Online resources

Are you a university or college educator interested in implementing virtual laboratories in your courses? Virtual laboratories can be a great gateway to experimentation and can be incorporated in multiple ways: in-class activity, pre-laboratory activity to serve as “dry run” of an experiment, or fully remote lab unit.

University of Waterloo chemistry instructor Leanne Racicot in collaboration with the Center for Extended Learning, University of Ottawa and Western University, have developed two open-access virtual experiments centered around common topics in introductory organic chemistry. Aimed at 2^nd year undergraduates, these interactive activities guide students as they make choices related to the experimental design and test their understanding of how laboratory techniques are applied. The use of video and images shows what is occurring at the molecular level to upgrade the understanding of chemical processes. Online experimental data sheets encourage students to record their observations and findings as if they were actually in the lab.

If you are a student either at the undergraduate or high school level, you are welcome to browse our virtual laboratories as well! You can use these activities to test your understanding of organic chemistry theory and procedures. If you have yet to take an organic chemistry laboratory, the virtual labs can give you an idea of what to expect from University of Waterloo courses. We focus on teaching students critical thinking skills by having them design their own laboratory procedures after teaching the principles they should apply in each experiment.

Based on this initial, an additional virtual lab was created, focusing on designing a substitution reaction following either a S_N1 or S_N2 mechanism. While this virtual lab does not feature videos of experimentation, it digs deeply in the mechanisms at the molecular level via interactive 3D animations. Stereochemistry is a major challenge when students start to learn about organic chemistry and we hope these animations help them understand what we mean by racemization and inversion!

Finally, Leanne has created a series of HTML-based micro resources for organic chemistry laboratories. These OER were created in H5P, a suite of various content types from flashcard sets to interactive images and videos. The link will allow you to try the resources, embed or adapt them to your needs.