Virtual Lab in Chemistry

In AY 2013-2014, we redesigned CSUF's second semester General Chemistry course, CHEM 120B, which includes concurrent lecture and laboratory components. Serving as a required pre-requisite for Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Biology majors, as well as for many other students pursuing career paths in the health professions, total course enrollment is limited by a lack of space and materials in the laboratory component. Additionally, the course had a high average failure rate (C- or lower) of 23% due to what we suspect are poor topical parallels between the laboratory and lecture lessons. Our redesign of the course involved a complete rewrite of the laboratory portion of the course, which included the incorporation of a virtual laboratory component to complement the students’ wet lab experience. The pilot year of our redesign proved successful in increasing the average passable rate of the course, and so we were granted additional support funding to continue our work.