Lab-on-a-screenGamification of inorganic chemistry experiments

Resumen

The teaching experience tackled in the present work is focused on the design and development of an online tool to help the students to gain knowledge and skills, in a play-oriented way, on the materials used in chemistry laboratories as well as on their classification. Moreover, some basic laboratory experiences frequently performed in the Inorganic Chemistry laboratories were also included. The present teaching experience is thus based on the concept of online teaching or e-learning and it is adapted to the interests of the new generations of scientists. Furthermore, this kind of experiences can be a very useful learning platform in those educational institutions where there are not available facilities to carry out laboratory practices. The present project has been developed thanks to the participation of a multidisciplinary team encompassed by members of the University of Alicante, belonging to both the Inorganic Chemistry Department, who selected the materials and designed the activities to be included in the application, and the IT Department, who created the online platform. The application is linked to the Virtual Campus of the University of Alicante so that the students can access using their identification credentials and it is designed in a way that they can access using different gadgets (i.e. personal computers, mobile phones, and tablets) and from any location. The online application offers four activities, three of them simulate basic laboratory assemblies frequently used in experimental practices of Inorganic Chemistry (i.e. distillation, reflux heating, and vacuum filtration), and a fourth experience, with a more general nature, which consists of naming laboratory materials. The use of this tool serves to encourage the students to gain and/or reinforce knowledge related to experiments used in Inorganic Chemistry laboratories by using a virtual learning environment. After its design, it was shared with the students of a subject taught in the third year of the degree in Chemistry of the University of Alicante (Experimentation in Inorganic Chemistry). Due to its content and great potential as a virtual online tool for the students of different courses and degrees offered at the University of Alicante, this tool is expected to be extended to include extensive and specific contents related to laboratory experiences, such as safety regulations, chemical waste management, chemical reagents classification, among others. The teaching experience has been assessed by creating a survey in Google Forms, which contains questions about the level of difficulty of the proposed experiences, as well as about the level of satisfaction of the students and the impact of the online tool on assisting the learning of laboratory materials and assemblies. Moreover, the survey also included open questions that allowed us to know which aspects of the present teaching experience has attracted the interest of the students. The results of the survey indicated that the students are highly motivated to use virtual learning environments.