Speaker
Description
Since its emergence and spread across the globe, COVID-19 is continuing to impact higher education. As instructors, it has forced us to adapt, to accommodate national lockdown restrictions and diversify the way teaching can engage students. This has meant that the inclusion of online teaching methods and tools into undergraduate Chemistry modules has been necessary for content delivery and student engagement. The research presented in this poster looks at how first-year students’ confidence has been impacted by the new module designs of an undergraduate Chemistry course which incorporates asynchronous lecture videos supported by synchronous workshop sessions, with a particular focus on the first semester Organic Chemistry module. In order to probe how student confidence has progressed, data was collected at different points throughout the academic year. This involved a survey looking at how students rated the importance of the online methods implemented and how comfortable they were with using them at the start of the academic year, a questionnaire on student confidence in Organic Chemistry topics at the end of the first semester, and an in-depth focus group with students nearing the end of the academic year. Through the lens of student confidence, we can see that more focus is needed on helping students consolidate their knowledge and understanding, and that working in an online environment has led students to favour asynchronous tools over synchronous sessions.
| Key words | Online Learning, Confidence, Undergraduate Chemistry |
|---|---|
| Region | UK/Ireland |
