Assessment Outcomes Data Report

CHEM 1210 – FALL 2006 

Instructor:  John L Hubbard 

Course  Description: First of a 2-semester sequence covering fundamental chemical principles; including atomic structure, bonding, stoichiometry, elementary reactions, first-law thermodynamics, gas laws, solution properties.

Enrollment: Initial enrollment 339; Graded students at class completion: 321 (5% dropout attrition)

Assessment method: Each of the 3 midterm exams follow 3 weeks of recitation (one hour per week); weekly graded quizzes give students a preview of material for midterm exams. The final exam is comprehensive over the entire semester and the difficulty level of the class is comparable to top-tier universities across the USA.  Student gain-scores can be gauged by the initial performance on the midterm exams versus the final exam performance.  The final exam was comprehensive over the entire course, where identical concepts from midterms are retested. Most students either retained their “average” from the 3 midterm exams (ca. 80%) or improved (ca. 10%).  Approximately 10% of the students lost ground on the final exam. 

     Student participation was monitored by use of WebCT.  Private and open discussions with the students were possible by the email and discussion pages, respectively.  Student performance was correlated with participation on the WebCT.

Outcomes: The overall gpa for the course was 2.4/4.0. 

     Total WebCT “hits” for the 186 pages posted:

            132 postings on the Discussion “Questions asked/Questions Answered” Blog

            109 Student emails received;  126 emails sent to students

Student responses on “Teacher/Course Evaluation” – 210 responses (156 w/ written comments)

      Overall Quality of Course : 4.5/6.0 (std dev 1.01)  (89% rated course at “Good” or better)

      Instructor Effectiveness:  4.3/6.0 (std dev 1.18)   (77% rated instructor at “Good” or better) 

      Breakdown of written comments:

            Positive: Instructor enthusiasm, humor: 76

                        Demonstrations:  51

                       Pace of course: 11

                       Clarity of lectures, notes: 24

                       Desire graded homework: 13 

Summary:   Student participation on WebCT (pages hit, discussions, email) was the highest ever seen. Quantitation of WebCT student- posted questions, as well as careful gauging of individual exam question “difficulty-factors” by the instructor, permits instructor-based reflection on what the students find difficult versus areas where the students are more successful.  The overall student “quality” is typical of the instructor’s previous 22 years of teaching the course (e.g, comparison to gpa values from earlier years).  Weaker students tend to have weaker ability in quantitative (math related) areas.  Stronger students tend to use WebCT more, but this may be self-selection.  Stronger students are more motivated and the use of WebCT may not be a gauge of its usefulness for learning.  The student complaints about the difficulty of course are typical of 22 previous years of instructor experience.  The students request notes to be available before class- but this resulted in lower attendance when this was tried 2 years ago.  The extensive use of lecture demonstrations seems to be successful for emphasizing concepts that can be tested: test questions over concepts from lecture demonstration concepts were answered correctly by more than 80% of the students.  The recitation portion of the course continues to be appreciated- there are few negative comments.  This is especially true when the TA’s are well-prepared and supported by faculty-drafted quizzes.  Effort will be expended to update and clarify the notes in an effort to make the clarity of presented material better.