Exploring the Use of an Avatar-Based Online Platform to Facilitate Social Interaction in Laboratory Sessions

Abstract

Online conferencing platforms such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams have been widely adopted as substitutes for physical classes during the COVID-19 pandemic. This dramatic change is accompanied by many challenges for educators to keep their students engaged online and promote live interactions to mimic a real classroom environment. While progress has been made in teaching theoretical concepts in the online setting, teaching laboratory skills online remains challenging. Such skills are usually taught and learned and require a high level of human interaction. Here, we share our experience in designing Gather.town as an online learning space for a laboratory course to facilitate social interactions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Gather.town is a video conferencing platform that allows educators to construct individualized 2D spaces and interact with other people through their avatars. The use of avatars is hypothesized to be the key difference that distinguishes it from traditional video conferencing platforms. Gather.town has also been explored by researchers from other fields to be able to enhance online learning through improved interaction between students but not yet in the chemistry education space. Empirical evidence shows that students agree that the designed Gather.town has increased social interaction in the time of online learning.

An Interdisciplinary Study of Perceptions, Efficacy, and Adaptation in Pandemic Pedagogy Supported by the Institutional Data Lake

“…Some of the common sources of distraction includes sending online messages 31 , checking notifications 32 , as well as distractions from noisy environments 33 . In addition, students often did not turn on their webcam during online synchronous classes due to myriad of reasons such as being self-conscious about their appearance, and privacy 34,35 . As a result, many of the course instructors interviewed expressed their frustrations in not being able to see their students' facial expressions to gauge their level of attention.…”

Keeping Analytical Chemistry Training Up-to-Date

“…Given these circumstances, we, a team consisting of analytical chemistry researchers and faculty, would like to offer capillary electrophoresis (CE) and lab-on-a-chip (LOC) technologies, alongside mass spectrometry (MS), as topic recommendations for analytical chemistry instructors to train future-ready graduates (Figure ). These topics are included in a fourth-year undergraduate elective offered at the National University of Singapore (NUS) titled “Advanced Analytical Techniques” as part of the analytical chemistry curriculum, which builds upon third-year undergraduate courses that are both lab-based and non-lab-based courses. − The latter features instrumental analyses showcasing CE, chromatography, thermal analysis, and electroanalytical techniques. Collectively, these courses increase students’ experience of Kolb’s Learning Cycle to a level greater than usual for undergraduates …”