ChemPaths: Learning to Meander – An Online Portal to ChemEd DL Resources for Intrinsically Linked Learning

An immense number of resources is available online for teaching chemistry and many efforts have gone into incorporating them into textbooks as addendums or into courses as tutorials. As part of the National Science Digital Library (NSDL), the ChemEd DL has begun to catalogue resources and create portals accessible by students and teachers alike. The goal of ChemPaths is to be an online student resource portal that brings text, video, interactive applets, and tutorials together into one cohesive presentation—an online equivalent of a textbook in a traditional course. Beyond putting text and graphics onto the web, ChemPaths intrinsically links textbook sections to other textbook sections and to other tutorial pages dealing with similar topics. The portal allows for easy access for instructors to edit existing material and create their own tutorials. The site is currently in use and its efficacy is being evaluated during the fall semester, 2009.

ChemPaths is being used in lieu of a traditional textbook in one of three sections of a one-semester general chemistry course. To evaluate the effectiveness of ChemPaths as a replacement for the traditional textbook, pre- and post-tests are being used involving both quantitative and qualitative questions on the topics Thermo-chemistry and Chemical Equilibrium. Evaluation will be based on student learning of fundamental quantitative skills as well as conceptual understanding of the topics covered. It is hoped that the research will answer fundamental questions about students’ abilities to learn from online material.