Oftentimes in class, professors are asked, “What can I do to do better in class? Could you offer more practice?” To help answer this question, I was given some great advice by my senior colleague: if you aren’t putting your pen to paper, then you likely aren’t studying organic chemistry sufficiently. During my current semester … Continue reading Success Means That You Put Your Pen to Paper
What Magic Tricks Do Professors Have Up Their Sleeves?
When you think of teaching on a university campus, your thoughts transport you to a classroom filled with chatty students and a collegiate professor. The professor commands the room and facilitates discussion among the students with a balance of comedic discourse and memorable rules of thumb. However, in these recent semesters during the pandemic, professors … Continue reading What Magic Tricks Do Professors Have Up Their Sleeves?
Emergent Remote Teaching
Here in Pennsylvania, class cancellations due to snow are the most challenging part of the spring semester. Days before our college closed due to the pandemic, I joked with a colleague that this could be the first semester without any snow days. Little did I know that within days, I would have a much bigger … Continue reading Emergent Remote Teaching
Online Teaching with Karty’s Text and Smartwork
In my previous post, I wrote about the benefits of teaching organic chemistry with a mechanistic organization. Now, with the COVID-19 virus crossing our country and universities going online in response, I’d like to share how I am using Karty's textbook, bundled with Smartwork’s online homework system, to move my organic chemistry course online. Several years ago, when the first edition of … Continue reading Online Teaching with Karty’s Text and Smartwork
Teaching Mechanistically Online
Like many other faculty, I’ve found myself with two days to switch my organic chemistry II course to an online format. Luckily, I have taught online classes before, although not this particular one, so I was familiar with many of the tools. Here are a few thoughts that I’m keeping central to how I teach … Continue reading Teaching Mechanistically Online
Shifting to an Online Organic Chemistry Course
Like many of you, my organic chemistry course has been thrown off the rails with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. With these changes, we are faced with questions on how to deliver content and assess student learning remotely. How will we give exams, such as the ACS exam? What about lab? How can we walk the … Continue reading Shifting to an Online Organic Chemistry Course
The Plan for My Organic Course During the COVID-19 Crisis
First and foremost, I hope you and your students are all well, and that you stay well through the coronavirus crisis. Like many colleges and universities around the country, my university has gone exclusively to remote learning. We are currently on spring break, and our classes are scheduled to resume on Monday, March 23. I … Continue reading The Plan for My Organic Course During the COVID-19 Crisis
Diving Into Online Learning: The “Deep-End” Version
As we dive off into this strange new time, perhaps the best thing we can do is think of this as an opportunity to engage with our students in new and interesting ways. Since I am teaching from Karty in a “flipped classroom,” recording my lectures is not new. But since I have been doing … Continue reading Diving Into Online Learning: The “Deep-End” Version