Reaching the MassesMetacognition and Technology in large (>350 student) General Chemistry Lectures

AKA: What to do when you literally have a stage to teach on?!?

Variety of StudentsTypical course set-up – fall 2015 –

General Chemistry ITotal students 1830 (male: 1156;

female; 674)Underrepresented Minority (202)

First Generation (334)Veteran (45)

Transfer student (117)International (61)

58%39%

2%1%

2016-2017 Classes High School Chemistry Prep

(614 Responses)

AP/Honors/advanced

Traditional

General Science

Nothing

KISS

I try to engage with the class by including small personal touches. Why?

The “M” wordFOR STUDENTS FOR ME

I try to mimic metacognition by showing students I think about my teaching.

Early, mid, and late-term feedback• Post “confusing topic” videos

• Short in-class announcement/responses

Learning Assistants

• If you do not have an undergraduate learning assistant for your course – request one now!

Communication

• Starfish (or a similar system) is very useful• Office Hour Scheduling

• Can even set it up for TAs!

• Increased/more useful office hour attendance

• Early Alert System (Flags and Kudos)• Easy personalized communication

• Advisors can follow up

• LMS is main student guide

With Students With Colleagues

• BOX (UC enterprise system)

Standardization (metacognition for the teaching team)• Working towards common “daily learning objectives” and common exams

• ACS Exam data• National standardized chemistry exam used as the final exam• 70 M.C. Questions• National Averages

• General Chemistry I• Form 2012: 38.60

• Form 2009: 37.13

• General Chemistry II• Form 2010: 36.19 • General chemistry I (Me)

– Spring 2015 (off – sequence); 30.89 – Form 2012– Fall 2015; 38.15 – Form 2012 UC – 40.2average– Fall 2016; 41.83 – Form 2009 UC – 41.9 average

• General chemistry II – all Form 2010 (Me)– Fall 2014; 154 students (off – sequence); 33.01– Spring 2016; 38.8 – Current (Spring 2017); 40

Student End of Course Thoughts (614 Reponses)

0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350

Unanswered

No confidence

No particularly Confident

Neutral

Confident

Very Confident

Chemistry Confidence (614 Responses)

Confidence Level in Chemistry Knowledge BEFORE Starting College

Confidence Level in Chemistry Knowledge AFTER taking UC chemistry

38%

54%

8%

0%

Has your opinion of chemistry and/or science in general changed throughout the course of taking

general chemistry at UC?

No, stayed the same

Yes, I now have a higheropinion of chemistry/science

Yes, I now have a loweropinion of chemistry/science

Unanswered

29%

43%

23%

4%

1%

What impact has general chemistry at UC had on your college/career preparedness?

I feel much better prepared to succeed in college and mycareer having taken this class

I feel somewhat better prepared to succeed in college and mycareer having taken this class.

Neutral - the class was part of a requirement - it served it'spurpose to move me forward towards my future goals but Idon't have strong feelings either way about itI don't understand why general chemistry was even arequirement for me - there was no point to me having takenthis classI actually feel less prepared for college/my career having takenthis class

Future Thoughts• WebEx Office Hours

• Integrate “Teach Students How To Learn” by Sandra Yancy McGuire

Some specific tech I use/like• Wacom tablet – expensive but nice for someone with terrible hand writing (I’ve found it to be just like writing

on paper)

• Camtasia – solid video editing program (again on the expensive side). Has a lot of bells and whistles to make things look professional

• Kaltura – video creation/integration to Blackboard – UC enterprise system. Not all the bells and whistles of Camtasia but works great for quick videos uploaded to an LMS.

• I’ve been using clickers although I’m currently shopping around various cheaper alternatives

• IPad and IPad apps• Linking Starfish to IPad calendar!• Generally using the “airplay” feature to display demos/other things during class• Clips app – not a ton of features but automatically does closed captioning so very nice for short videos• Khan Academy• Chemistry specific: CHEM101 (I piloted this fall 2016); K12 Periodic Table of the Elements

• BOX and Starfish as mentioned

THANKS – I’m happy to answer any questions!