The task of teaching chemistry online, improving engagement with self-study online resources, and supporting our students to become independent learners is something we have grappled with for many years. Including the ‘human’ side of teaching in an online environment, whilst maintaining reasonable workloads for academics, is critical. In first year chemistry at UNE, improving the non-content specific skills of our online students has been very successful; however, supporting online students in relation to academic support is still extremely time consuming. An online formative assessment was developed using the Möbius platform to provide the type of support an instructor would give in the classroom or an online forum. The aim was to encourage development of online students as independent learners and improve engagement with online learning resources, whilst reducing student reliance on instructor feedback and support. Student feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, learning outcomes were improved, and academic workload was reduced.
Dr Erica Smith holds a Bachelor of Science (Honours) from the University of Sydney; a Master of Science with Distinction from the University of Greenwich (UK); and a Doctorate in Theoretical and Computational Chemistry from the University of Houston (USA). She was Associate Professor of Chemistry at Lonestar College (USA) before returning to Australia to take up a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the CSIRO. Erica is currently Senior Lecturer in Chemistry at the University of New England and is Chair Elect of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI) Chemical Education Division committee. Erica has received a University of New England Excellence in Teaching Award, an Australian Awards for University Teaching Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning and was the RACI Educator of the Year in 2017. Erica is an Advance HE Senior Fellow and is currently Convenor of UNE’s School of Science and Technology Education Committee.