Dr. Noel A. George
Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry & Biology
Course: CHY 103: General Chemistry I
Strategy: Creative approaches to assessments
It took multiple strategies to make General Chemistry 1 work for 800 first-year students attending classes remotely.
First, Noel George wanted to ensure all students had the scientific knowledge they needed before starting the course. So, he taught himself how to create an Open Educational Resource (OER) comprised of review materials. The OER was shared with incoming students over the summer so they could feel prepared on Day One.
When they arrived in class, students were tested on new material together, in breakout rooms, using quizzes created with Google forms. Noel encouraged students to discuss the quiz with each other as they completed it. This way, they could learn from each other and get to know their classmates.
In addition to the OER and collaborative quizzes, students completed a project called “Molecules around us.” This project gave students creative freedom to apply what they had learned to real-world scenarios. The project also took some of the weight off the traditional assessments, like the final exam.