Seminar Next Thursday: The Impact of an Online Pre-course on Lowering DFW Rates in First Semester Organic Chemistry

Title:
The Impact of an Online Pre-course on Lowering DFW Rates in First Semester Organic Chemistry

Abstract:
Students’ retention of key concepts from general chemistry is necessary to be successful in organic chemistry. For a variety of reasons, students often lack these prerequisite skills. Recently, Fisher et al. (2019) described creating a low-cost, LMS-mediated, online preparatory course for first semester organic chemistry (OCHEM-I), which targeted improving prerequisite skills from general chemistry. The author’s found that both well- and underrepresented students who completed the pre-course had equal learning gains in their subsequent OCHEM-I courses, and women were more likely to enroll in the pre-course. Drawing on this previous study, I designed a similar intervention consisting of an optional 3-week online summer/winter preparatory course for students who enrolled in OCHEM-1 at the University of Nebraska in either Fall 2021 or Spring 2022. In this presentation, I will 1) compare the background characteristics of students that completed the pre-course to those who did not, 2) compare differences in background characteristics between students in the leading (Fall) versus trailing (Spring) sections of the course, and 3) describe the impact of pre-course enrollment on course outcomes controlling for factors such as GPA, gender identity, race-ethnicity, and first-generation status.

Date: Thursday, March 2, 2023 from 2-3 pm
Place: 109 Bessey Hall or via Zoom at
https://unl.zoom.us/j/212107342