in 2011. (4) Jiang, Y.; Zhao, H.; Zhu, N.; Lin, Y.; Yu, P.; Mao, L. Colorimetric Visualization of TNT (Picomolar Levels) Using Gold Nanoparticles. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2008, 47, 8601–8604. (5) Xue, X.; Wang, F.; Liu, X. One-Step, Room Temperature, Colorimetric Detection of Mercury (Hg2+) Using DNA/Nanoparticle Conjugates. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2008, 130, 3244–3245. (6) Shen, K. Application of FTIR Spectra Techniques to Jadeite Identification. Chin. J. Spectrosc. Lab. 2000, 17, 1832–1839. (7) Yang, S.; Zou, D.; Lin, S.; Wang, Y.; Xie, J.; Wang, G. Determination of the Sequence of Sealing and Writing with Fourier IR Microscopic Chemical Image System. Spectrosc. Spectral Anal. 2006, 26, 1460–1463. 1642



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(8) Si, Y.; Samulski, E. T. Synthesis of Water Soluble Graphene. Nano Lett. 2008, 8, 1679–1682. (9) Engtrakul, C.; Davis, M. F.; Mistry, K.; Larsen, B. A.; Dillon, A. C.; Heben, M. J.; Blackburn, J. L. Solid-State 13C NMR Assignment of Carbon Resonances on Metallic and Semiconducting Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2010, 132, 9956–9957. (10) Bruns, E. A.; Perraud, V.; Greaves, J.; Finlayson-Pitts, B. J. Atmospheric Solids Analysis Probe Mass Spectrometry: A New Approach for Airborne Particle Analysis. Anal. Chem. 2010, 82, 5922–5927. (11) Williams, D.; Fleming, I. Spectroscopic Methods in Organic Chemistry, 6th ed.; McGraw-Hill: New York, 2007. (12) Zhao, Y. Spectroscopic Identification of the Structure of Organic Molecules, 2nd ed.; Science Press: Beijing, 2010. (13) Xu, H.; Bjerneld, E. J.; K€all, M.; B€orjesson, L. Spectroscopy of Single Hemoglobin Molecules by Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering. Phys. Rev. Lett. 1999, 83, 4357–4360. (14) Xu, H.; Aizpurua, J.; K€all, M.; Apell, P. Electromagnetic Contributions to Single-Molecule Sensitivity in Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering. Phys. Rev. E 2000, 62, 4318–4324. (15) The author received 387 responses from the 400 students; the 115 responses discussed here are directly related to the curricula reform. The other 272 comments (e.g., “the teacher is easy to talk with”, or “the PPT is beautiful”, etc.) are not included because they do not relate to the curricula reform. (16) Gou, X.; Cao, H. Undergraduate Chemistry Education in Chinese Universities: Addressing the Challenges of Rapid Growth. J. Chem. Educ. 2010, 87, 575–577.

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