The Rutgers Chemistry Teaching Intern Program under the Department of Chemistry provides general chemistry students and undergraduate teaching interns (TIs) a collaborative learning environment. TIs have the opportunity to instruct problem-solving sessions, review sessions, and office hours that promote active learning habits and allow students to ask questions. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the university has transitioned all learning sessions to be held virtually: an easy transition as college students are used to communicating online. This led to more attendance in all TI’s teaching sessions. Zoom gave students and TIs a common screen to discuss chemistry concepts and share ideas efficiently. However, with online teaching, it was isolating for some students and TIs not having face-to-face interaction. Especially in Office Hours, with one-on-one sessions, personal communication is very important, but difficult online. During Problem Solving Sessions, students kept their microphones and cameras off; TIs felt as if they were talking to themselves further hindering communication. Additionally, technical issues commonly arose during sessions. TIs had to modify their problems to mimic the increased difficulty of online exams and prevent the question from being able to be searched up. Having in-person instruction can facilitate more individual interactions among TIs and students, but this comes with a cost of limited access to sessions as students need to travel to the location. Also with larger review sessions, it can be more challenging to privately communicate with the TI in person versus the chat box in Zoom. A surveying tool is used to evaluate TIs’ varying experiences and thoughts teaching different sessions exclusively online or in both settings. As online education slowly transitions to in-person and given the accessibility of online sessions, it is proposed to utilize a hybrid teaching format, using online to supplement in-person sessions. This provides a more inclusive and accommodating learning program, where students can feel comfortable asking questions to the TIs, giving students the option to attend either session and TIs the opportunity to facilitate both.

Chemistry teaching intern program: Exploring different aspects of online versus in-person instruction

ACS Spring 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.