Challenges Encountered and Students' Reactions to Practices Utilized in a General Chemistry Laboratory Course During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The unforeseen COVID-19 pandemic forced educational institutions to shift to a remote or distance-learning mode. As a result, classes were offered online, and this shift in teaching modality presented great challenges, especially in teaching laboratory courses. While several options are available, we evaluated the use of (i) videos of lab demonstrations, (ii) Microsoft PowerPoint slides with voice-over recordings that were prepared to guide students further in the particular procedure of the experiment, and (iii) kitchen-based experiments that students could perform at home for our General Chemistry I laboratory course that was offered in an asynchronous modality during the Summer session. The students were surveyed for feedback, comments, and reactions to the use of these different practices. On the basis of student comments, it was found that the videos were beneficial to illustrate important aspects of each experiment, with some students commenting that it made them feel as if they were actually performing the experiments themselves. The kitchen-based experiments, on the other hand, allowed students to experience performing hands-on experiments and helped them observe and relate to concepts (such as classifying matter, making physical measurements, employing units and significant figures, preparing solutions, calculating moles and molarity, and employing separation techniques) that were discussed in the lecture portion of the course.