Bringing up LONCAPA for General Chemistry at NAU

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Bringing up LON-CAPA for General Chemistry at NAU

• LONCAPA Conference
• January 23, 2004

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Previous Projects

• Javascript Calculation Checks for Intro Chemistry
  Labs 2000. Supported by OIT and Dept of
  Chemistry. http//jan.ucc.nau.edu/jmaxka/chm151L
  /
• Development of on-line quiz system for organic
  chemistry 1999-present. Supported by OIT and
  FISAS. http//jan.ucc.nau.edu/jmaxka/chm238/

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History of the Project

• NAU bought CAPA code 1998 from Instructional
  Technology GrantUsed in a physics course.
• LON-CAPA developed.
• NAU part of 5-University NSF CCLI Proposal for
  LON-CAPA in chemistry 2002
• Office of E-Learning funded a grant to develop
  LON-CAPA for Chemistry homework, December 2002.

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Brief Timeline of the Project

• Attended LON-CAPA meeting, Tallahassee, FL 2002.
• Brought up first server summer 2002.
• Wrote grant based on test server success.
• Grant committee dithers LON-CAPA is not
  WebCT!
• Grant awarded 2 months later.
• Gerd comes to Flagstaff.

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Brief Timeline of the Project

• Workshop in E. Lansing. Summer 2003
• Built Dual Xeon server. Met with new E-learning
  director. Wrote some problems.
• One week before school begins (August)
• 2 out of 3 instructors drop out.
• E-learning director calls a meeting.
• He is concerned LONCAPA is not WebCT.
• No support for LONCAPA.
• Open Source is bad.
• No future support.

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Full speed ahead!

• General Chemistry Semester I.
• 250 Students. 2 sections.
• 13 Problem Sets.
• About 15 problems per set.
• Wrote Homework and some quizzes.
• About 200 problems written.
• Help from Ray Batchelor, SFU.
• http//loncapa.chm.nau.edu

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LONCAPA vs Back-of-Chapter Problem

• Chang Textbook 7e Problem 5.41
• At STP, 0.280 L of a gas weighs 0.400 g.
  Calculate the molar mass of the gas.

LONCAPA problem
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Survey End of the Course

• Accessibility
• Ease of Use
• Helpfulness
• Grading
• Was there support for system? Could you find
  help for chemistry?
• How many hours studying
• Would you prefer paper homework?
• Would you recommend a course with LONCAPA?
• Would you pay?

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Survey Results
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Survey Results
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Survey Results
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Survey Results
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Survey Results
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Survey Results
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Final Ongoing Assessment

• Tool Final Exam.
• Final Exam changes only a question or two every
  year.
• All chemistry sections take the same exam.
• Results
• LONCAPA sections
• 74 and 72
• Compare to highest previous average for the
  instructor 68 (8 yrs).
• Instructor X 64
• Instructor Y 66