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Ace Organic Chemistry
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The Challenge: Robert G. Grossman, professor of chemistry at the University of Kentucky (UKY), was concerned that his students were not learning what they needed to know using traditional tools: “Either my students were not doing their homework, or, after working a problem for too short a time, they looked up the answers in the key and then thought that they understood how to solve the problem. I wanted to develop a program that would tell students whether their answer was right or wrong, but did not give the correct answer away.” Grossman, partnered with fellow UKY professor Raphael Finkel, also sought to develop an interactive teaching tool for organic chemistry. They designed a system where students had to demonstrate understanding of the subject by constructing chemical structures and receiving feedback from the teaching tool. This feedback is tailored to the student's work, helping the student to determine how to best solve the problem. The Process: UKY and Prentice Hall partnered to bring this innovative tool to market. Second Avenue Software's development expertise was added to the mix so that this application could be commercialized. A pilot test was conducted with select universities to gather data on required fixes and potential issues with the user interface. The software was installed on a server that was accessed by students from several different colleges. Our team monitored the software to understand usage patterns and to determine how and when errors occurred. Based on analysis of the test data, and on user feedback, the application was revised. A new user interface was developed for the application, and the code was made more robust to suit the needs of a production environment in which tens of thousands of students would access the application throughout each semester. The Result: The revised, finished product, ACE Organic, has been highly rated by student users. In a study of user data provided by Prentice Hall, 86% found the ACE interface intuitive, 85% felt that the process of completing assignments in the ACE system was straightforward, and 81% found the gradebook easy to use. Verbal feedback from students was also positive: “It helped me understand things that I didn't get from my lecture or my book.” “It made homework more interesting, and it was fun to use.” “I found the hints that were given after each correct and incorrect answer were very helpful in understanding the mechanism behind each equation.” “VERY HELPFUL and sometimes fun!” Second Avenue Software continues to be involved in this innovative project. |
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