The "Organic Web" as a Teaching Tool

By: Matthew Dintzner
Department of Chemistry

The future of chemistry education will unquestionably be shaped by new electronic technologies, especially innovative use of the Internet to present and navigate course content. For several years I have been developing an on-line resource, called Organic Web, for teaching and learning organic chemistry.

Organic Web is an interactive web site that allows for presentation of course content through a concept-map interface that encourages students to see the "big picture" while also making detailed information accessible through a series of "clicks." The web-like structure of the Internet allows for a much more logical presentation of the subject matter of organic chemistry (which is itself web-like) than is possible with traditional textbooks (even those that have been converted to e-books). Textbooks are linear in structure, by design, and promote memorization or surface learning of the material, which rarely leads to success. While some authors (Paula Bruice, for example) have developed a more mechanistic approach to presenting the material (as opposed to the classic functional group approach), I think that students still struggle with seeing the "forest" (the big picture) through the "trees" (all of the many details). This is not so much a fault of the student as it is a challenge inherent to the subject matter of organic chemistry. I strongly believe this challenge can be overcome by making use of the Internet to more explicitly and clearly present the big picture while making all the details accessible in a more contextual way.

The main page of Organic Web consists of a map of reactions that represents the big picture of organic chemistry; it shows all of the major types of organic compounds (alkanes, alkenes, alkynes, alkyl halides, alcohols, ethers, epoxides, carbonyl compounds and aromatic compounds) connected by the reactions that allow for their inter-conversion. Each compound and each arrow in the map can be "clicked" to open a new page with more detailed content (both written and visual) about that particular compound or reaction.

In summary, Organic Web is a web-based system for presenting the subject matter (course content) of organic chemistry in a non-linear way. This has the advantages of: (1) making the "big picture" more clear; (2) making connections between structure and reactivity more explicit; (3) allowing students to access detailed information more contextually; (4) allowing for seamless incorporation of other electronic technology (animations, whiteboard videos, on-line assessment).

2010 Teaching and Learning Conference COLT Luncheon Panel

The 2010 Faculty Teaching and Learning Conference was a great opportunity for numerous faculty members from across all the DePaul schools and colleges to have a discussion on teaching and learning. The COLT Luncheon Panel brought together those who had won Excellence in Teaching awards together to discuss some of their best practices and teaching strategies.

• Expect a lot, but also give a lot. Make your class challenging, but also ask for student feedback to gauge their comfort with the rigor.
• Structure-offer long-term goals at the beginning of the quarter and short-term goals for each class. Make these explicit
• Revision is part of the assignment process. Design assignments that incorporate opportunities for revision.
• Design your delivery to allow space for students to participate and apply their learning. Consider grading students on their participation.
• Model how you think/learn about your field; do not just deliver your content.
• Use readings that help make real world connections and offer a variety of viewpoints rather than relying solely on a textbook.
• Make students active in your classroom- Allow them to work through problems in your classroom.
• Create a classroom environment in which students are doing the thinking and the work and you act as a facilitator of their thinking.
• Give students specific feedback on aspects that will help students grow as learners; Quick and comprehensive feedback.
• We are ALL responsible for evaluating our own practice regarding teaching and learning.
• Try to be involved in the DePaul community-(e.g., become involved in distance opportunities-travel abroad with students to learn along with them).

We also used Wordle to analyze the frequency of words in the Luncheon Panel notes document (See below for the full document). Words are given a size based on their relative frequency to other words in the document.

Be sure to visit the Conference Program page for the full set of notes from the luncheon panel and presentation materials from many presenters.

Recap: 2010 DePaul Faculty Teaching and Learning Conference

In his keynote address, Dr. Lee Shulman asked the audience, "What happens when design meets chance?"

He explained this statement by recalling the story of Louis Pasteur's discovery of a chicken cholera vaccine. One of Pasteur's assistants had given a group of chickens a small dose of the cholera bacteria instead of the prescribed lethal dose. Long after the lethal dose should have killed the chickens, the chickens were still alive. Upon discovering his assistant's mistake, Pasteur took the opportunity to ask, "Now why might this be so? How is it that they could have survived with just a small dose of cholera?" Thus, a vaccine for chicken cholera was discovered.

Dr. Shulman challenged the audience to teach our students to be prepared for a world, which on the whole is routine and designed, where chance allows the opportunity for serendipity to occur. How can we do this? By attending to three key pillars of a higher education:

Habits of mind - Cultivating deep learning of content knowledge.

Habits of practice - Cultivating a routine that can act fluidly in the world.

Habits of heart - Cultivating an understanding of the importance of a discipline and how to be a socially responsible human being.

Dr. Shulman's full keynote will be available on iTunes U within the next couple of weeks. Be sure to check back on this Blog or the Teaching Commons for availability.

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The Committee on Learning and Teaching luncheon panel featured Mindy Kalchman, School of Educationn; Joshua Jones, College of Computing and Digital Media; Zaya Khananu, School for New Learning; and Michaela Winchatz, College of Communication. Key themes that emerged from the panel:

Create learning environments that speak to your students' personal experiences. By helping relate course content to what they already know and experience, students are better able to construct new knowledge.

Giving feedback is important. Make feedback timely and informative and set expectations for yourself and your students.

Strive to challenge yourself to improve your teaching and your skill set. DePaul is a great place to do that with many opportunities available.

Be explicit in communicating strategies that you employ to succeed in a discipline. This goes for note taking, reading, or communication strategies. Students don't always know how to succeed within a discipline and need to be taught these learning strategies as much as the content.

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For more, take a look at the conference presentation materials that many of the presenters have generously made available.

What did you think of this year's Faculty Teaching and Learning Conference? Feel free to send us your reactions in the comments below.

Over a Cup of Coffee: April 15th Edition

2010 DePaul Faculty Teaching and Learning Conference is tomorrow in the loop campus!

Faculty Focus posts on engaging students using multimodal course design.

Inside Higher Ed Views chronicles a professor as he moves from professor to student and back again.

Tomorrow's professor discusses active ways to discourage cheating and plagiarism through effective course design.

Over a cup of coffee: April 8th edition

The Teaching Commons posts a new video: From Lab to Discussion!

Faculty Focus reminds us that when reviewing online discussion boards, grading and giving feedback on the content over the grammar can promote deeper learning of course content.

The Brigham Young University Center for Teaching and Learning Blog describes student motivation and its effect on course design and teaching.

The University of Venus Blog posts an article on teaching social sciences to engineering students.

Over a cup of coffee: April 1st edition

Inside Higher Ed. reports on what makes for good course design.

Faculty Focus covers what it takes to create a successful blended learning course.

The Teaching Professor summarizes an article that defines criteria for effective SoTL research.