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Program Management System - 21st BCCE - Engaging Students in Organic Chemistry - Assessing collaboration through online reporting using wikispaces
| Paper Title: |
Assessing collaboration through online reporting using wikispaces |
| Symposium: |
Engaging Students in Organic Chemistry |
| Session: |
Laboratory Emphasis - Part 1 of 3 [2010-08-03 09:00:00 - 12:00:00] |
| Paper Start Time: |
11:20:00 |
| Author: |
Ana Fraiman |
| Presenter: |
Sarah Vorpahl |
| CoAuthors: |
Mary Caffero
Ilona Goykhman
Sarah Vorpahl
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| Abstract: |
Increasingly, new tools are being developed for social networking. Many of these platforms have become a ubiquitous part of everyday life. For example, Facebook was originally developed for college students to communicate with each other and now has reached over 300 million users. Other social media platforms, such as LinkedIn, were developed for business professionals. Wikispaces have been created as a user generated platform for every subject imaginable. A site like Chem-Wiki could change the way students learn and collaborate in a laboratory setting.
The Chem-Wiki site was originally implemented for one section in the organic chemistry laboratory using the Biodiesel module developed for CASPiE (Center for Authentic Science Practice in Education) in 2007. Since then, it has been used every semester, in both Organic Chemistry 1 and 2, and constantly modified to benefit the students’ learning needs. Using Chem-Wiki, students work in larger teams on their lab reports and are able to collaborate on the results by writing, editing, discussing, and adding content to their labs without being tied to a specific time and place. Also, Chem-Wiki gives students the opportunity to learn from each other, refer to each other’s labs as resources, and discuss individual lab results.
Our assessment has two main parts: learning and usability. Monthly written assessments filled out by the students will seek to answer a number of questions about the way actual learning is occurring on the Chem-Wiki. These questions will determine whether working in large groups helps students learn efficiently. One question might ask whether working together in a larger team broadened the students’ creativity and ability to understand the lab. The assessment will look at issues of group learning dynamics as well as personal knowledge gained by the students. Ideas of usability are included in the written assessments. The major focus is whether the community created by the Chem-Wiki space is effective. With students being more critical of social interfaces, the assessments will try to determine how much the learning experience was helped or hindered by the usability of the website itself. A question might ask how having lab reports visible to other classmates made students pay more attention to grammar and the content of information shared in the lab (i.e. results, discussion, etc…).
In order to know what the future might have in store for us we need to pay attention to current trends. Social media has grown exponentially over the last few years. Web 2.0 and social media has changed the way people communicate, and allowed for new types of social interactions.
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| Abstract File: |
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| Concept: |
Assessment of online collaboration in Organic 2 lab class. |
| Special Equipment: |
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| Demo Information: |
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| Requested Duration: |
00:20:00 |
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