Chemical Education Today edited by
Book & Media Reviews Mastering Chemistry published by Pearson/Prentice Hall, 200 Old Tappan Road, Old Tappan, NJ 07675; http://www.masteringchemistry.com/ site Price per student: $5/24 months’ access (with textbook purchase); $45/24 months’ access (as stand-alone purchase) reviewed by Tricia D. Shepherd
I was introduced to Mastering Chemistry two years ago when I was looking for an alternate homework approach for my two-semester general chemistry course. The previous year I had stopped requiring a single traditional chemistry textbook in favor of offering freely available online resources. While these readings offered a variety of perspectives and sufficiently explained course concepts, I discovered my students needed more examples and practice at solving chemical problems. (Don’t they always!) In addition, I found creating, grading, and returning homework assignments in a timely manner to be an onerous task, even for a class size of 24 students. Until then, however, I hadn’t considered adopting an online homework system because I had only seen ones with a clunky user interface that lacked problem depth and variety. Thankfully, I didn’t turn down a “quick demo” of Mastering Chemistry when a Pearson representative found me with my office door open. I was quickly impressed with the pedagogical approach of this homework system. Many of the questions give individualized answer feedback, so students can correct their mistakes and quickly resolve a misconception. Some problems offer “hints” or guided questions, an approach that complements my use of POGIL (1) in the classroom. This is the feature that my students appreciate the most—they use the instant feedback to assess what they don’t understand, figure out what they did wrong, and fix it immediately. The Mastering Chemistry system also incorporates a variety of instructor diagnostic tools including problem time and difficulty, which are useful indicators for both individual and class performance. When I discovered that my students could either purchase a stand-alone copy of the homework system for $45, or in conjunction with one of six different general chemistry textbooks (some of which are available electronically) for $5 (2), I was convinced I had found my homework solution! The first semester I used Mastering Chemistry, I missed the book adoption deadline, and thus it was not listed as a required resource for my class. I was very surprised that out of a class of 24 first-semester freshman, all had purchased the resource and completed their initial homework assignment within one week of our first class. In addition, I didn’t have any trouble setting up my class and quickly creating assignments “on the fly” throughout the semester. My general philosophy of “click first, ask later” seemed to work well as I found the system intuitive and easy to navigate. Eventually, I discovered extensive online documentation, how-to videos, email support, and live chat available to users (3). Although not a frequent occurrence, when I have asked a question or reported a wrong answer, I have received both quick 694
Cheryl Baldwin Frech University of Central Oklahoma Edmond, OK 73034
and helpful responses from Pearson customer support. They also offer live online training workshops, local on-campus training, and communication with other experienced college professors who use the program in their classes. Although I only require students to purchase access to Mastering Chemistry, my students have used the system in combination with Tro’s Chemistry: A Molecular Approach (4) for the past three semesters. I assign problems both unique to the Mastering Chemistry system and end-of-chapter problems that are included in electronic format. The problem types vary both in content (symbolic, numeric, conceptual) and answer style (multiple choice, short answer, essay, graphical sorting, molecular drawing, and graphs). The system has graphical templates for inserting both mathematical and chemical formulas and symbols in a way that students find easy to use. While I have found the quantity, quality, and variety of problems accessible through Mastering Chemistry much better than any single textbook, I have taken advantage of the option to edit and create my own questions, a feature I have especially liked. It seems I try at least one new teaching strategy every semester, with the goal of improving student learning. Some experiments fail miserably, and some work out a great deal better than I expect. Mastering Chemistry definitely falls in the latter category. I never thought that assigning homework online would actually lead to more interaction and engagement with students about solving chemical problems. I attribute this to the fundamental approach of the Mastering Chemistry homework system that has been designed to improve the problem-solving skills of students. Literature Cited 1. Information about POGIL, Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning, may be found at http://new.pogil.org (accessed Feb 2009). 2. A list of all Pearson/Prentice Hall chemistry texts for which Mastering Chemistry is available may be found at http://www. masteringchemistry.com/site/books/index.html (accessed Mar 2009). 3. Most of the documentation for Mastering Chemistry is available only to users. However, information about tours and training is at http://www.masteringchemistry.com/site/tours/index.html; information about program support is at http://www.masteringchemistry.com/site/support/index.html (both accessed Mar 2009). 4. Tro, Nivaldo Jose Chemistry: A Molecular Approach; Prentice Hall: New York, 2008.
Supporting JCE Online Material
http://www.jce.divched.org/Journal/Issues/2009/Jun/abs694.html Keywords Full text (HTML and PDF) with links to cited URLs
Tricia D. Shepherd is a member of the Department of Chemistry, Westminster College, 1840 South 1300 East, Salt Lake City, UT 84105;
[email protected].
Journal of Chemical Education • Vol. 86 No. 6 June 2009 • www.JCE.DivCHED.org • © Division of Chemical Education
