Electronic tools represent powerful opportunities to engage and activate students. I will highlight two examples from our department.[1] Several activities are being developed based on the notion that students can always be online inside and outside the class room (through tablets,  smartphones, laptops): [A] safety and instruction videos for practical courses; [B] access to E-books; [C] interactive quizzing during class; [D] '3D' viewing of (bio)molecules during class.[2] During several key courses with varying student backgrounds, we incorporate challenging projects in which students computationally design their own molecules and provide possible synthetic routes to these. To fully grasp the scale and importance of existing synthetic literature, the Reaxys search engine proves to be an essential and readily accessible tool which students use to estimate the synthetic feasibility of their molecules. Students interactively use Reaxys and their own knowledge to retrosynthetically dissect their molecules down to commercially available materials.

Engaging and activating students through electronic tools: Use of mobile devices and integration of Reaxys in classes and practical courses

245th National Meeting (2013)

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