Supplementing traditional chemical education on the World Wide Web

Abstract

Emerging technologies provide impetus for supplements to the way chemistry is taught. Students of the current generation are conditioned to expect high-quality visual images to reinforce other informational media. Multimedia teaching tools can take advantage of this pre-conditioning. The World Wide Web (WWW) provides new opportunities for multimedia distribution. Supplemental materials for chemical education have been developed to take advantage of these emerging technologies. Molecular animations have been developed for use in lecture and for distribution via the WWW. These animations were designed to demonstrate chemistry from a "Big Picture" view. Interactive, exploratory tutorials have also been developed as student study aids. These tutorials promote concept understanding within a hands-on, trial-and-error atmosphere. The WWW has also been utilized as a low-cost avenue for implementation of a laboratory exercise emphasizing the importance of chemical structure and its impact upon chemical reactivity through computational chemistry.