Can an adaptive lesson really make fundamental chemistry interactive & flexible?

Abstract

First year undergraduate allied health students commence physiology with an extremely variable understanding of fundamental chemistry principles. Chemistry is also often perceived as difficult, dull and unrelated to daily life, when, in reality nothing is further from the truth. Adaptive learning has been shown to be an effective tool for chemistry homework, but we wanted to assess its value in teaching fundamental chemistry concepts to undergraduate allied health students. An adaptive online chemistry lesson was developed in the Smart Sparrow platform. The lesson was piloted and evaluated using a survey and access to Smart Sparrow learning analytics (n=33). Students reported that the lesson met their needs for flexibility (4.9/6), and that the lesson enhanced motivation to learn chemistry (4.9/6). Importantly all students that completed the survey indicated that they had a better understanding of chemistry after they completed the lesson (4.7 ±2.3 vs 7.63 ± 1.54, p<0.00001). Findings from this pilot study indicate that online adaptive learning resources are an effective, flexible and fun tool for teaching fundamental chemistry.