Physical Chemistry On-line, Establishment of Multi-Institutional Learning Environment for Physical Chemistry Students

虽然许多物理化学家可能有兴趣振兴和改进物理化学课程，但他们往往要么孤立于一个小部门，要么独自一人，没有部门或机构的支持来实施这些变化。在小物理化学类，学生人数可能不够大，以充分利用动态的学生为中心的小组活动。通过互联网技术与远程院校的合作可以部分地克服这种隔离问题，但缺乏适当的教学材料，这种创新的方法是一个很大的障碍，课程改革。在过去的两年中，一组来自几所大学的物理化学教师一直在研究在线合作模块的可行性，通过开发和测试这些以学生为中心，专为网上活动设计的主动学习材料。使用互联网作为沟通工具，学生首先回答问题，展示他们对主题的先验知识，并指导他们进行实验室调查。他们在当地校园进行小组实验，然后与其他校园的合作伙伴分享他们的结果。一名教师担任主持人，提供指导性的调查方向。汇集结果和数据的解释允许学生做更多的是可能在一个单一的三个星期的实验室部分在每个校园。学生们通过撰写由合作伙伴小组进行同行评审的论文来分享想法并达成结论。正在进行的形成性评估表明，当以这种方式实施现代工具和先进的教学技术时，学生会茁壮成长。因此，建议通过创建，测试和访问使用在线模块来扩展这种方法，以涵盖一系列物理化学主题。为了与其他物理化学教师分享我们的经验，由此产生的同行评审的在线模块，评估数据和工具，以及教师手册，描述如何建立一个在线学习社区的细节将被放置在一个商业发行的CD。

Although many physical chemists may be interested in revitalizing and improving the physical chemistry curriculum, they often are either isolated in a small department or alone with no departmental or institutional support to implement such changes. In small physical chemistry classes, the number of students may not be large enough to take full advantage of dynamic student centered group activities. Collaboration with distant colleges through Internet technology can partially overcome such isolation problems, but a lack of appropriate instructional materials in this innovative approach presents a large barrier towards curriculum reform.During the past two years, a group of physical chemistry faculty from several colleges and universities have been examining the feasibility of on-line collaborative modules by developing and testing the use of these student-centered, active-learning materials which are specifically designed for on-line activities. Using the Internet as a communication tool, students first respond to questions that bring out their prior knowledge of topics and guide them towards a laboratory investigation. They perform experiments in-groups at their local campus and then share their results with partner groups at other campuses. One faculty member serves as facilitator to provide guided inquiry directions. Pooling results and interpretations of data permits students to do more than is possible in a single three-week laboratory segment on each campus. Students share ideas and reach closure by writing papers that are peer reviewed by partner groups.Ongoing formative assessment shows that students thrive when modern tools and progressive pedagogical techniques are implemented in this manner. Thus, it is proposed to expand this approach by creating, testing, and accessing the use of on-line modules to cover a range of physical chemistry topics. In order to share our experience with other physical chemistry faculty, the resulting peer reviewed on-line modules, assessment data and tools, and a faculty handbook describing the details of how to set up an online learning community will be placed on a commercially distributed CD.