Since joining the University of Southern Mississippi in 2013 the author has created at YouTube channel called OChem Lounge (https://www.youtube.com/user/ochemlounge). The OChem Lounge is a repository for over 75 screencasts and videos spanning topics from undergraduate organic chemistry 1 and 2.  The purpose of this endeavor was to create short tutorial and problem solving screencasts as a supplement to in-class lecture instruction. In a 50-minute lecture it is often challenging to cover all of the necessary concepts for a particular topic. The media on YouTube provide students a means to learn material at their pace and review as many times as needed. For creating screencasts, the author has utilized a Wacom Intuos Pro pen tablet with Autodesk Sketchbook Pro 6 as the drawing program on an Apple MacBook Pro with TechSmith Camtasia version 2 and 3 for screen recording. The Camtasia software is sufficiently intuitive such that screencasts can easily be recorded and uploaded straight into a YouTube account for immediate publishing. The most viewed screencast on Ochem Lounge is "Newman Projections to Names in Organic Chemistry" with over 6,000 views. Additional screencasts with over 1,000 views include "Organic Chemistry NMR Structure Elucidation 4-Bromobutanenitrile" and "Introduction to Organic Chemistry Fischer Projections." These screencasts focus on "putting it all together" as a means of connecting many concepts in organic chemistry so that students see the big picture and learn to think and problem solve like an organic chemist. More recently the author has also created short lecture and problem solving videos using a Canon Powershot 12 megapixel camera. One benefit of video is that students are able to see the instructor drawing structures in real time. The accrued benefit of a YouTube channel is the ability to create playlists with conceptually similar screencasts and videos that students can access for further reference. For example, the author has a playlist entitled "Organic Chemistry Conformational Analysis" with screencasts related to drawing chair and boat cyclohexanes, doing chair flips in relation to elimination chemistry, drawing Fischer projections and analyzing Newman projections. Additionally the playlists allow for flexibilty in lecture such that the inverted lecture format can be implemented if videos are assigned watching. Finally, this talk will briefly demonstrate how screencasts can be readily made.

Putting it all together: Creation of a YouTube channel for organic chemistry screencasts and videos

255th National Meeting (2018)

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