The Challenges and Value of Undergraduate Oral Exams in the Physical Chemistry Classroom: A Useful Tool in the Assessment Toolbox

The COVID-19 pandemic illuminated challenges with assessment, especially in online environments that threaten academic integrity. In the wake of the pandemic, faculty in higher education were seeking alternative assessments that meet the assessment goal(s) of their classroom. Even though the COVID-based disruptions are diminishing, higher education continues to experience ongoing upheaval related to new technology, such as ChatGPT, requiring ongoing reevaluation of our assessment practices. Upon reflecting on our assessment goals, we explored oral exams as a potentially valuable tool in the assessment toolbox in Physical Chemistry I and II courses at two institutions. In analyzing the course evaluation data at both institutions, we found consistent themes in student-perceived challenges, student-perceived value, and instructor-perceived value. Students had an overwhelmingly positive response to the oral exam experience and recommended their continued use in spite of their perceived challenges. Students found the oral exams challenging due to the stress and anxiety of verbal presentation and the depth of understanding required to answer questions verbally. In response to these challenges, students adjusted their study habits to incorporate studying in groups, verbally speaking out loud, utilizing spaced practice methods, and focusing on understanding concepts and equations instead of relying on memorization of material. Considering the challenges and required adjustment in study habits, students still overwhelmingly recommend using oral exams because they recognize the value of communication and teamwork in their future careers. In addition to student value, the instructors found value in oral assessments, despite the challenges with time commitments, validity, reliability, and fairness. We believe oral assessments in undergraduate chemistry curricula warrant further investigation as a useful tool in the assessment toolbox. © 2023 American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.

Approaches to Promoting Student Engagement in Organic Chemistry Before, During, and After the COVID-19 Pandemic: Insights and Reflections

Active engagement is critical to student success in Organic Chemistry. In this paper, I trace the trajectory of student engagement in an introductory organic chemistry lecture series over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. I detail my approach to cultivating student engagement in an online environment, evaluate the success of these approaches and discuss modifications, and recount our efforts to combat the "learned disengagement” that students exhibited upon returning to an in-person class format. Although engagement gradually dwindled over the course of online instruction, multiple interventions succeeded in maintaining a sense of classroom community in students and encouraging active participation. By building opportunities for engagement into the course structure and rewarding students who partake in class activities, I hope to once again enjoy the level of engagement that we had prior to the pandemic. © 2022 American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.

Differences in Chemistry Instructor Views of Assessment and Academic Integrity as Highlighted by the COVID Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic confronted chemistry instructors worldwide with many new challenges as they were quickly required to make the shift to remote instruction. One of these challenges was administering assessments in an online format. This was the topic of many discussions in the online support group Strategies for Teaching Chemistry (SFTC). This study aimed to analyze the discussions taking place in SFTC that focused on assessment and academic integrity. A phenomenographic analysis was conducted in order to identify the different philosophies of assessment expressed by members of the online SFTC community. Constructivism and behaviorism were used as a lens to characterize instructors' ideas about assessment and examine how these ideas intersect with issues of academic integrity. Finally, results were analyzed via the fraud triangle to offer implications for mitigating cheating and promoting an environment of academic integrity. The results indicate that an instructor's methods to promote academic integrity in their classroom are influenced by their teaching philosophy and their beliefs about assessment. © 2022 American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.

Evaluating and Improving Questions on an Unproctored Online General Chemistry Exam

Administering exams in large enrollment courses is challenging and systems in place for accomplishing this task were upended in the spring of 2020 when a sudden transformation to online instruction and testing occurred due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the following year, when courses remained online, approaches to improve exam security included measures like using test banks and reducing the allotted time for completing exams to reduce the sharing of information. A psychometric comparison using classical test theory of an unproctored online exam with one delivered in-person indicates both have comparable reliability. However, item-level analysis demonstrates some questions performed higher in the unproctored setting, with an important variable being the item's searchability online. Revising questions to increase generalizability and reduce searchability mitigate these performance differences. Further, changing the format for questions involving calculations from multiple-choice to open response with random number generation was found to increase difficulty and item discrimination and is a viable approach for improving exam security. © 2022 Authors.

Outcome-Based Redesign of Physical Chemistry Laboratories During the COVID-19 Pandemic

We reported a redesign of a physical chemistry laboratory course (CHEM 166) for our chemistry majors at the University of Vermont carried out during the COVID-19 pandemic. We started to teach this course after a curriculum reform, which split an upper-division undergraduate laboratory course into physical and analytical chemistry laboratories. To address both traditional challenges in course implementation and student engagement as well as additional constraints imposed by the pandemic, an outcome-based approach was applied to better integrate CHEM 166 with the existing physical chemistry curriculum. We developed clear learning objectives for the entire laboratory course, revised each experiment to align those objectives, and provided students with a coherent experience to explore the structure-properties relationships of model molecules. According to direct and indirect assessments, the students taking CHEM 166 in Spring 2021 have achieved the overall learning objectives, indicating a success of the course redesign. While some aspects of the redesign associated with the pandemic (e.g., additional safety measures) may subside, we discuss how other pandemic-related components that were integrated during the redesign will be carried forward based on their apparent positive impacts. In general, this redesign established an integrated structure for students to enhance the physical chemistry learning experience, while also creating new opportunities for practicing advanced skills in scientific communication, problem solving, and critical thinking. This work, as a useful example of outcome-based course design, can be readily adopted by other institutions and for other chemistry laboratory courses.