Distance Teaching in Chemistry: Opportunities and Limitations

Authors

  • Véronique Breguet Mercier HES-SO University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland, School of Engineering and Architecture Fribourg, Department of Chemistry & Institute of Chemical Technology, Boulevard de Pérolles 80, Fribourg, Switzerland;, Email: veronique.breguetmercier@hefr.ch
  • Ulrich Scholten HES-SO University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland, School of Engineering and Architecture Fribourg, Department of Chemistry & Institute of Chemical Technology, Boulevard de Pérolles 80, Fribourg, Switzerland
  • Richard Baltensperger HES-SO University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland, School of Engineering and Architecture Fribourg, Department of Chemistry & Institute of Chemical Technology, Boulevard de Pérolles 80, Fribourg, Switzerland
  • Ludovic Gremaud HES-SO University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland, School of Engineering and Architecture Fribourg, Department of Chemistry & Institute of Chemical Technology, Boulevard de Pérolles 80, Fribourg, Switzerland
  • Michal Dabros HES-SO University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland, School of Engineering and Architecture Fribourg, Department of Chemistry & Institute of Chemical Technology, Boulevard de Pérolles 80, Fribourg, Switzerland

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.2533/chimia.2021.58

PMID:

33637149

Keywords:

Digital teaching, Distance teaching, Emergency remote teaching, Pedagogic innovation

Abstract

Remote teaching in the tertiary education sector is a relatively common practice, and the implementation of digital solutions in chemistry teaching offers many new opportunities and tools. A survey was conducted after 3 months of emergency remote teaching linked to the COVID-19 pandemic and showed that half of the students estimated it was difficult to study remotely, and reported they had to invest more time compared to classroom teaching, which led to a drop in motivation. Professors also noted that the time necessary to invest in order to produce digital teaching content was enormous. Massive open online laboratories (MOOLs) and process simulators are interesting tools, but practical lab work and related know-how cannot fully be replaced by digital techniques. Finally, it appeared that the professor–student interaction is very important in the distance-learning process, and that a high level of pedagogical (inter)activity is mandatory to maintain motivation and better quality of teaching and learning.
CHIMIA Vol. 75 No. 01-02(2021): Future of Chemical Education

Downloads

Published

2021-02-28

Issue

Vol. 75 No. 1-2 (2021): Future of Chemical Education

Section

Scientific Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2021 Véronique Breguet Mercier, Ulrich Scholten, Richard Baltensperger, Ludovic Gremaud, Michal Dabros

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

[1]
V. B. Mercier, U. Scholten, R. Baltensperger, L. Gremaud, M. Dabros, Chimia 2021, 75, 58, DOI: 10.2533/chimia.2021.58.