(A paper presented at the CAUSE/CNI Southeast Regional Conference, "Teaching and Learning in Cyberspace", Roanoke, Virginia, September 11-13, 1996)

Abstract: This paper presents my experience with using a number of different technologies in a freshman chemistry class, General Chemistry 1035 at Virginia Tech in the Spring of 1996. All lectures were generated with computer presentation software and presented to the class using computer projection equipment. The lecture notes were then made available on a WWW site as well as problem sets, problem set solutions, exam solutions, and student scores. The course also utilized email, a class listserv list and a local newsgroup. All of these technologies, or just one or two of them, can easily be folded into a traditional lecture course. I will discuss some of the plusses and minuses of these technologies from my viewpoint and also relate the students' viewpoints based on a questionnaire that they filled out.

I. Introduction

In the Spring of 1996, I was assigned to teach a section of our General Chemistry course, Chemistry 1035. This was the "trailer" section of General Chemistry which means that most of the people taking this course had taken it at least once before and had either failed it or dropped it. The class consisted of approximately 300 students of widely varying backgrounds from just about every possible major on campus. The class is taught in a very large lecture hall that would more appropriately be called a theater. I was faced with the need to try and make the presentation material easily readable for those students in the back of the hall as well as the need to try and interact on a more than superficial level with that large number of students. In several different ways, computer technology and cyberspace allowed me to try and meet all of those needs. In the following sections I will discuss my experience with this class. I will relate how I used computer generated overheads and then used computer projection equipment to show them. I made these lecture notes as well as the course syllabus, problem sets and solutions and exam solutions available on a course world wide web site. I also made extensive use of email (and a class listserv list) and a class newsgroup was set up locally for the course.

II. Information Technologies Used

A. Computer Generated Overheads. There are no blackboards in McBryde 100 (the lecture hall for this course) and it would be very difficult to see a blackboard from the back of the hall. So, the usual way for the traditional lecture to be carried out in this room is with the use of two overhead projectors spaced to project side by side on a large screen on the stage. The professor can then write on blank transparencies or use pre-made transparencies for the lecture. I was concerned about having consistently readable text if I were to write on blank transparencies while I was lecturing (which is my usual teaching style.) I decided that I would need to make lecture overheads ahead of time with large font sizes so that anyone could see them clearly from the back of the room. My software choice at this point was Microsoft Powerpoint 3.0, a choice influenced in no small part by that package's ability to easily handle superscripts and subscripts, a must for a chemical lecture.

The following is an example of a lecture slide.

I found the outlining feature of the software to be particularly useful for organizing each lecture. Then, once the main thoughts were placed in the outline, each individual slide for each of those thoughts could be embellished. I could bring in chemical figures from other software programs or bring in material that was scanned in from printed sources. It was no more difficult to put my lectures together in this fashion than by sitting down with pen and paper.

It was my original intent to make hard-copy overhead transparencies from this program and then show them using the overhead projectors in the lecture hall. However, during the past year, Virginia Tech has been carrying out a program of placing computers and computer projection equipment in major lecture halls and I discovered that McBryde Hall had such a set-up. So, instead of making hard copies, I decided to use the projection equipment.

B. Computer Projection. One immediate advantage of using computer projection is that the full color of the original slides comes through and so you can use color to highlight important points. In addition, the presentation software allows one to "click" through the lecture as a slide presentation. Each point on a slide can be "built" one at a time. With the addition of an infrared sensor to the computer, the slide advance can be controlled from anywhere on the stage and the lecturer is not restricted to staying at the computer. The use of the computer also allows movies and sounds to be built right into the presentation. With the particular setup in this lecture hall, the projector was very bright and so the hall lights did not have to be dimmed.

C. World Wide Web Site. Once the lecture notes were in a computer format, it was an easy extension to make the class notes available to the students on a WWW site. I made the notes available a day or two before lecture so the students could print them out and use them as templates for their in-class note taking. These lecture notes were prepared, as noted above, using PowerPoint and they were made available on the web site in Adobe Acrobat pdf format. I made them available in two different forms, both easily accessible from the print command of Powerpoint. The first form had one lecture slide per page for those students who wanted a lot of extra room to write on the sheets. The second form had six slides printed on each 8.5 x 11" sheet of paper for those students who didn't want to print out a lot of pages.

(The following require Adobe Acrobat Reader to view)

See a sample of the normal format for lecture notes: Normal Notes

See a sample of the compressed format for lecturen notes: Compressed Notes

Once the world wide web site was up and running, then other material could be placed on the site for the students' use. Information on the site included the course syllabus, information about the course newsgroup, problem set worked solutions, exam worked solutions and a link to the students' grades.

Visit the Web Site at: http://www.chem.vt.edu/chem-dept/merola/1035/merola.html

D. Class Listserv List. Virginia Tech has made it very easy to set up a class listserv list based on the class roster. Since each Virginia Tech student is assigned an email id when they enroll, all students have the potential to access email. A simple request to the listserv coordinator on campus sets up the list for the class for the semester. Thus, with one message sent to the list, that message is transmitted to all students. For a small class this may not be so important, but for a large class of 300, this was essential.

E. Class Newsgroup. Again, the news coordinator for the campus has made it very easy to set up a local vt.class.* newsgroup for use by the class during the semester. A simple email request has the class established a day or two later. Students can then post questions to the group and it gives (and I encouraged) other students to try and answer questions.

In order to ensure that my students were capable of taking advantage of the above technologies, I publicized the schedule of help sessions available from the University to give new students information about how to use email and such. Also, in the second week of class, I devoted an entire lecture to a step-by-step demonstration of email, accessing world wide web pages, accessing the newsgroup, etc.

I must also point out that all of the above were in addition to the traditional sorts of activities that I try in order to help my students. While I used the computer system to show some movie clips, I also did numerous in-class live demonstrations of chemical concepts. I also schedule quite a number of "help" session each week where the students could come and ask me to work out some problems in detail. These were relatively well attended, but there were generally no more than 30-50 of the 300 students at any help session. I also had a very liberal office hour policy.

III. Personal Perceptions: The Plusses and Minuses

In this section, I will give my own (highly personal) feelings concerning the benefits and drawbacks of using these technologies.

A. Computer Generation of Overheads. I am a person who is very comfortable with a computer and I type and manipulate computer images with ease. So, for me, it was quite natural and easy to put together lectures using the computer. Putting together an outline for each lecture and then "fleshing out" the slides helped me to keep the lectures organized and to the point. One big plus that I see for the future is that it will be extremely easy to revise this course and keep it fresh. One drawback is that I was tied to the computer for preparing my lectures. To accommodate my lifestyle, this necessitated that I have a computer at home as well as in my office. (A laptop computer might be a good purchase in this case.) So, the equipment costs for such a method of operating could get to be quite large. Add to this the need for a scanner, equipment costs can be quite high for a given individual.

B. Computer Projection of Lectures. I found that computer projection of lecture material fit very well with my lecture style and so I liked it very much. I should mention at this time that I did not completely abandon the old ways. Right next to the computer projection on the screen I had a traditional old overhead projector so that I could embellish points by hand. There are several potential pitfalls in the use of computer projection. First, you have to resist the tendency to zip through the material faster than the students can absorb it (this is not unique to computer projection but is a danger for any pre-prepared slides.) Second, if you are counting on using a computer and projector, they had better work. I can think of nothing worse than coming to class only to find that the computer or projector was out of order. At Virginia Tech, an audio-visual support person was assigned to be there for everyone of my lectures to set up the computer, the projector and make sure all was well. For smaller institutions, this might not be possible. Also, it is very important that the projection be bright and readable without dimming or turning off the classroom lights. The first generation of LCD panels for overhead projection over which we went wild just a couple of years ago seem now totally inadequate. If we have to darken the room, we will lose quite a number of students and it just won't be a good experience for the rest. All of this translates into quite a large cost both in terms of the projection equipment and support for that equipment.

C. World Wide Web Site. It was very easy for me to set up and maintain the world wide web page for the course. The Chemistry Department has its own web server which was set up by Professor Brian Tissue (to whom I am greatly indebted). However, professors in smaller departments on campus can get space on the library web server for courses, so there is no problem in finding places to put the material. I view the web page as the cyberspace analog of the bulletin board outside my office. Instead of tacking problem solutions to the bulletin board, I place them on the web site. I don't see very many disadvantages to the web site approach. Some colleagues have told me that they want to force their students to come by their office to see things and then maybe they will stop in and ask questions. My experience in teaching this same course previously without web pages is that this just doesn't happen. So, anything that I can do to encourage the students to take advantage of this added information is a plus. I can also compare the web page material to hard-copy material that I have placed on reserve at the library. When I taught this course previously in the Spring of 1994, I placed much of the same information on hardcopy and put it on reserve in the library reserve desk. When a student reviews this material, they must sign it out and these sign-out sheets are given to the faculty member at the end of the semester and this gives an indication of the number of "hits" this material is getting. The hardcopy reserve material usually only had a dozen or so students viewing it. On the other hand, the web page for my course had in the range of 500-1000 hits per week.

D. Class Listserv List. This was a big plus in my mind, with a couple of minor reservations. It was very easy to have a list established at Virginia Tech, but there were still a number of students who, even though they have been issued an email id, didn't take advantage of it. I had to remind students at just about every class to read their email. The other reservation is that, for a class as large as this one, I quickly discovered that I had to be the moderator for the list and not let students just send to the list directly. An unfortunate situation rose early where one student wrote that she thought I was going a bit too fast in lecture. A number of others immediately wrote and criticized the first student for thinking that and it went downhill from there. A moderated list worked out much better.

E. Class Newsgroup. While the concept was a good one, there were a couple of issues that kept this from being as useful as it might have been. First, the inability to post chemical equations (using superscripts and subscripts) was something of a drawback. The more important drawback, though, was the students' lack of familiarity with the concept. While it was relatively easy to show the student how to use a web browser and how to get to a particular web address, subscribing to a newsgroup and taking advantage of it posed a slightly higher level of difficulty that limited its usefulness. I think now, with the advent of web page based chat forums, this might be more useful in the future.

IV. Student Perceptions

At around mid-term and at the end of the term, I asked the students to answer a questionnaire concerning the course and about the technologies that we used in the course. The following was the wording of the survey:

"For the following questions, tell me about the usefulness of some of the procedures followed in this class on a scale of 1-10 with 1 meaning not useful at all, and 10 meaning very useful and numbers in between meaning different degrees of usefulness.

1. How useful do you find email for asking the instructor questions?

2. How useful do you find email for getting news and information from the instructor?

3. How useful do you find the newsgroup for asking questions about course material?

4. How useful do you find the newsgroup for getting news and information from the instructor?

5. How useful do you find the web page overall?

6. How useful do you find the class notes which are available on the web page?

7. How useful do you find the problem sets and solutions on the web page?

8. How useful do you find the exam solutions on the web page?

9. How useful do you find the score postings on the web page?

10. How useful do you find the problem sessions?

11. How useful do you find the instructor's office hours?"

The total number of respondents for the questionnaire was 254 out of the 300 enrolled, so the responses represent the bulk of the students in the class. In the following sections, I will graphically present the results of the survey for each question and make a few comments.

1. How useful do you find email for asking the instructor questions?

The mean response for this question was 7.1, and the chart shows that, while there was a large number who found it very useful ( 85 "10" responses) there was a large fraction who were neutral or didn't find it useful at all. (73 responses of 1-5).

2. How useful do you find email for getting news and information from the instructor?

Here, the response was much more positive. The mean response was 8.3 and the number of "10" responses was 124. Overall, students liked email more for finding out information from me.

3. How useful do you find the newsgroup for asking questions about course material?

The mean response here was only 5.7. I think this reflects my beliefs that the students found it difficult to use the newsgroup and just weren't familiar enough with the concept of newsgroups to take advantage of it.

4. How useful do you find the newsgroup for getting news and information from the instructor?

The mean response to this question was 6.3. The distribution above shows that most really didn't find the newsgroup very useful.

5. How useful do you find the web page overall?

There was an overwhelming positive response to the use of the web material overall. The mean response was an 8.8 and the distribution above clearly shows most of the students found the web page very useful.

6. How useful do you find the class notes which are available on the web page?

The mean response to this question was 8.4.

7. How useful do you find the problem sets and solutions on the web page?

The mean response here was 8.7.

8. How useful do you find the exam solutions on the web page?

The mean response was 8.6.

9. How useful do you find the score postings on the web page?

I guess I shouldn't be too surprised that the biggest positive response from the students dealt with finding their grades on the web pages. This had a mean response of 8.3 and you can see that 187 of the 254 responders rated this feature a "10".

10. How useful do you find the problem sessions?

Mean response was 7.7.

11. How useful do you find the instructor's office hours?"

Mean response was 6.6.

The last two questions were not on the technology, but on the more traditional kinds of ways that we can try to enrich the students' class experience. The contrast in response for questions 10 and 11 with many of the other questions lies at the heart of what we are calling "asynchronous learning." My schedule for hours and problem sessions may not nicely dovetail with my students' schedules. Due to class schedules, work schedules, sports schedules, etc., many students just couldn't take advantage of some of the more personal offerings that I made. However, at 3:00 am, they could take advantage of the web page and did.

V. Conclusions

The experience described above really is just for one professor and one course. Nevertheless, there are some lessons that we can take from this in a general sense. I think that various computer technologies can be a very rewarding and enriching supplement to many of the traditional approaches to teaching large lecture classes. I can't say that the use of the computer has saved me any time, but it has enabled me to reach more of my students than I could using the more traditional means. I firmly believed that it has made my class better and the student responses clearly support that view.

What about the part of my title that says "You can walk before you run?" What is that all about? Talking about technology, asynchronous learning, web-based courses, etc. is all the rage today. Someone who has not yet taken the plunge sees a whole world of glitz and sparkle with multimedia web pages thrown at them. Frankly, a number of my colleagues are intimidated by this and feel that they really can't do that stuff. But, the important thing is that you don't have to do all that stuff. Computer technology to enhance your class can be folded in gradually and at a minimal level. Perhaps the expanded use of email to begin with. Then, as the instructor gets more comfortable, maybe a web site with some introductory information. Then, more offerings depending upon the experience of the instructor. These are all great tools for reaching our students and the fact that you may feel inadequate to jump in and use them all shouldn't be reason for not using some of them.

Acknowledgments.

In offering this course in the Spring of 1996, I have to acknowledge the efforts of two individuals without whose help this experience would have been much less fulfilling. First, my chemistry colleague Professor Brian Tissue who set up the Chemistry Department web server and who is doing some tremendous course development in hypermedia. I also owe a great deal to Larry Pearson from Media Services who made sure the computer and projection equipment in McBryde 100 was always ready for me to give my lecture. His efforts spared me the embarrassment of having to show shadow puppets for an entire lecture.