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Curricular Change Digests
Baird W. Lloyd
Physical Chemistry On Line: Interinstitutional Collaboration at a Distance
Miami University Middletown Middletown, OH 45042
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Marcy Towns* Ball State University, Chemistry Department, Muncie, IN 47306;
[email protected] Deborah Sauder Hood College, Frederick, MD 21701-8575 David Whisnant Department of Chemistry, Wofford College, Spartanburg, SC 29301 Theresa Julia Zielinski Monmouth University, West Long Branch, NJ 07764-1898
The Physical Chemistry On Line (PCOL) consortium has developed eight online modules that two or more geographically dispersed physical chemistry classes have used to study a segment of the physical chemistry curriculum (1–5). Each module listed in Table 1 engages students in a contextrich authentic problem, uses a guided-inquiry approach, and requires students to collaborate via an electronic learning community to develop problem-solving techniques and solutions. PCOL Modules PCOL activities utilize the potential of the Internet to help students collaborate as they explore and learn chemical principles. Each activity lasts four to six weeks and runs parallel with normal class meetings and laboratories, but usually substitutes for some experiments and/or lecture content. Students obtain the curricular materials at the project Web site and interact via a list server, managed distribution list, and/or discussion board. Student groups work at their local campuses and then discuss results locally and/or with partner groups on other campuses. The Internet communication inherent in these projects allows students to share and pool data by email or by posting on a Web page. Finally, peer review among students is included as part of some activities. During
each activity, one faculty member serves as the facilitator who provides guided-inquiry directions, encouragement, and support as the students work their way through the assigned activities of a module. Two goals of PCOL are to help students recognize the potential of electronic communication for enhanced learning and to prepare them for an electronically enriched future work environment. In PCOL projects, electronic communication is necessarily student centered; it is also asynchronous. Students decide when they will work with the material and interact with each other. The nature of electronic communication permits students to critique and reflect on what other students have posted before generating their own postings. Online activities offer students the opportunity to respond to questions that require them to elaborate on a previous response, to analyze data, or to evaluate or critique another student’s response as they build their own concepts. Evaluation and Implications for Online Collaboration During our pilot phase we concentrated on the development of several modules and investigated the student and faculty perspectives on the strengths and weaknesses of each module. We found that students liked the real-world
Table 1. PCOL and Spartanburg Modules Implemented to Date Module Title
Topic
Ref
How Hot Is That Flame?
Determination of adiabatic flame temperatures
6, 7
It's a Gas!
Nonideal equations of state and nonlinear curve fitting
The Structure and Spectroscopy of Iodine Classic experiment to determine potential energy surface parameters from visible absorption spectra
8 9
Doc. Z's Bungee Jumping Emporium
Thermodynamic and experimental investigation of polymer elasticity using a rubber band as a model system, with applications
10, 11
Shady Laser Corp.
Classic experiment to measure the absorption spectra of conjugated dyes and develop several models and correlate absorption characteristics with dye structure
12 13
Carbon Clusters
Determination of the small carbon cluster responsible for an IR absorption band in the spectrum of a carbon star
Hair Dyes
Determination of the benzene derivative that would make the best hair dye
14
Cl2O4 in the Stratosphere
Investigation of the implications of Cl2O4 for ozone depletion in the stratosphere
15
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Journal of Chemical Education • Vol. 78 No. 3 March 2001 • JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu
Information • Textbooks • Media • Resources
approach to the concepts within the modules. Many students enjoyed working with other students in their own classroom and collaborating online when the electronic community functions effectively. The facilitators learned to ask questions in a manner that encouraged discussion among students on the list server and improved the quality of the list server discussion. We discovered that students needed to learn basic list server etiquette and email-management skills. Our experiences also led us to create basic rules to help students understand how to write constructive peer reviews. The archives of the list server discussions are an important database from which we learned the following. First, the most effective electronic communities form when there is sufficient “social glue” among the participants to help them build an identity. Second, the list server discussion is studentcontrolled. For example, during the “Thermodynamics of Bungee Jumping” project we found that students began new threads of conversation nearly five times as often as the faculty facilitator did. The data also suggest the limitations of online collaboration. First, students who are unfamiliar with a collaborative environment must develop the skills needed to work effectively in groups (both in their classroom and online). Second, students who have little experience with problem-based laboratories or guided-inquiry approaches can become frustrated with their roles, the facilitator’s role, and their professor’s role. For example, students may spend too much time trying to define the problem and determine what data to collect and analyze. Consequently they never get the analysis done or shared with others in the community. Third, because of the volume of email, professors may want to use a different electronic means of communication, such as a discussion board. Our preliminary results indicate that communities should remain small and contain no more than about 25 students in five to six groups across two to three campuses. Coda: Technology, Collaboration, and Authentic Problems Our research is intended to uncover obstacles and effective strategies as we move more and more into the electronic age in our classrooms. We intend to continue developing modules and incorporating methods that address the evolving needs of students in collaborative working environments. One of our guiding principles is to use sound pedagogy and stateof-the-practice technology (16 ). Our opinion is that students need to develop a suite of skills—technical, problem solving, and communication—that will serve them well in their careers and contribute to their development as lifelong learners. Such skills are, in our opinion, best learned in the context of contentrich authentic problems. Acknowledgments Partial support for this work was provided by the National Science Foundation’s Division of Undergraduate Education through grant DUE #9950809. Additional support was provided by the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation Special Grants in the Chemical Sciences program.
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Supplemental Material
The full version of this article is available in this issue of JCE Online. Literature Cited 1. Long, G.; Sauder, D.; Shalhoub, G. M.; Stout, R.; Towns, M. H.; Zielinski, T. J. J. Chem. Educ. 1999, 76, 841. 2. Zielinski, T. J. J. Chem. Educ. 1994, 71, 507. 3. Stout, R.; Sauder, D.; Towns, M. H.; Zielinski, T. J.; Long, G. Chem. Educator 1997, 2 (1); S1430-4171(97)01107-2; http://link.springer-ny.com/link/service/journals/00897/index.htm (accessed Dec 2000). 4. Sauder, D.; Towns, M. H.; Stout, R.; Long, G.; Zielinski, T. J. J. Chem. Educ. 1997, 74, 269. 5. Towns, M. H.; Kreke, K.; Sauder, D.; Stout, R.; Long, G.; Zielinski, T. J. J. Chem. Educ. 1998, 74, 1653. 6. How Hot Is That Flame? http://www.monmouth.edu/~tzielins/ FlameS99/ (accessed Dec 2000). Zielinski, T. J. Department of Chemistry, Medical Technology, and Physics, Monmouth University, West Long Branch, NJ 07764;
[email protected]. 7. How Hot Is That Flame? http://wey238ab.ch.iup.edu/pcol/thermo/ (accessed Dec 2000). Long, G. Department of Chemistry, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana, PA;
[email protected]. 8. It’s a Gas; http://www.iup.edu/~grlong/realgas.htm (accessed Dec 2000). Long, G. Department of Chemistry, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana, PA;
[email protected]. 9. The Structure and Spectroscopy of Iodine; http://www.iup.edu/ ~grlong/i1fac.htm (accessed Dec 2000). Long, G. Department of Chemistry, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana, PA;
[email protected]. 10. The Thermodynamics of Bungee Jumping; http://www.iup.edu/ ~grlong/bungee.htm (accessed Dec 2000). Long, G. Department of Chemistry, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana, PA;
[email protected]. 11. Williams, K. R. In Schwenz, R. W.; Moore, R. J. Physical Chemistry, Developing A Dynamic Curriculum; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1993; Chapter 24. 12. Shady Laser Corporation. http://wey238ab.ch.iup.edu/pcol/ dyeproj2.htm (accessed Dec 2000). Shalhoub, G.; LaSalle University, Philadelphia, PA 19141-1199;
[email protected]. Also see Sample student work from the Shady Laser Corporation Project; http://www.niagara.edu/chemistry/studproj/pchem/ (accessed Dec 2000). Zielinski, T. J. Department of Chemistry, Medical Technology, and Physics, Monmouth University, West Long Branch, NJ 07764;
[email protected]. 13. Carbon Clusters; http://pcol.ch.iup.edu/project.htm (accessed Dec 2000). Whisnant, D. Department of Chemistry, Wofford College, Spartanburg, SC;
[email protected]. 14. Hair Dyes; http://pcol.ch.iup.edu/project.htm (accessed Dec 2000). Whisnant, D. Department of Chemistry, Wofford College, Spartanburg, SC;
[email protected]. 15. Cl 2O4 in the Stratosphere; http://pcol.ch.iup.edu/project.htm (accessed Dec 2000). Whisnant, D. Department of Chemistry, Wofford College, Spartanburg, SC;
[email protected]. 16. Physical Chemistry On Line; http://pcol.ch.iup.edu/ (accessed Dec 2000). Long, G. Department of Chemistry, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana, PA;
[email protected].
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