Understanding student use of resources in “rich-media” courses

There is a current trend in course development to increase the number of “rich-media” items available to students; these include items like key-concept videos, interactive activities and quizzes, and even captures of the full lectures. It is therefore important to understand which of these resources students use and gain value from so that we can target the best resources for student learning.This paper looks at several courses taught in the School of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science at The University of Manchester to several year groups; including lecture based courses, distance learning courses, and non-lecture based activities; that contain “rich-media” resources. The use of these items by students is examined; including number of uses, time of use, and local retention. The student opinion on the items and how they felt they have affected their learning is also analysed. This allows results to be presented on the most useful types of resource for students providing information for future development.     

“学生讲授,教师点评”在生物类专业《无机及分析化学》教学中的应用

传统的课堂教学,是以"教师灌输知识,学生被动接受"为主要方法的"一言堂"教学模式。为了打破了这种传统教学模式,作者对生物类专业大一学生《无机及分析化学》课堂教学进行了教学改革,对某些简单章节进行了"学生讲授,教师点评"的教学方法。学生问卷及调查结果表明,采取这种教学方法,能够充分发挥学生学习的主观能动性,让学生明白大学学习方法,而且通过查阅课外资料也开拓学生的视野,提高了学生的学习兴趣。     

Chemical engineering design project undertaken through remote learning

The design project represents the culmination of a chemical engineering student’s degree, which is intended to enable students to demonstrate technical competency and achieve team-based learning outcomes. Conventionally the design project is taught through face-to-face learning, however recent circumstances around Covid-19 have required engineering degrees to pivot to remote learning and here the outcome of chemical engineering design project taught through remote learning is reported. The class was tasked with designing processes for vitamin B2, B3 or E production, based on teams of 5 students. The structure of the design project consisted of three major assessments tasks around process feasibility and development, unit operation designs and economics, with students required to undertake group as well as individual assessments. The process by which the design project was taught remotely is presented here; in terms of educator-student engagements, promotion of student interaction within teams, online tools and ensure students had access to appropriate software. The outcome was a successful final year design project for chemical engineering students, which achieved comparable performance outcomes to previous years’ face-to-face teaching as well as demonstration that student interactions within teams are vital to a successful outcome.     

课堂教学奖惩机制建立及实施效果评价——以无机及分析化学为例

课堂教学是本科教学的重要组成部分,是学生获取知识和教师传授知识的主要途径。课堂教学效果的好坏直接影响到学生培养质量的优劣。针对当前课堂教学中存在的突出矛盾,文章提出了实施课堂教学奖惩机制,激励学生的学习兴趣,约束学生的学习行为,引导学生树立合理的学习诉求,因而改善课堂教学效果。     

谈三本《化工原理》的教学方法

结合三本学生的特点和《化工原理》课程的重要性和专业性,从上好绪论课、精炼教学内容入手,运用探究式、类比式、启发式、归纳式、互动式等教学方法,调动学生的学习兴趣,激发学生的潜能,师生共同努力提高了化工原理课程的教学效果。     

A detailed anatomy of students’ perception of engagement and their learning a threshold concept in core chemical engineering

An attempt has been made to reveal a detailed anatomy of students’ self-perceived engagement with material in a lecture and their learning of a key course threshold concept. A cohort of 80 students in a third year chemical engineering (64% response rate) course voluntarily recorded their engagement using a Likert-type scale at intervals of 5 min in a (nominally 50 min) lecture, together with written comments. Marks were awarded for a substantial, follow-up summative assignment to test their understanding of the threshold concept. It was found students were highly unaligned in their level of engagement with the lecture. A key reason was that individuals’ engagement varied highly significantly during the lecture. Six engagement styles were identified. Some 33% exhibited Type 1 (engage strongly at the start and slowly disengage) and 23% exhibited Type 2 (remain at a more or less fixed engagement). Significantly, there was no correlation between students’ engagement scores and marks awarded; in particular there was no correlation with specific lecture intervals in which material was identified as most important. Further, there was no correlation between the number of written comments made by an individual and their marks. It is concluded that student self-perceived engagement is not a good predictor of learning as assessed by marks awarded on a summative assignment. It is not known whether student engagement is predicated on particular lecture material and type of lecturer, or other contributing factors. The experimental design could be readily widely applied.     

Engaging students to shape their own learning: Driving curriculum re-design using a theory of change approach

Curriculum review is challenging, although if carried out strategically can be less so. The adoption of a theory of change approach for reviewing a chemical engineering curriculum at a research-intensive university in the UK is discussed. The curriculum review was undertaken as part of an institutional drive to modularise the curricula and align the number of contact and independent study hours for all undergraduate students in the institution. At the heart of our curriculum review is the student experience, which is often ignored in favour of the views of institutional management. The curriculum has been redesigned using a theory of change approach, which has enabled us to establish short and long-term plans based on our efforts to create a less burdensome, student-centred curriculum that incorporates our institutional learning and teaching strategy. As part of the process, assumptions needed to be surfaced, meaningful evidence collated, and a central end-goal identified These plans are evidence-based and include: the provision of a departmental wellbeing advisor, the application and development of interactive pedagogies, appropriate mechanisms that support slow learning through formative assessment and less of an assessment burden, and nurturing links with industry-based partners ensuring a greater emphasis on students’ professional development and their exposure to chemical engineering industries.     

Learning: Student-centred vs teacher-centred

The paper differentiates student centred learning from teacher centred learning, identifies the continuum of factors which contributes to these and provides a self evaluation questionnaire to enable one to judge the extent to which one is ‘teacher-centred’ or ‘student-centred’ in their approach to student learning.     

Off-campus but hands-on: Mail out practicals with synchronous online activities during COVID-19

This paper discusses alternatives to on-campus teaching laboratories, to allow for hands-on learning for remote students. Wholly online practical equivalents have become increasingly popular post-COVID (online simulations or processing experimental data only) which can offer lower overheads and easy scale-up, but often miss hands-on learning outcomes. This paper reviews opportunities for mail-out practicals, where the equipment is delivered to students’ homes, combined with live synchronous learning activities via video streaming or online software. The combination of mail-out experimental kits plus synchronous interactive learning activities creates a host of new opportunities for teaching to remote students. Complimentary online teaching activities could include direct interaction with teaching staff or other students, but it can also be real-time simulations of their experiment. The paper presents a specific case study for a 2nd year undergraduate chemical engineering heat exchanger practical, that facilitated hands-on practical learning with synchronous online activities during COVID-19 campus closure. The paper uses a mixed methods approach in a 2 year study to assess student learning outcomes.     

有机化学互动式教学法的探索和体会

互动式教学关注学生主体性发展,将素质教育体现在课堂教学中。良好的教学效果需要教师和学生共同完成,在教与学上互相促进。本文就有机化学课堂教学如何开展互动式教学进行了初步探讨。     

关于《高分子化学》课程教学的几点思考

高分子化学是高分子材料专业的专业基础课。文章从几个方面对高分子化学课程教学进行初步探索,包括选择教学重点、兴趣点,合理有效利用多媒体与双语教学方式、开展师生互动教学,完善配套的实验与生产实践等,在教学的同时努力提高学生的专业素质。     

CDIO模式下精细化学品工艺学课程教学改革与实践

以CDIO教育理念为指导,针对传统精细化学品工艺学课程存在的问题提出教学改革的具体措施。引入包括＂项目为本＂、＂解难为本＂、和＂互动教学＂等先进的教学方法,引入＂以考代讲＂、＂考评结合＂、＂学生反馈＂等复合式教学环节;完善多元化考核标准和注重理论与实践相结合,培养学生综合能力、创新能力和工程实践能力。     

Teaching chemical engineering using Jupyter notebook: Problem generators and lecturing tools

The primary objective of this study is to develop teaching materials for chemical engineering students (or students pursuing other related B.Sc./M.Sc. degrees) that encourage self-learning to facilitate understanding and the development of problem-solving skills. Tools are oriented to support the teaching of “Introduction to Chemical Engineering” courses to 1^st year B.Sc. students in Chemical Engineering, 2^nd year B.Sc. students in Chemistry, and 3^rd year B.Sc. students in Biochemistry at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM). Problem generators of standard exercises, as an additional complement to the exercises that are used in the lectures, seminars, and assignments to facilitate the learning of the students, have been developed. These generators provide exercises to students with “unlimited” initial values (with certain restrictions). The software that was used to develop these materials was Jupyter Notebook, which runs under the Python 3.6 language. The problem generators can be classified into fixed problem generators, case-based generators, and random problem generators. Additionally, lecturing tools have been developed to support teaching using live/interactive examples. These examples can learning understanding of various topics of the courses.     

Assessing the impact of augmented reality application on students’ learning motivation in chemical engineering

Application of augmented reality (AR) in education has recently grown in interest due to distant, online, and self-directed learning. In this study, the impact of implementing an AR application on chemical engineering students’ learning motivation and performance was assessed. Two interactive AR lessons on common industrial equipment (i.e., centrifugal pump and shell-and-tube heat exchanger) were developed on the EON-XR platform. A cohort of 50 undergraduate chemical engineering students participated in the AR lessons and evaluated its impact on students’ learning motivation and usefulness as a learning resource. The level of students’ learning motivation was assessed with a 16-item questionnaire based on the Instructional Materials Motivation Survey (IMMS) from Keller’s ARCS model, and qualitative questions related to the future of AR technology in chemical engineering education. Results show that 82% of respondents found AR lessons helpful compared to conventional lesson delivery modes, while 92% were supportive for AR lessons to be an additional resource to existing learning materials. These findings demonstrated that AR technology impacted students’ learning motivation positively across multiple constructs, namely ‘Attention’, ‘Relevance’, ‘Confidence’ and ‘Satisfaction’ and showed great potential as an innovative pedagogical advancement in chemical engineering education.     

高校学籍管理与学风建设关系研究

高校学籍管理是学校教育管理和学生管理的一个重要组成部分。学风建设是高校实现教学目标的重要环节。本文概括了两者的内涵,分析了新形势下高校学风建设和学籍管理工作存在的问题以及学籍管理对学风建设的作用,并提出了加强学籍管理,构建优良学风的思考。     

Students’ performance and perceptions on continuous assessment. Redefining a chemical engineering subject in the European higher education area

Chemical Engineering taught as a subject across three Energy Engineering-based degree streams was evaluated considering two cohorts in two consecutive years after the implementation of the Bologna Process in Spain. A regular continuous assessment methodology yielded negative results during the first year. Student insight on course development, own expectations and results, and the evaluation system were then explored via a 33-item survey with participation levels between 41% and 82%. Direct answers were evaluated including rank correlations between all items. The 465 correlation coefficients obtained showed stimulating and unanticipated results. For example, it was shown that a severe grading process (external blame-assignment) was only identified as an explanation for a low mark by those students who performed most poorly in the subject and, therefore, had a poorer understanding of the materials.Besides, the feedback received from students was used to implement several changes in both the teaching practice and the assessment method during the second year, such as incorporating exam-like problems in daily classes and setting two midterm exams instead of the final one. The results registered after the second year pointed to substantial progress in student learning. Pass rates also rose from a 30% in the first academic year to 49% and 58% in the two following ones.     

化工专业的物理化学课程教学

化学工程专业的物理化学教学,应针对物理化学的课程特点,结合学生专业讲述课程主要内容。文章从结合课程系统性特点强调学科框架的重要性、如何提高理论联系实践能力、如何将教学内容与实践结合等几个方面,谈了物理化学课程教学的几点体会,介绍了物理化学课程教学环节中的一些具体做法。教学实践表明:将多种教学方法、手段和教学内容有机地结合,有效地激发了学生的学习兴趣,从而显著提高教学质量。     

浅谈分析化学课程的教学设计——以“酸碱滴定法”教学实践为例

摘以酸碱滴定法为例,浅谈在分析化学课程教学的各个环节,通过合理设计教学过程,更新教学内容、改革教学方式,充分发挥学生的主体作用,调动学生的思维,提高学生学习的主动性和解决问题的能力,培养学生的创新意识和创新能力。     

Application of Near-Infrared Spectroscopy for Evaluation of Drying Stress on Lumber Surface: A Comparison of Artificial Neural Networks and Partial Least Squares Regression

This study aimed to examine the feasibility of evaluating the stress level at the surface of lumber during drying using near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy combined with artificial neural networks (ANNs). Sugi (Cryptomeria japonica D. Don) lumber with an initial moisture content ranging from 41.1 to 85.8% was dried using a commercial drying schedule. An ANN model for predicting surface-released strain (SRS) was developed based on NIR spectra collected from the lumber during drying. The predictive ability of the ANN model was compared with a partial least squares (PLS) regression model.

The ANN model showed good correlation between laboratory-measured SRS and predicted SRS with an R ² of 0.79, a root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) of 0.0009, and a ratio of performance to deviation (RPD) of 1.81. The PLS regression model gave a lower R ² of 0.69, a higher RMSEP of 0.0010, and a lower RPD of 1.38 than the ANN model, suggesting that the predictive performance of the ANN model was superior to the PLS regression model. The SRS evolution during drying as predicted by the models showed a similar trend to the laboratory-measured one. The predicted elapsed times to reach maximum tensile SRS and stress reversal roughly coincided with the laboratory-measured times. These results suggest that NIR spectroscopy combined with multivariate analysis has the potential to predict the drying stress level on the lumber surface and the critical periods during drying, such as the points of maximum tensile stress and stress reversal.     

An effective blended online teaching and learning strategy during the COVID-19 pandemic

The shift to distance teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic brought about a real challenge for both instructors and students. To face these difficulties in teaching undergraduate Chemistry courses at the University of Santo Tomas, a blended learning strategy in the context of teaching and learning of Physical Chemistry 1 and Analytical Chemistry for Chemical Engineering students were employed. Here, we present an online strategy that facilitated the transition from traditional face-to-face learning to full online instruction. This is a five-component blended learning strategy referred to as Discover, Learn, Practice, Collaborate and Assess (DLPCA). In DLPCA, the asynchronous part of the teaching was achieved through broadcast of pre-recorded lecture videos on YouTube to allow students to study and progress with learning at their own pace. The synchronous part of the teaching was conducted using video conferencing platforms, such as Zoom or Google Meet. The DLPCA strategy was presented and discussed to the students prior to its implementation. The analysis of the teaching and learning experience based on three indicators (i) student’s learning experience, (ii) student’s academic performance and (iii) instructor observations showed that DLPCA had a positive impact on students and instructors. The identified challenges were stability of internet connection and instructor’s familiarity with readily available internet-based teaching tools, such as video conferencing software. Instructors must also find means to improve their interaction with students and maintain student interest and engagement during online classes. The survey also indicated that most of the students are satisfied with the DLCPA strategy. Hence, this strategy is considered a manageable and effective alternative that can be adapted to full online instruction to other undergraduate Chemistry lecture courses. Overall, the findings and insights in this study will add valuable resources for further hybrid instruction in the post-COVID-19 time in higher education.