The laboratory has occupied an important place in the general chemistry curriculum for well over a century, despite the fact that many have voiced concern about its value and utility. In an effort to potentially increase capacity in our general chemistry courses, we developed and implemented a hybrid laboratory curriculum that consisted of alternating face-toface and virtual laboratory experiments. This study sought to better understand the impact that this hybrid approach had on students' cognitive, affective, and psychomotor learning. The results suggest that students taught using the hybrid approach developed similar cognitive and psychomotor skills in comparison to students taught using a traditional laboratory curriculum; however, their affective outlook toward chemistry was significantly lower.
Mastering the ability to construct and manipulate Lewis structures is an important first step along the journey to reaching representational competence. Lewis structures serve as a convenient organizational scheme that can help students to scaffold their chemical knowledge and help them to apply it to predict a variety of physical and chemical properties. Our previous research documented the many problems that students encountered in developing these skills and suggested that cognitive load may play an important role in the successful construction of Lewis structures. This study sought to better understand the structural characteristics and complexities that contributed significantly to the cognitive load of chemistry students drawing Lewis structures and to determine how those load-inducing characteristics changed as students gained additional chemical expertise. The results of the inquiry show that the inclusion of nearly any structural characteristic induced a significant increase in cognitive load for novice chemistry students, but these trends are mitigated as students gain additional chemical expertise.
In recent decades, technology has
become a constant presence in
the chemistry classroom with online homework extensively used in many
programs. Although research has pointed to both increased course performance
and better study habits in classes that utilize online homework, little
work has explored the extraneous load that these platforms place on
the learner’s working memory. Cognitive load theory suggests
that optimal learning occurs when sufficient capacity is available
in working memory to process new information, and as such, it is important
that extraneous load be minimized. This research study compared the
extraneous load placed on working memory as students constructed Lewis
structures under three conditions: using pen-and-paper, using beSocratic, or using a traditional, button-driven online
homework system. The results showed that the traditional online homework
system induced a statistically significantly larger extraneous load
than the other two drawing formats.
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