Sponsor
Portland State University. Department of Chemistry
First Advisor
Jack Barbera Jr.
Date of Publication
Fall 11-22-2019
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Chemistry
Department
Chemistry
Language
English
Subjects
Chemistry -- Study and teaching, Chemistry -- Experiments -- Methodology
DOI
10.15760/etd.7213
Physical Description
1 online resource (vii, 193 pages)
Abstract
As more students enroll in chemistry courses, institutions are faced with increasing costs and limited laboratory space to keep up with the demand. One solution some institutions have turned to is the incorporation of virtual experiments into the curriculum, as this can lower costs and increase the availability of laboratory space. Some institutions have offered sections that complete all of their experiments in a virtual environment, others have offered sections that alternate between a traditional hands-on experiment and a virtual experiment, and some institutions have replaced only select experiments throughout the curriculum with a virtual experiment. To begin to be able to assess the affective outcomes in laboratory settings that include virtual experiments, six existing affective scales were modified for use in the laboratory setting. Sufficient evidence of the reliability and validity of the data from the existing scales was found. The functioning scales were then used to assess the affective outcomes of a Beer's Law experiment, a calorimetry experiment, and a titration experiment in both a hands-on and virtual learning environment. To assess the cognitive outcomes in these experiments, rubrics based on common learning objectives were used to determine if students in both learning environments were able to meet instructors' learning objectives for the experiment. The affective and cognitive outcomes were compared for each experiment to determine whether there was a difference between learning environments and also across the three experiments. The findings of this work are presented throughout this dissertation.
Rights
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Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/30696
Recommended Citation
Hensen, Cory Jerome, "Assessing the Efficacy of Virtual Experiments in the General Chemistry Laboratory" (2019). Dissertations and Theses. Paper 5340.
https://doi.org/10.15760/etd.7213