Presentation of sophisticated course material to chemistry students has become easier, richer, and broadly available, significantly enhancing or sometimes replacing the traditional lecture mode of information delivery. This impressive progress comes with the risk of overwhelming students with information. Students need the ability to determine whether they are on track towards meeting the learning objectives that are expected of them. Similarly, faculty need to recognize whether their teaching methods are effectively bringing students to success in the course learning objectives. As chemists have always recognized, it is the working with information, whether in the lab or in problem-solving, that generates real understanding and capability. This project will primarily work with the ConceptTests database, which is part of the University of Wisconsin New traditions Project. The primary outcome will be a collection of web-based questions intended to be useful to students for self-assessment and to faculty for immediate feedback in class. This project will add to the size and diversity of the ConcepTests database, and it will extend its usefulness by correlating the questions to specific learning objectives for general chemistry and organic chemistry classes. We will class-test the questions in large lecture classes of general chemistry and organic chemistry, and we will integrate the questions with the web-based course materials that we have already developed for these classes. We will also evaluate whether these ConcepTests will be useful to judge student readiness for different levels of chemistry in general education coursework. We will initiate a "Chemistry Commons," where students will have access to the web-based materials in an exciting, interactive environment. We will collaborate with the Oregon Collaborative for Excellence in Preparation of Teachers (OCEPT) in statewide programs that address improvement of science teaching and learning for all students. In collaboration with OCEPT initiatives, we will work to develop support systems for the two mainstream chemistry courses and a seminar on teaching/learning that will help to draw students into recognizing the values and rewards of teaching as a profession.
