The Advantages of the Conceptual Chemistry Curriculum for:

•Online college courses
•Large enrollment college courses
•Small enrollment college courses
•High School College-Prep
•Home Schooling

Small enrollment college courses

Small enrollment college classes offer perhaps the best opportunity for students and their instructor to relate on a one-to-one level. Also, because there are fewer students, the instructor is able to tailor the course based upon the needs of the students, which can vary from one semester to the next.

Despite this great potential, many instructors of small enrollment courses find themselves spending the majority of class time delivering content found within the textbook. For several reasons, this discourages many students from reading the textbook before coming to class. For example, students recognize that it is much easier to hear some one present the concepts than it is to read about the concepts. Furthermore, instructors typically do not cover every page of the textbook and what the instructor wants to emphasize is not usually apparent until after class. Thus, students tend to read the textbook after class as a means of reinforcing what the instructor covered.

However, many students often leave a good lecture with a false sense of good understanding, which discourages them from reading the textbook altogether. As many instructors have come to notice, there is little correlation between the quality of a lecture and how well the students perform on exams.

It is a classic frustration of the instructor: "If only my students would read the textbook before coming to class". But if the instructor continues to repeat the textbook in class, then students not reading the textbook before class is a natural consequence.

Conceptual Chemistry Alive! offers an alternative. With this multimedia tutorial, the author takes on the job of reiterating the textbook. He does this with his voice, with facial expressions, with graphics, animations, demonstrations, and more. If the student misses something, it can be seen over again with a click of the mouse. Video lessons have been edited into bite-sized 7 minute clips, which end with a series of three concept check questions that help the student know whether or not they have captured the major points. The CCAlive! CDs of DVDs are portable, which means the student can view the lessons at a time and place of his or her convenience. The video lessons also follow the table of contents of the textbook, which makes it easy for the instructor to assign various sections for both reading and viewing.

The instructor thus has the option of requiring students to watch formal video presentations of the concepts before coming to class. Student-centered learning activities can thus become the prime focus of class time. Such activities tend to put students in the spotlight and that can be a great motivator. For example, a student who knows that he or she will need to explain ideas to fellow students during class is more likely to come to class prepared. With CCAlive! the students can go home for their lectures, and come to campus to study under the careful guidance of their course instructor.