Web-based Interactive Organic Chemistry Homework

基于网络的课程具有改变科学教学方式的潜力，但是对于愿意投入时间和资源来采用这些课程的教师来说，这些课程必须比传统方法具有更大的教学价值。基于网络的交互式有机化学程序，ACE有机（以前的EPOCH），在几个方面都是独特的有用的。ACE通常要求学生画出一个化学结构或一系列化学结构，如果学生的回答不正确，ACE会提供反馈，解释为什么回答不正确，并提出建议，引导学生找到正确的答案。在过去两年半的时间里，ACE中增加了许多新的题型，并于2007年初将这些题型合并到ACE的商业版中。问题类型包括机制问题，学生现在可以画出一系列化学结构和代表电子流的弯曲箭头，就像他们在纸上做的那样；构象问题，学生现在可以用三维信息绘制或修改化学结构；刘易斯结构问题的标准绘图工具marvinssketch（已注册商标）自动添加了未共享电子和隐含氢原子，并提醒学生注意价电子错误，而一种新的、化学意识更低的绘图工具已经开发出来，允许学生绘制（正确和错误）刘易斯结构；标记原子的问题现在学生可以标记最酸性，最亲核的原子，等等，或者他们可以标记每个立体原子，或者他们可以根据原子的杂化或立体性标记每个原子；还有多项选择题、填空题（带下拉菜单）和排序题。在这个项目下，多步综合问题被添加到ACE中。给学生一个目标，一个允许的起始材料的描述，和一组允许的试剂，他们设计和绘制一个多步骤的合成方案。此外，正在进行一项扩展评价，以确定问题类型在提高学生在课程中的表现方面的有效性。第三方对ACE的初步评估表明，ACE确实对学生对有机化学的理解和能力产生了可衡量的积极影响。智力优势：本项目继续开发和评估基于网络的有机化学家庭作业程序，该程序的能力远远超过迄今为止开发的任何程序。更广泛的影响：ACE项目是一种独特的有价值的教学工具，适用于各种学科的大量学生学习的困难课程。这个项目将ACE的范围扩展到有机化学课程材料的一个关键部分。培生教育集团的普伦蒂斯·霍尔分部为ACE的初期开发提供了大量资金，并将继续在支持和评估方面进行投资，与培生的合作将使ACE的未来版本得以广泛传播。

Chemistry (12)Web-based programs have the potential to change the way science is taught, but for instructors to invest the time and resources required to adopt them, such programs must have greater pedagogical value than traditional methods. The Web-based interactive organic chemistry program, ACE Organic (formerly EPOCH), is uniquely useful in several ways. ACE generally requires a student to draw a chemical structure or a sequence of chemical structures, and, if a student's response is incorrect, ACE provides feedback that explains why the response is incorrect and makes suggestions to guide the student to the correct answer. Over the last 2.5 years, a number of new question types were added to ACE, and these were incorporated into the commercial version of ACE in early 2007. Question types included mechanism questions for which students can now draw a sequence of chemical structures and curved arrows representing electron flow, just as they do on paper; conformation questions for which students can now draw or modify a chemical structure with three-dimensional information; Lewis structure questions for which the standard drawing tool, MarvinSketch (trademarked), adds unshared electrons and implicit H atoms automatically and alerts students to valence errors, while a new, much less chemically aware drawing tool has been developed that permits students to draw (correct and incorrect) Lewis structures; label-the-atom questions for which students can now mark the atom in a structure that is most acidic, most nucleophilic, etc., or they can mark every stereogenic atom, or they can label every atom according to its hybridization or stereotopicity; and multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank (with pulldown menus), and rank-in-order questions. Under this project multistep synthesis questions are being added to ACE. Students are given a target, a description of permissible starting materials, and a set of permissible reagents, and they design and draw a multistep synthetic scheme. In addition, an extended evaluation is being carried out to determine the effectiveness of the question types in improving students' performances in courses. Preliminary evaluations of ACE by third parties have suggested that ACE does have a measurable and positive effect on students' understanding of and ability in organic chemistry.Intellectual merit: This project continues the development and evaluation of a Web-based homework program designed for organic chemistry that already has far greater capabilities than any program heretofore developed. Broader impacts: The ACE program is a uniquely valuable teaching and learning tool for a difficult course that is taken by large numbers of students across a wide variety of disciplines. This project expands the scope of ACE to a critical portion of the organic chemistry course material. The partnership with the Prentice Hall division of Pearson Education, which funded much of the initial development of ACE and continues to invest in its support and evaluation, will permit wide dissemination of future versions of ACE.