This project builds on a previously developed scaffolded software environment called ChemProV (Chemical Process Visualizer). ChemProV presents chemical engineering students with dynamically-generated feedback on the syntactic and semantic correctness of their evolving process flow diagrams and sets of equations, guiding them toward correct solutions. Prior evaluations show that ChemProV promotes a statistically significant advantage in problem-solving accuracy, significantly more time on task, and a robust transfer-of-training to an unscaffolded problem-solving situation. In order to expand its impact, this project integrates ChemProV with a studio-based curricular approach in which students use ChemProV to construct solutions to material and energy balance problems, and present their solutions to their peers and instructor for critical review and discussion. The project integrates ChemProV into an online peer review environment, thus enabling the peer reviews to be performed completely online. Chemical engineering instructors at 10 new institutions will adopt ChemProV and the studio-based approach in their gateway material/energy balance courses, and participate in a rigorous quasi-experimental evaluation of their impact on student learning, attitudes, and retention. Through the training, collaboration, and research supported by this project, the project builds a community of chemical engineering educators who are committed to applying, refining, and improving ChemProV and the studio-based approach.
