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The ChemWiki: A Free Online Substitute for Commercial Chemistry Textbook
The ChemWiki (http:/ChemWiki.ucdavis.edu) is the largest component of the UC Davis (UCD) STEMWiki Hyperlibrary with six other pseudo-independently operating and interconnected “STEMWikis.” The ChemWiki focuses on augmenting post-secondary chemistry education with the primary goal of developing and disseminating viable online textbook alternatives within a central environment that is both vertically (from advance to basic level) and horizontally (across different fields) integrated and provides students with high quality cost-free textbooks. The project is developed by a consortium of students and faculty across multiple campuses and countries and grows monthly.
Brief Description of the ChemWiki
The ChemWiki is the primary and most developed component in the University of California, Davis Hyperlibrary project with six other pseudo-independently operating and interconnected “STEMWikis” that focus on developing and disseminating viable online post-secondary textbook alternatives within a central integrated environment. The Hyperlibrary is a “crowd-sourced” project that is developed by a consortium of students and faculty across multiple campuses and countries. Development entails collecting, integrating, vetting, and building open-access content within a unified and hyperlinked infrastructure. This practitioner-developed, practitioner-adopted, and practitioner-evaluated approach infuses the project with an end-user mentality at every stage of construction.
Figure 1: (Left) Daily traffic for student usage of Chem 2C Wikitext (3rd quarter Gen. Chem. at UC Davis). Spikes originate from students “cramming” before exams. (Right) Integration Scheme of Hyperlibrary
Two primary factors separate the Hyperlibrary from other projects with similar goals. The first factor is that the Hyperlibrary’s intrinsic collaborative developmental approach introduces a powerful combination of flexibility, adaptability, and applicability that is capable of addressing a range of different classes. This enables faculty to adopt and adapt Hyperlibrary materials to suit their specific purposes. The second factor is that the Hyperlibrary content is connected within a dynamic network extending both horizontally (across multiple fields) and vertically (across multiple levels of complexity). This offers students and faculty, not just a single hypertextbook as with repositories, but an infinitely large hyperlibrary of interconnected textbooks. This strongly integrated nature allows the STEMWikis to be exceptionally flexible in addressing both current and future education needs and new approaches.
The Core/Wikitext Approach
A well-functioning textbook (whether hyper- or conventional) is much more than just a series of reference topics found in encyclopedias or Wikipedia, but must address additional aspects: 1) An established flow between previously discussed, current and future content and 2) A complementary set of questions to aid student internalization of the text material. Key to the utility of the ChemWiki is its intrinsic flexibility necessary to suitably address these aspects. All Modules containing information are contained in the Core (Figure 2) and “Wikitexts” are individually constructed for specific classes by creating a hyperlinks structure to the Core Modules.
Figure 2: Illustration of how the Core/Wikitext enables the flexible design of a variety of hypertextbooks for courses at all levels of instruction and subfields. Course numbers are for UCD. Different Modules will coexist addressing the same topic, but at different levels allowing for addressing classes simultaneously.
The Core/Wikitext approach provides a powerful flexibility in introducing and removing content without affecting other concurrently operating classes and provides the flexibility for instructors to construct Wikitexts that best suit their needs (e.g., ignoring non-integral topics). Each Module contains metadata that outlines the recommended Modules necessary for students to have read prior to the Module to receive a full understanding of the content contained therein. For example, an instructor can construct a Wikitext by generating a list of hyperlinks to Core Modules in the order that best fits the class flow or pedagogical approach. If existing Core Modules are insufficient for course goals, new ones can be easily generated from existing vetted ones via the ChemWiki's graphical editor. Existing Wikitexts are available for instructors to peruse, adapt, and adopt.
Since March 2014, the ChemWiki has been used as the exclusive textbook in seven different classes involving six different instructors over four campuses in two states. These seven classes alone have saved students ~$500,000.
|
Instructor |
When |
Course |
Campus |
Enrollment |
Text Cost |
|
Spring 2014 |
General Chem (3rd Q) |
UC Davis |
500 |
$250 |
|
|
Summer 2014 |
General Chem (3rd Q) |
UC Davis |
300 |
$250 |
|
|
Fall 2014 |
General Chem (1st Sem) |
Howard U. |
95 |
$273 |
|
|
Fall 2014 |
General, Organic, Bio |
Sacramento City College |
100 |
$180 |
|
|
Fall 2014 |
Organic Chemistry |
Purdue U. |
220 |
$275 |
|
|
Fall 2014 |
Organic Chemistry |
Purdue U. |
93 |
$160 |
|
|
Tomoyuki Hayashi |
Fall 2014 |
General Chem(1st Q) |
UC Davis |
500 |
$250 |
|
2008-Present |
Instrumental Analysis |
UC Davis |
300 to date |
$30 |
Evidence of ChemWiki’s Success
While the dynamic nature of the ChemWiki and greater Hyperlibrary, means that they are under constantly construction, several recent developmental traits are of particular interest:
· The ChemWiki has been exponentially growing and now reaches ~4 million students and 5.5 million pageviews monthly.
· The ChemWiki is the most visited chemistry website in the world and most visited on UCD campus by a large majority.
· One in four internet visitor to UCD campus go to the ChemWiki and it is expected that by next year, the ChemWiki will exceed the rest of campus internet traffic combined.
· Three non-UC campuses (Purdue U, Sacrament City College, and Howard U) have started using the ChemWiki for their classroom needs. Approximately $500,000 have been saved in textbook expenditures to date
Figure 3: Integration Scheme of Hyperlibrary (top). Monthly visitor traffic profiles for the ChemWiki (middle) and five other STEMWikis (bottom) since project initiation. Dotted line is projection of traffic to December 2014
Data Driven Pilot of ChemWiki Efficacy
Preliminary results of a data-driven quantitative three-quarter pilot to test the efficacy of the ChemWiki are positive. The effectiveness of the ChemWiki was assessed during the spring quarter of 2014 in the third quarter general chemistry course at UCD. The experimental class (n = 478) used the ChemWiki as its primary resource, while the control class (n = 448) used the standard textbook for the general chemistry sequence. Both classes were taught back-to-back by the same instructor (Larsen) with the same set of teaching assistants and assessment protocols.
Both classes used the same exams designed to measure the overall learning gain of the students in both classes, which were also confirmed with pre/post exam comparisons. The results showed that the normalized learning gains for both classes were not statistically different when accounting for student demographics. The Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey (CLASS) chemistry survey was employed at the beginning and end of the quarter to determine if either class's beliefs about chemistry changed based on the primary resource they used; results from the survey showed that both classes were not statistically different. A weekly time-on-task survey was developed to monitor the hours spent working on the material outside of the classroom. The student reported data showed that the average student in the experimental class spent ~0.4 more hours a week studying. We confirmed the self-reported data in the ChemWiki section by comparing the number of hours a student reported to the number a page views on the ChemWiki they had. Furthermore, high ChemWiki using Students (>400 total page views) showed about an 8% increase in course performance.
We encourage faculty participation in adapting and adopting of the ChemWiki; in particular, we are looking for faculty interested in contributing existing content to the ChemWiki and fostering its integration into its existing infrastructure (either directly or via fostering student participation). Contact Delmar Larsen (dlarsen@ucdavis.edu) for more details about contributing or using the ChemWiki or greater Hyperlibrary project.
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Comments
Incentives for contributions and curation?
Delmar,
Since the advent of hypercard (remember that original Mac implementation of interlinked concepts?), I have always thought that a hypertext body of knowledge is a much superior design for a learning resource than a standard print textbook. So first, I want to say how great I think the potential for this is. However, I wonder about some of the hurdles you have and continue to face getting good contributions and curation of the content? Do contributors get enough support for doing this from their institutions? What additional support might help? How are you or do you want to provide long term incentives for curation? On a side note, what about mirrors and such so as not to overwhelm the primary site (is this a potential issue)?
Thanks,
Jonathan
First Email Chain Post
Hi Delmar,
I also was impressed with your presentation at BCCE. During my years at Illinois State University, I became a textbook author out of necessity. I managed the non-major chemistry course, and the only traditional texts for this sub-set of students were what I call chemical civics texts. I wanted to teach the beauty of chemistry from the ground up - math and all. So I wrote my own text.
In this current discussion, I must admit that I'm much more interested in the "textbook" choice potential of the wiki than I am the pedagogy. To this end, I'm really interested in your response to Jonathan's questions, and I'm thinking that maybe his questions were missed because he was the first to post. As a possible content contributor, I'm interested in your response to Jonathan.
You have an exiting concept pedagogically and also practically. If I missed your response to Jonathan, I apologize in advance!
Best, Otis
Nope... My mistake
Otis:
Thank you greatly for pointing out Jonathan's post, which I will address now.
Delmar
Also, if you want to share you textbook on the ChemWiki, we are very willing to accept and integrate within our infrastructure.
Belated Sorry.
Jonathan:
First I am sorry for the tardy (and long) response; I did indeed miss your comment. I still have nightmares over my hypercard application when I was a freshman in college. You have picked up an important aspect.... social collaborative efforts like wikis live and die by strong collaboration network. I admit when I started the project years ago, I had no idea what I was doing other than being extremely upset with the $200 Aktins book for p-chem life scientists that was poorly crafted and wanting to do something about. The rest just grew organically (pun intended).
A little history of the ChemWiki: The first approach we took was to pursue exclusive student contributed content via extra credit or assignments. This resulted in lots of content, which was good from a SEO perspective, but didn't advance my goals significantly as they required a lot of effort to edit/curate (less so for the advance students). We modified this approach by also using students to integrate existing materials (with permission) that were "donated" by chemists both within the US and abroad. That is a significantly component of our development although a third mechanism is also at play; we have a small set of faculty are developers that write new content specifically for the ChemWiki (these are underwritten in part by grants). I should add that I do a lot (my kids were looking for "ChemWiki Art" as a present for this Christmas since that is all I talk about at home), but I am very committed to this project and feel if the momentum is kicked into place, it can really be a game changer for the chemistry community.
I would estimate about 5,000 students have edited the ChemWiki to date. I would also estimate about 50-100 faculty have donated content of probably ~7,000-8,000 pages. I get about 4-5 correction requests a week and once fixed they are never a problem (in contrast to conventional textbook as some of us may have know by attempting to get publishers to address mistakes in their texts). Of the faculty I asked to contribute content to the ChemWiki (identified by trolling the net), I get 30% (yeses), 30% (no’s), 30% (no responses) and 10% (go away and don’t come back). Of those that contribute, most do not need to do anything other than a simple “go for it”, so institutional support is not really a factor in this aspect. We are backlogged in integrating content.
We have about 10-15 faculty developers in different fields of chemistry that are either writing new content or hammering existing content into a more useful format for us. They are largely from PUIs which have a strongly support infrastructure for educational efforts than from research oriented Universities. I learned the hard way to focus on targeting faculty at PUIs as potential developers (but not exclusively). I am unsure if they receive institutional support, but will let them step up in the discussion if they want.
I have been working on several mechanisms for developer support within UCD, which focus on the greater Hyperlibrary project. Currently, about 1 in 3.5 internet visitors to UCD go to the ChemWiki, so I argue for institutional support based on PR aspects. I have suggested to the students that they charge themselves $2/quarter/student to help build the Hyperlibrary under the argument they benefit the most from it - these efforts are still pending. My department administration is quite supportive of the ChemWiki.
Up to 18 months ago, we constructed the ChemWiki (and other STEMWikis) with only $10K in financial support and a lot of volunteers. The NSF grant we received was very instrumental in moving the project to the next level. This means that our success isn't artificially supported by money and can moved forward based on non-financial means.
The greatest type of support we can get from the chemistry community would be for faculty to (1) help built wikitexts for adoption into their classes (and to identify what needs to be developed) and (2) contribute existing content that addresses a needed niche. However, if someone wants to be a developer (e.g., help with the JavaScript JSMol work or the SAGE interface), we would be excited too, but that may require some effort. Moreover, we appreciate faculty emailing us about mistakes and concerns.
I have working business plans to maintain sustainability of the project and I can discuss them if requested. For now, we are most grateful to Mindtouch Inc. the company that hosts the Hyperlibrary project. Full commercial value of hosting a project of this traffic load (a quarter million page views a day) is six figure $, which we are not currently prepared to assume. Since we shifted over to Mindtouch’s new cloud based infrastructure, we have not experienced any noticeable lag with the several orders of magnitude increase in traffic. I am unsure how much traffic is needed to break it, but we are not close now. When that time comes, then a mirror or a bifurcation of the content database may be needed. I expect to do that with the Spanish and French translations that are currently underway (so far only o-chem), but that is also a different topic.
Delmar
Student Navigation of Corpus
Hi Delmar,
First, I would like to thank you for updating us on the progress of the ChemWiki, and point out to the audience your earlier 2012 Newsletter contribution on this project,
http://www.ccce.divched.org/P4Fall2012CCCENL
My question deals with seeking further information on how students in a specific class taught by a specific lecturer would navigate the corpus to maximize learning. You bring forth issues like prior knowledge and different curriculum sequences (some schools may cover kinetics before equilibria, others after; some cover gasses before thermo, others after.) So it seems you need both, multiple navigational pathways and different Teaching and Learning Objects [read instructional material] within those pathways, that is dependent on those pathways. How do you do that? You mention tags, is it done through metadata? Does each class have it's own tag? Do different classes use different versions of the same wiki entry? Sort of like Proteopedia makes a DOI of an old version, which is then linked to? (And guaranteed to not change during the semester). That is, there could be multiple versions in the Wiki of a concept, and different classes use different archived versions. Is that what you do?
Do you use some sort of hyperlinked Table of Contents that the student uses to navigate the corpus? If so, could you share one of these with us?
If there are different learning objects on the same topic, (like different archived versions in the history) is there a way one can easily navigate between them in a directed manner - not blindly going through the history?
Is there a WikiBooks type of option? http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Main_Page
Thanks again for sharing this work with us.
Cheers,
Bob
Response (part 2)
You mention tags, is it done through metadata? Does each class have it's own tag? Do different classes use different versions of the same wiki entry? Sort of like Proteopedia makes a DOI of an old version, which is then linked to? (And guaranteed to not change during the semester). That is, there could be multiple versions in the Wiki of a concept, and different classes use different archived versions. Is that what you do?
Each page has an infinite number of meta-data fields that are not viewable to non-pro accounts and include topics like author, vet level, target level etc. We want to expand this to include a more detailed ontology infrastructure and a taxonomy, but are not there yet (if anyone wants to help, we would appreciate it). I should be more specific, while the content in the wikitexts that is not related to specific class issues (syllabus, individualized homework etc) resides in the CORE, those pages are “translocated” into Wikitext pages (sort of like a mirror of the CORE page on a different page, but only the original source can be edited). This provide the ability to not fork pages needlessly. However, if a page needs to be adapted to a specific Wikitext, then it can be formally forked and brought over (or kept in the CORE if appreciably different). While we preserve different version of pages, we have not found a compelling argument to encourage general users to visit them (developers are a different story). While we are very excited about Proteopedia’s DOI approach, we would favor it to be use on our system for only the top page (i.e., as a simple substitute for the URLs). We will take a closer look at that in the future based on their recent CONFCHEM paper.
More on part 3.
Delmar
Response (part 3)
Do you use some sort of hyperlinked Table of Contents that the student uses to navigate the corpus? If so, could you share one of these with us?
Yes and no. We have a page that can act as a top page for the CORE (http://chemwiki.ucdavis.edu/Development_Details/The_Core), but we do not push it to much these days as the top menu bar does the same. If you want the entire Wiktext, and you are daring, you can go to the Sitemap (http://chemwiki.ucdavis.edu/Special:Sitemap). I however doubt that will be useful to most. One can always do searches or pursue the Wikitexts directly.
If there are different learning objects on the same topic, (like different archived versions in the history) is there a way one can easily navigate between them in a directed manner - not blindly going through the history?
That is in the works. We are in the works of developing a more associated map between Modules addressing the same topic, but it is not established. We do at times add hyperlinks at the bottom of pages, but I am not that thrilled with that approach.
Is there a WikiBooks type of option? http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Main_Page [3]
I would argue that the ChemWiki’s Wikitexts and Textbook Maps are Wikibooks (using Wikipedia’s definition). Alternatively, we used to use a script that will add all pages within a Wikitext into one (very large page) that can then be printed out or PDFed into a single resource. We need to review that aspect in the near future on the new server/software that Mindtouch is providing for us.
Role of Instructor in Wiki-text vs. traditional text
Hi Delmar,
My question is still related to student navigating the corpus, but this time philosophical, not technical.
The classical textbook has clearly defined authors, and although I do not classify a textbook as a novel, there is an idiosyncratic continuity of the presentation across the narrative of the text. A Wiki-text could lack this continuity, where the narrative of different sections reveals the idiosyncrasies of different authors’ writing styles, subject competencies and learning expectations. To an expert, this would not be an issue, but to the novice, I could see how this could present challenges that would not exist in the traditional text.
So it seems the way an instructor would want to use a wiki-text could be substantially different than the way they would use a classical text. If I may use the terminology of an OLCC, http://olcc.ccce.divched.org/ , with respect to navigating the corpus, the instructor may function as a facilitator, enabling a path through the corpus appropriate to the instructor’s idiosyncratic instructional style. In this model, the instructor facilitates learning by guiding the student as they navigate the corpus, providing continuity to the wiki-narrative that was intrinsic to the classical authored textbook. That is, the instructor takes on part of the role of the textbook author.
Can anyone make any comments on this? Are there any thoughts on differences in “best practices” for how you would use a wiki-text versus traditional text? Can instructors annotate content in ways that only students in their class [read wiki-text] can see? (Sorry, I can’t avoid at least one technical question). I don't mean rewrite the wiki, but make comments that only their students see?
Does adapting a wiki-text (any wiki-text), change the role of the instructor (with respect to student learning with the text)?
Thanks,
Bob
Navigation Model
Hi Bob,
I think ChemWiki has a navigation framework in place that simply needs more content - Core and Wiki Texts.
As to the execution of a navigation model, I would suggest a flash back to the past circa 1960's. The task of selecting a chemistry laboratory manual was next to impossible. Nobody liked any of the choices. Enter "Laboratory Shorts." I forget the publisher. Was it Prentice-Hall? That's really the navigation model I see in Delmar's work. Instructors would indeed make their own textbooks and publish their own course hyperlink directories. This would be very much like the way many chemistry teachers created lab manuals from component shorts.
As to the teacher's directory, HTML5 page(s) construction of the directory would allow local instructor input and student annotation via Local Storage. Y'all already know my feelings about this overlooked treasure!
Best, Otis
Continuity and Annotation
Otis:
It think this is a good point and one that predates me, unfortunately. I would pose a question: Are instructor of record concerned about such continuity issues when we assign multiple textbooks for a class? I think the benefits of different perspectives typically outweighes the lack of continuity by such a common approach.
As for annotation and Local Storage, I need to learn more about it. It looks very interesting and if an app can be designed to overlay comments on a Wikitext page (dynamically), then I would be excited to see how students/instructors use it.
Cheers,
Delmar
Continuity Issues
Delmar,
Continuity is part of any good story, but we (teachers) are story tellers, and we tell our own stories. We always have. All story tellers pick and choose. See my note to John for an expansion of this point of view...
On Local Storage, I'll put together a little template of a simple Web page surrounded by a Local Storage container page. I'll make it self contained for simplicity. I'll send you an email when I have it on the site - not till after the holidays. Per my discussion with John, I'll make it a local double clickable entity.
Otis
Stories
Otis:
I like the storytelling analogy (so much I might steal it in my future presentations, with reference to you) and I think you have the proper perspective. It was this flexibility that I wanted to introduce at the start of our project. If I wanted to just write a textbook for my specific class, I would have been done years ago, the approach we are taking is orders of magnitude more complex (just within gen Chem). We are doing it for o-chem and other chemistry classes too and we are also focusing on the other STEMWikis to provide a valuable context to the central role of chemistry in other fields.
I also look forward to your template of Local Storage capabilities.
Regards,
Delmar
Navigation is Schema-building
I really enjoy the conversation here on the aspects of Navigation. Much of my time on ChemPaths was focused on the simple question of: what is a good "path"? - hence the name of the project! I think it's important to step back from the age-old idea that instructors and their personal schema about how topics are organized really is essential to learning. One item that John emphasized and I carried through to my own teaching is that "Student-Centered" means students really need to make their own stories using the tools we provide (a little constructivist theory...). The goal of ChemPaths was to emphasize exploration and I think ChemWiki does that as well through hypertext (and John's textbook as per his notes). What is important to an online textbook is not so much how we choose to order things, but the emphasis on connections. This is why ChemPaths was chosen as a pedagogical overlay to the content of ChemPRIME.
For instance, if you wanted to take a look at a course on ChemPaths from 2013 (http://chempaths.chemeddl.org/services/chempaths/?q=book/6326/chemistry-109-lectures-1-and-2-fall-2013 ) it organizes the information not by topic nor by chapter, but by chronology and immediacy of the course. The emphasis is on "Daily Pages" that organize and connect homework to lecture resources to tutorials to textbook. An example daily page is: http://chempaths.chemeddl.org/services/chempaths/?q=book/6326/chemistry-109-lectures-1-and-2-fall-2013 I have noticed that over time the courses have grown to make these daily reading pages encompass tools that will tie information together from lectures to the textbook as well. This is a result of navigation being student experience driven, instead of instructor (or publisher) imposed.
Whenever I introduce an interactive exercise in my course, I frequently preface the activity with: "I'm a professor and this means that I chose a profession where I obviously enjoy telling my stories and my perspective, but I also know that for this topic at this time, it's more important for you to talk to each other. So although I do not want to shut up, I think it's best for all of us." - In many ways I think that as textbook users and instructors, this an important reflection to make while deciding what we mean by "Navigation."
Thanks,
Justin
consistancy, wikitext usage and annotations.
Bob:
Regarding continuity:
This is a concern that I often chalk up to being eventually addressed by the dynamic and constantly evolving nature of the project (since if it doesn’t work, we keep on working at it). I think the question really is if students can handle synchronizing/integration content written from different authors (and after central editing). A quick glance as my library shows most texts have three authors, some have five and a few biology texts have >eight. So many (but not all) textbooks have multiple authors that presumable focus on different aspect/topics of the book, this is really a discussion of how many authors result in a dephasing of the efficacy of the text and to some part how good the copy editors are at bringing text back together.
That number is a function of many factors, including the nature of the writing styles, the organization of the content (and we can do the same in the STEMWikis), and the nature of the students. I may argue that there is no limit if done properly. I also argue that preserving one writing style through a textbook that is used and abused by students over a year plus may not be that good after all. This is a personal opinion and not one I have evidence for or against (anyone know of research in this field?). I should add that often many pages are contributed from a single set of authors and hence much of the patchwork concern is reduced.
Regarding Wikitext Usage:
Yes and now. We have the capabilities of printing out the modules of the Wiktext, which can be locally bound (at cost) and used identically like a traditional text, even to the level of links back to the website for animations or simulations and other 3D capabilities (e.g., JSMol). I think that constructing the Wikitext does fall nicely within your OLCC approach, especially with regards to the flexibility of introducing individual “flare.”
I do not have a Best Practices formulated since I watch people using the Wikitexts differently to suit their personal and professional needs. For example Dr. Bennett’s GOB class in Sac. City College (http://chemwiki.ucdavis.edu/Wikitexts/Sacramento_City_College/SCC%3A_Chem_309) teaches a FLIP class which relies on resources more heavily than traditional lecture only approach. I would argue though that the dynamic flexible nature of the Core-Wikitext approach is very well suit to the current constantly evolving efforts to introduce engaging technologies into the classes (insert long list here). I expect that after a few years of “field research” of the ChemWiki and tracking Wiktiext usage that I can formulated different modalities of Wiktixt usage to generate such a “best practices” manual. That is a good idea and I think I will add it the proposal due next month (thanks).
Regarding annotation:
Regarding annotations: we want a system up to do it, but it is not in place yet. We have done some research on annotation and have a tentative desire to pursue it. The best we found a few years ago was Highlighter.com, but they merged with PanOPEN a while back; other systems exist but it takes some effort to integrate into the system (well that is). The comments (at the bottom of the pages) are viewable only to users and it is possible for annotations to be added to the HTML text itself that is authenticated by the system and view by a subset of student. I think that is a messy approach. I would love to get feedback if this is something that faculty may want (or definitely want) in such a e-textbook. I am unsure if there is a strong impact on student learning in giving students access to pre-formulated annotations (from faculty or other students) as textbook publishers are recently pushing.
Regarding instructor role:
It depends on the nature of the wikitext. The wikitext for a FLIPPED class will be different than a traditional class and enable differing instructor capabilities/roles.
Cheers,
Delmar
Annotation and DIIGO
For annotation in ChemPaths we used DIIGO. Justin Shorb would be a better contact on this, but since 2009 I have been using DIIGO to keep track of online news about chemistry and other bookmarks of online stuff. I can categorize bookmarks and search for categories (for example, I have bookmarks for each chapter in my commercial textbook that collect material I want to use to update that chapter). DIIGO allows for highlighting text, bookmarking, setting a page to be read later, and doing things either privately or publicly. A description of how to get started with DIIGO is in the ChemPaths page (http://chempaths.chemeddl.org/services/chempaths/). DIIGO is free unless you want to upgrade.
DIIGO
John:
Thanks for the recommendation. I will take a closer look at DIIGO and will contact Justin with questions.
Delmar
Continuity
As someone who has put together a comprehensive textbook -- it takes years -- continuity is a BIG issue. I come up with a better way of saying something and don't make the changes everywhere this concept is presented (oops). Other factors include the use of different terms for the same factor. The symbol for density is taught as 'd' in high school and some university texts. I use 'rho'. More recently, I have discovered texts that teach electrochemistry similar to thermodynamics: reverse the sign on the reduction potential when reversing the half-reaction.
Sadly, it is the students whose learning is negatively affected by all this. But it does illustrate that science isn't stagnant and absolute.
SMILE!
Roy Jensen
Questions
First, let me say that I was fascinated with this project after hearing Dr. Larsen's presentation at BCCE this summer. I love the potential of how this could change chemistry education for students.
Could you explain more about how "A complementary set of questions to aid student internalization of the text material" works. What do the questions look like? Are they autograded or have answers posted that the students can check?
Layne
Layne, thank you for your
Layne, thank you for your kind words.
Our primary goal is to establish an open access substitute for existing chemistry textbooks with an eventually emphasis of using this as a platform for dissemination and testing of new chemical education developments/approaches. To achieve this, we need to make and integrate a textbook, a solutions manual, an instructor’s guide, and a set of questions/answers within an online system (preferably with adaptive feedback bells and whistles) for each class. Clearly this is a daunting task that is enabled only by the many contributors and developers to the project (thanks).
Before implementing/developing a software infrastructure necessary to enable an online Q&A system, we need an extensive database of (non-commercial) questions, answers, hints, solutions to supplement the textbook content in the ChemWiki. Ron Rusay at Diablo Valley College has been taking the lead in this effort by building a Q&A database based on existing content from Zumdahls text. At UCD, we did something similar with Petrucci’s text and we are still sorting through many other contributed problems. To date, we have many thousands of open-access questions (some very vetted and some in the process of being vetted) to populate the database of an online software system. Our existing questions are not open (yet) to the public, but if anyone wants to pursue (or help build more), please contact me directly.
Now, the real hard part: We have been evaluating existing systems for the past two years to be the basis of the online Q&A system that can be adapted into an effective system (with bells and whistles, including autograding) and integrated within the ChemWiki. The best we have is a system call Qoll (http://Qoll.io), whose developers are working with us to build our system. This is the initial stages of this effort, which may be rolled out by the summer. More details will be forthcoming on that aspect of the project as we develop it.
Response (part 1)
Bob:
It is a pleasure to present the ChemWiki again to the CONFCHEM community. We are happy with our growth over the past two year, but need more input, guidance, and support from the community to achieve our goals. I will address your questions sequentially.
My question deals with seeking further information on how students in a specific class taught by a specific lecturer would navigate the corpus to maximize learning. You bring forth issues like prior knowledge and different curriculum sequences (some schools may cover kinetics before equilibria, others after; some cover gasses before thermo, others after.) So it seems you need both, multiple navigational pathways and different Teaching and Learning Objects [read instructional material] within those pathways, that is dependent on those pathways. How do you do that?
Yes and no. We have about 10,000-15,000 Modules on the ChemWiki and about 2,000 in the rest of the STEMWIkis in the greater Hyperlibrary project. Certainly there is a lot to cut through, since we are trying to develop a virtually and horizontally integrated resource that naturally address topics at multiple levels of sophistication and context. If one looks at the sidebar of the STEMWikis, one will see three categories: the Core, Wikitexts, and Textbook Maps. The first two are addressed in the CONFCHEM paper; Wikitexts mirror content in the core to generate the flow/theme needed for an individual’s class. Textbook Maps are an attempt to recreate that for existing textbooks (to facilitate adoption). Faculty do not need to recreate the wheel to generate a Wikitext for their class and can pursue the existing Wikitexts; then they can be adapted to that instructor’s specific desires. For example, Josh Halperns’ first semester Wikitext here (http://chemwiki.ucdavis.edu/Wikitexts/Howard_University/General_Chemistry%3A_An_Atoms_First_Approach) can be contrasted to Dr. Hayashi’s first quarter Wikitext (sorry that this is closed as part of the pilot we are doing) or contrasted to Prof. Bennett’s GOB wikitext: http://chemwiki.ucdavis.edu/Wikitexts/Sacramento_City_College/SCC%3A_Chem_309.
As the library of Wikitexts (and Textbook Maps) grows, it will be more useful to faculty constructing their own Wikitexts (and we are growing quickly, so please check back in the future).
Part II to Bob's questions will be posted in a moment.
Delmar
Achievement measures
On the achievement measures: I saw the national attitude survey, and the exam comparison between sections, but was there a measurement of achievement versus a national standard (such as the ACS Gen Chem Exam or AP Chem test)? Results on those depend on the characteristics of the population which must be considered, but without a standard to measure by, can we tell how much at the end students know?
Achievement measures
I am impressed with the extent of the work that has already gone into the ChemWiki. We use the ACS exams as a standardized way to measure our performance across the department and in comparison to the national norms, so I agree with Eric that it would be very helpful to see how students perform against such a standardized measure. I also wondered if there was any evidence of a Hawthorne effect in the results?
Hawthorne effect
William:
Thanks for the kind comments. Clearly, syncing up our evaluation efforts to the national standard deserves attention and is something I honestly didn't pursue, but will. As for the Hawthorne effect, are you suggesting that the ChemWiki class (of 500 students) of the pilot may have studied more because they knew they were in a pilot? Or that the Petrucci section may have studied less?
Regards,
Delmar
A question rather than a
A question rather than a suggestion. The Hawthorne effect (also referred to as the observer effect) refers to a phenomenon whereby individuals improve or modify an aspect of their behavior in response to their awareness of being observed. I wondered if you had noticed anything like that occurring.
Hawthorne effect
William:
I am unsure of how to spot that effect in this case, honestly. That doesn't mean is it not there though. One way to test that out is to compare usage patterns of the ChemWiki (what page, when, length of reaching, which page to go to next or log off) across different classes (pilot and non-pilot) and see how they compare. My opinion is that since the students did not have any feedback over the length of the 10 week pilot discuss here, that they did not experience the sustained cues to initiate a Hawthorne effect. I can imagine if I were to provide constant feedback to the students on their progress/evaluation that this may change. It is an interesting question though and one I will consider in the future. Thanks for the suggestion.
Delmar
Syncing up to National Standards
Eric:
Good questions. We will have a more detailed discussion of the pilot protocols in an Educause Brief next month and then an even more detailed discussion in a formal chem. ed. journal later on in the year. The evaluation of efficacy of the CheMWiki was not only based on comparisons between the two sections, but also in comparison to other sections in the department (past and present). Now, the question then is how to compare the UCD departmental standard to the national standard. Marco Molinaro, as Director of the UCD iAMSTEM Hub (http://iamstem.ucdavis.edu) has been implementing data driven analytics within our education efforts; I am sure he can address that aspect better than me, but he is out of town at the moment. I do know that the instruments used to establish the learning gains (normalized to socioeconomic factors) were modeled, in part, from past ACS exams, so there is likely a correlation that can be constructed. I am sure I can get a more detailed response if you give me a day to confirm.
Delmar
Assessments
As with any study you have to make choices in what assessments you are using. It is a balancing act between the information you gain, the logistics of implementation, and the extent to which students are willing to participate.
Here are a couple reasons why we used a pre/post content exam instead of an ACS exam.
We wanted control over the content of the exam. The pre/post content exam used in the ChemWiki experiment was part a of larger course assessments occurring in our general classes. We found found that three classes, Chem 2A, 2B, and 2C, in our General Chemistry course sequence covers material in a different order while also covering a lot more material. Having our students take one of the ACS exams would be testing them on material that they learned either one or two quarters before taking Chem 2C, when the ChemWiki was not implemented. To have a specific Chem 2C exam we would have had to take questions from a variety of different ACS exams because of the way in which we cover the material.
Another reason we did not choose to use an ACS exam that the ACS doesn't allow for the exam to be given as a pre/post. Without the option of a pre/post we could not have measured student specific learning gains. We believe that normalized learning gains are a better way for measuring the amount of knowledge gained by the students in the course. It accounts for any incoming prior knowledge and focuses more how much a student learns vs how much a student knows.
We felt that it was more important to have normalized learning gains and logistically easier to develop our own exam rather than using the ACS exam. I know that there are other standardized exams that we could have possibly used, but the reality was that an in house pre/post exam gave us the information we needed and could be easily developed.
Tailoring a Wiki for an Individual instructor
Bob's comment about textbook authorship is right on the money. Textbook authors write the entire textbook and make it a coherent whole, not a set of individual sections that are not necessarily designed to help a student make connections. The textbook of which Conrad Stanitski and I are co-authors (Moore and Stanitski, Chemistry: The Molecular Science; Cengage, 5th ed. 2014) contains hundreds of cross references by which a student can find information related to the section currently being read. In the online version of the book these are hyperlinks. These were all carefully designed to help student see the bigger picture and relate what they learned earlier to what they are studying now. That this works is attested to by this comment that I received (unsolicited) from a student in one of my classes:
What makes the Moore textbook better?
• relation of chemistry concepts to real-world examples
• analogies of chemistry concepts to every-day circumstances
• relation of chemistry to biology---makes chemistry easier to remember by relating it to other knowledge/interests the student may have
• problem-solving examples written out step-by-step, followed by similar problem-solving practice
• italicization of important concepts
• clear transition of topics (defined with italicization, paragraphs, section headings)--some books examine opposite topics under same section headings, just dividing them by paragraphs. This was confusing when trying to contrast topics, and muddled them in my mind.
• re-use of example reactions across different topics: One of the main problems with reactions that exemplify points in a textbook, is that for each example reaction the student has to familiarize themselves with the reaction before examining it in the light the textbook is hoping to emphasize. By examining the same example reaction across multiple topics, the Moore textbook allows the student to become very familiar with the reaction so they can easily focus on examining it in the desired light.
• clear definition of all vocabulary words WITHIN the chapters as well as in the glossary
• highlight of practice questions relating to each main topic in "In Closing" section
• summary problems connecting many main ideas at the end of chapters (good practice for problems that might be encountered on exams)
• all tables/charts (that I have encountered) are easily understood and CORRECT
Notice particularly the item "re-use of example reactions across different topics" which will almost certainly be absent in a wiki text written by diverse authors, unless someone takes the time to edit the wiki text very thoroughly.
Ed Vitz of Kutztown University (now retired), Justin Shorb (who at that time was a graduate student here at University of Wisconsin-Madison and is now at Hope College), and I produced a complete, coherent, free, online textbook for general chemistry in 2009 and published it through the Chemical Education Digital Library ChemEd DL. The wiki version is still available at http://wiki.chemprime.chemeddl.org/index.php/Main_Page. In addition, Justin and I produced ChemPaths, a way to select information from the wiki and present it in any order to make up a customized online textbook for a course. Several such textbooks are available online at the ChemPaths part of the ChemEd DL website (http://chempaths.chemeddl.org/services/chempaths/). The site is designed so that anyone can create their own ChemPath through the content of general chemistry, using the entries for gen chem topics in the wiki.
The ChemEd DL website has been turned over to the ACS which was to maintain it in perpetuity. Unfortunately, last summer I received notice from the ACS that both ChemPrime (the wiki) and ChemPaths (the drupal-based site for creating customized textbooks) were likely to be taken down because the only people using them were here at UW-Madison and the sites have been hacked. The hacking is mainly because ACS has not updated the underlying software.
ChemEd DL also has something else that has been requested in the discussion of Delmar's paper: a complete set of online questions suitable for course management systems such as Moodle and Blackboard. These are available at http://moodle.chemeddl.org/. To get to the full set of questions you have to certify that you are a teacher (not a student). There are questions for gen chem, organic, and p. chem. The Moodle site that hosts these questions is also under threat of being taken down by ACS. So get your questions now--you may not be able to a year from now.
My final comment is that I have used the wiki textbook in classes since fall 2009. It is free to students. Nevertheless, most students prefer a printed textbook. Some will even print out the wiki textbook (which is another feature ChemPaths provides) so that they don't have to read/study online. Online textbooks have not yet gotten to the point where they are replacing printed textbooks.
None of this should be construed as critical of what Delmar is doing. He can attest that I have written letters of support for his NSF proposals, which I have done because the ChemWiki project is a good one.
Picking and Choosing
John,
I agree with many of your points, but some points of agreement lead me to disagree with your overall view. Major Agreement: Textbooks tell a coherent story, and a well written textbook tells a wonderful, and pedagogically efficient, story.
But here’s the thing. Most, if not all, teachers have a story of their own to tell. Further, for a given student audience (non-majors in my case), there is not only one correct way to tell this story. My only evidence for my next point is a lifetime of listening to many colleagues. Many teachers do not like all aspects of the textbook they are currently using. Consequently, they do one of two things if they have the choice - not all do have the choice. They either write a textbook or pick and choose chapters from an existing textbook. In other words, a teacher picking and choosing to tell a story their way is already being done with classic textbooks.
As to the current shortcomings of pick and choose, I agree with you. But in your own case, you imply that a writing style change has allowed you to do this with ChemPaths. We are now dealing with a younger generation that understands and uses the writing style of blogs, a writing style structured for non-sequential reading. Such non-sequential writing is already apparent in some of ChemWiki’s Core and Wiki-Text paths.
Finally, reading from a tablet is becoming more and more the norm. To be sure, having to be on-line is a hassle, but even that can and will go away. Of course, ebooks make it go away right now, but even an interactive Web page can be run locally with no Internet connection. Our Virtual Molecular Model Kit is a fairly complex Web page that demands many resources. I can currently run it without Internet connectivity, and I plan to make the zip file required to do this available at some point in 2015.
The ChemWiki project is fairly young, and it has some development to do. My gut feeling is, however, that it has the potential to provide a viable alternative to the classic bound textbook approach. We teach for a lot of reasons, but first and foremost, I think we are story tellers. Most of us want to tell our own story.
Otis
Textbook style
HI, maybe worth noting that in many institutions a 1st year course might be assigned to numerous teaching staff all with different teaching styles and mannerisms! So it is not just the textbook Chapters that may come across a little different but the interaction with the student by the staff member can be quite different. I recall my own first year with 1000 students that the Dept was forced to distribute tickets to the Physical Chemistry Lectures since 1 of the streams was given by a young energetic and popular staff member and another done by a more restrained senior staff member who had a habit of talking to the black board and not to the class. The fire service got wind that hundreds above the legal limit were cramming in to the lecture theatre and hence you could only get it if you had a ticket!
Classic Bound Textbook is Disappearing
In response to Otis, the "classic bound textbook" has already disappeared. My textbook (published by Cengage, not the online one) has an online only version (at a much lower cost). It also has the option, which we have used here at UW-Madison for a decade now) of getting only the chapters you want in a paperback version (lower than bound text, but more than online). A student can also purchase a loose-leaf version for binding in a notebook at a lower cost.
I agree that reading from a tablet is more common, but my surveys of students (done as part of the evaluation of the online, free textbook starting in 2009) shows that studying online, where there are lots of distractions, isn't as common.
The purpose of the ChemPaths project was to allow every instructor to create/tell his or her story, but not that many have availed themselves of the opportunity. In ChemPrime and ChemPaths we worked hard to remove things (such as chapter numbers, section numbers) that would imply a specific order of presentation, with the express purpose of making it easier to tell your own story. The textbook I constructed for my class was not the order that I wrote back in the 1970s when Bill Davies and I wrote the version that is now online. Nevertheless, for now at least, if the story is also told in much the same way in print, many students will still spend money to purchase a hardbound book.
I will repeat that I am a strong supporter of ChemWiki and have been since Delmar first contacted me about it. This is mainly for the information of CCCE Newsletter readers based on my experience to date.
Classic Bound Textbooks
John,
* "the 'classic bound textbook' has already disappeared..."
You're going to have to explain this statement to my UF freshman granddaughter and her father's bank account ;-)
On a serious note, cellulose based book expenses are still out of sight for students, but that's not the main point of my comments. I simply think that Delmar is on a good track for offering a publishers' textbook alternative - not just on a nice wiki track. That alternative would take the publishers out of the picture, and I don't think that's all bad. Let me be clear here. I have nothing against publishing company textbooks. I just think an alternative is a healthy thing.
Otis
The real cost of textbooks
Surveying my students, just over 50 % still prefer printed texts even at the additional cost. The reasons range are numerous: tactile learning, easier to annotate, not requiring internet, not as easily distracted, get to keep it after 6/12 months.
I've looked into it: a full color 1000 page textbook costs between 20 and 40 $ to print, depending on volume. (200 copies = 40 $; > 5000 copies = 20 $) These are printed in North America, not Asia. A b/w 1000 page textbook costs half the amount. What is reasonable corporate revenue per book -- 20 to 40 $ (it's currently 80 to 120 $)? Bookstore mark-ups are around 33 % -- yes, institutions are making a killing on textbook sales. In another post, I commented that institutions are looking to license faculty work, this is a reason why.
So: a 160 $ textbook is divied up as
printing cost: 20 $
corporate revenue: 100 $ (royalties, shipping, etc.)
bookstore revenue: 40 $
My idea is to create a resource that departments can customize and sell it for reasonable revenue generation.
textbook costs
Roy:
Interesting numbers that are nice to know. I do know bookstore markups are often around 50% for textbooks (I worked in one for several years), but that pales in comparison to the typically 100% in most other items (where most of the bookstore profit originates). However, I am not of the opinion that textbookstores are the problem regarding textbook prices.
Regarding paper-based vs. online preferences, I would counter that when my students (and others that have used the ChemWiki in class rooms) are given a choice to purchase a $200 hardbound text vs. a free, unencumbered and none-disappearing (after the course is over) Wikitext, there is >95% agreement for using the wikitext irrespective of the arguments often given for purchasing hardbound textbooks.
I have no personal problem with faculty making revenue of their textbook efforts, I just prefer to cultivate/enable the efforts of faculty that are more concern with supporting the greater picture of improving STEM education rather than profits.
Cheers,
Delmar
random thoughts
Congratulations to all the ChemWiki folks. I am hugely impressed by what you're done.
I've been hesitant to contribute because I must confess that I haven't read all the messages, and the messages I have read haven't been read in a order. Despite this, I thought I'd make a comment or two. I have been self-publishing my textbook for some time, and I've created a lot of online tools to support it. My comments are mostly related to that. See preparatorychemistry.com.
No matter what the format is for learning tools, I think that it's very important that the students (and to some extent instructors) be guided in their use of the tools. The learning of chemistry should be seen as a cumulative process with each topic flowing logically into the next. If a text (electronic or printed) presents a closely knit story of chemistry, it provides this guidance. I'm concerned that there is a trend toward presenting instructors and students with a buffet of learning tools and allowing them to create their own story. I like the idea, but I wonder if there's a risk of losing the thread that ties it all together. Do I have the correct impression that ChemWiki has overseers who make sure that instructors who want to use the ChemWiki will find a core text that provides the close knit story? For example, is there someone who checks to be sure that sections written and revised by different people don't use scientific terms that haven't been defined before or present material that requires an understanding of concepts that have not been explained? Is there someone who holds the whole structure of a text in their head and reads all of the chapters to be sure that they provide the necessary connections?
I think that it's admirable for people to spend huge amounts for time on a worthwhile project for no financial compensation, but I think that it's also worth pointing out that it's also OK for us to get some financial return. I think that I owe it to my family to make a few bucks from the huge number of hours spent on my project. There is a middle ground between giving the books away for free and publishing with a large academic publisher and selling books for over $200 each. I've figured out a way to provide books to students for between $0 and $79.95 and still send my son to college with no students loans and take my wife out to dinner now and then. If anyone is interested to know how I do this, please let me know.
It's a small point for this discussion, and I could be wrong, but I think that the most common college bookstore markup is 25%, which means that 25% of the final price is bookstore profit. You get the total by multiplying the wholesale price by 4/3, which is probably where Roy gets his 33%. For example, I sell my books to the bookstores for $57.56, and they sell them for $79.95. This is a pretty modest markup compared to other products.
The large academic publishers pay a lot less for printing than the $20 per book mentioned by Roy. For example, for my text that is a bit over 800 pages, I pay a little over $11 per book for print runs of 3000 books. The books are just like the big boys print: full-color, offset printed on quality paper, and hard bound. I'm sure that the large academic publishers pay significantly less for their books.
Mark Bishop
capitalism is ok by me, gouging is not.
Dear Mark:
Your online effort was the first that I reviewed when starting the ChemWiki (along with Senese's site at Frostburg State U) and I am quite impressed with your success in cutting into the textbook market as a self-publisher. From your talk at BCCE (where I got one of your hardbound books, BTW), you clearly have a polished and well honed model that appears to work well for you.
I would like to argue that I am not against capitalism in any respect, but capitalism works when the people that make the decision to purchase specific textbook are the people that pay. The current textbook model does not do that and the normal checks and balances that keeps markets reasonable are absent with textbooks. It is not surprising that textbook prices are growing at three-fold higher rate than inflation (CPI) and at a higher rate than health insurance and matching real estate prices in the middle '00s (right before the bubble burst). I would also add that the ChemWiki is capitalistic in the sense that if we do not generate a product that can compete in quality with existing textbook alternatives, then we would fail in our primary goal. So, I support your commercial efforts; I just do not feel it fits with my personal philosophy of how education should be funded.
I think we are in agreement that that bookstores are not the primary origin of the high textbook prices and the numbers you gave are very interesting. I would like to talk to you if/when we toy with binding a Wikitext, or series of wikitexts, for our chem series (at cost or free to students).
Regards,
Delmar
capitalism and gouging
I agree that the textbook market is a strange one with instructors choosing the product and students paying the price, but fortunately for the sales of my book, many instructors are interested enough in saving their students money to seriously consider adopting it for their classes.
I'd be glad to share my experience with printing and other aspects of self-publishing if you get to the place where you think that would be useful.
Mark Bishop
Textboo costs
I dislike the implication that my use of a well-edited, well-written textbook developed by an author and publishing company automatically makes me insensitive to student costs for a course. I believe that the efforts of an outstanding author and of the editing, graphics, etc of a publisher deserve appropriate payment. The cost division cited above indicating huge 'profits' by publishers ignores the real problem with traditional published textbooks. You have to recognize that most textbook sales generates NO revenue for publisher or author! After the first year of use for a textbook, the majority of sales are used textbooks resulting in profits on for a bookstore or online reseller. I consider bookstores to provide minimal value-added to a textbook. This issue is also the driver of the rapid revision cycle for textbooks. The fact that revenue for publisher and author comes from only about 1/3 of all purchases means that these costs are unevenly distributed among stents taking a course. The dollars to publisher per sale is much more reasonable per student if every student is contributing.
I also have to have all 5-7 faculty teaching first-semester organic covering essentially the same material because they will likely have a different faculty member for the second semester. A well-organized text with a logical order of topics is required. Even more important to our faculty is a well-integrated online homework system that can serve as a strong learning tool for students (not an assessment tool). The homework system is the mechanism by which we even out the costs for our students.
We require all of our students to purchase a bundle that includes as a minimum a) 24-month access to online homework system b) 24-month access to online e-book c) and 24-month access to online Study Guide and Solutions Manual. This is purchased direct from publisher. For $20 additional cost, the student gets a loose-leaf copy of text-book at a total cost less than that for a used textbook from Amazon. The bundle with the loose-leaf text is also available through local bookstores (+ markup) for students that must use bookstore (scholarships, etc.). Widespread use of this model would reduce the tyranny of 3-year revision cycles for authors.
We have found multiple-author texts, even with editing help to have issues that lead to student confusion. The advantage of the ChemWiki approach is that chemists are doing the editing. Since I am retiring soon, I will follow developments with interest, but will be unable to take advantage of what is developed. Good luck.
Was I misunderstood?
kharding,
Your post follows mine, so I wonder if it's a reaction to my post. If it was, I want to say that it certainly was not my intention to suggest that instructors who adopt traditional publisher-produced textbooks are insensitive. I was just pointing out that even though students ultimately pay the price of the text, many instructors consider cost as one of the components of their adoption decision. The third paragraph of your post suggests that this is true for you too. I totally agree with you that having a well-edited, well-written text is of paramount importance.
Mark
Other costs
I don't disagree that textbook costs are high but I think you've glossed over a lot of expenses that have to be covered in "corporate revenue" such as graphic design, reviewing content, supplementary materials, etc.
publisher costs
I'm not sure this is the correct forum to act as an apologist for the large academic publishers, but I agree with Allison Soult that they have a lot of expenses that we might not think about. There are acquisition editors, developmental editors, copy editors, artists, photo experts, layout people, sales folks, buildings to house all these people, storage facilities for book, shipping clerks, and executives to oversee it all. I've been told that most published textbooks lose money, so the publishers need to charge enough to support those books. When I was working with Benjamin Cummings (Pearson) for the first publication of my text, I wondered how they could sell their books for a low a price as they do. One theory was that it was a money laundering scheme for the mob. (Probably not.) The way to bring the cost of textbooks down is to find a new model for producing the books. The ChemWiki model is one alternative, but I wonder if the model of trying to produce a quality and coherent product without compensating the contributors financially is sustainable. As I pointed out in my last post, I think that there's middle ground where contributors are compensated and students get low-cost quality textbooks.
Mark Bishop
Sustainability
The topic of sustainability is an important aspect to consider. In contrast to conventional textbooks, where to maintain a viable presence in the market, many financial aspects need to be addressed (as nicely discussed above in Mark’s and Allison's posts) including constant reprinting. I am being snarky here, these include superficial efforts to scramble the problem set numbers and/or chapter so that new editions look different.
The ChemWiki clearly doesn’t have those aspects. It is true that my development team and I are the driving force behind building it now (empowered by the content of highly progressive thinking contributors), but our only cost, if we were to stop developing right now, would be hosting. While this is not minor cost, I am convinced that one of a range of possible mechanisms can be implemented to address that (public begging vis-à-vi Wikipedia’s model is one option).
If only 1% of 1% of the chemistry faculty in America were to work in developing and maintaining content in the ChemWiki (which does not change rapidly, like the content in the fast developing BioWiki), then the content will always be up to date. And let’s not ignore talented students (both grad and undergrad) that may also want to work on the project.
Honestly, I am far less concerned about sustainability as I am about development, at this point of construction of the ChemWiki. I would like impress upon the community that the ChemWiki will be around (in one form or another) for the immediate and foreseeable future baring catastrophic collapse.
Regards,
Delmar
I agree there are other costs ...
... and maximizing shareholder profit needs to be on that list. However, many of these are one-time costs. And big publishers are being skimpy too: have you noticed the same figures and even the same text in different textbooks?
Finally, if other, less expensive, options are available for comparable quality, why pay for a Rolex when a Timex does the same thing?
@Mark: is your printing done in North America or Asia? Also: can you add my email address to your white list. The only address I have is info@chiral... and your spam filter at relay.mailchannels.net blocks me without giving me an option to whitelist my email address. Unless of course you don't want to whitelist me. :(
SMILE!
Roy Jensen
printing and email
I use Four Colour Print Group for printing. It's a print broker in Louisville, Kentucky. They find printers who do the highest quality work for the lowest cost, which turns out to be in Asia. I like them very much (http://www.fourcolour.com). By the way, the $11 per book printing cost includes shipping to the door of my barn.
My website (http://preparatorychemistry.com) is littered with links to my email (mbishop@chiralpublishingcompany.com), but I will also add you to my email distribution list reserved for my most valued colleagues.
Mark Bishop
Printing and email
Mark:
Given that Wikibooks are much less expensive for the students, which is excellent, has anyone considered how to increase the wages of the workers making those books in Asia? I do not know how much they earn, but I suspect it is much less than someone doing similar work here and perhaps not even a living wage there. This is why, of course, at least in part, the work gets done in Asia. So, lower cost for the students AND higher wages for the Asian workers. A win/win so to speak.
A gedanken experiment
Dear John:
These is valuable information. I would be interested in assessing similar features in the ChemWiki (online vs. offline, i.e., printed versions). Would you be willing to share the survey(s) with me? I would like to pose a 'gedanken' experiment that I often do to the general discussion:
The mechanisms you mentioned (online only, loose leaf versions, select chapters) and other like renting clearly reduce the cost of new textbooks to students (and should be greatly lauded as options for students/faculty). However, they also reduce profits for publishers for direct sales who only benefit from cutting the 2nd hand market. I think this does not make up the total loss of revenue and is only allowed to exist since few classes/students/faculty actually adopt them. Now, major textbook publishers (minus Norton) are publicly traded and hence have a fiduciary responsibility to maximize profit. If every student/faculty/class adopts similar cost saving efforts that reduce the bottom line of profits for publishers, what will be the end result?
I propose that textbook prices will compensate (like Le Chatelier's principle) and increase to preserve the bottom line. I cannot imagine any alternatives. This is why I think the only viable long term solution is a solution that removes publishers from the game. This is just my opinion and I welcome the thoughts of others than feel I am too much a cynic, but after watching textbook prices the past two decades, I cannot come to any other solution.
However, this only address costs. The goal of the ChemWiki is to take the organizational approached that the ChemEd DL demonstrated in its development to address improving chemistry education (both cost and quality). As with the ChemEd DL, a vibrant community is required to keep it running and I hope to develop a self-sustaining one in the near future.
Cheers,
Delmar
I think one thing that John
I think one thing that John has mentioned and can be expanded upon is whether students actually use online materials in a way that we perceive them. In much of my research I asked questions such as "Where do you use this?" and "What times were you using your textbook?" to get after what sort of cultural aspects textbooks play. I have used similar questions since then, and even while I used an online textbook through Sapling Learning (Olmsted and Williams) at my previous institution (University of the Virgin Islands). There were marked technology cultural differences between a primarily commuter campus with weaker HS backgrounds and those students at UW-Madison with high incoming predictors of success. We see what we want to see, often, and I thought students used the ChemPaths textbook a lot at UW because I saw it frequently on people's screens! However, I must be biased (obviously) as I missed the frequent use of hardcopy textbooks! Even students who were not assigned hardcopies would buy hardcopies and as John said: they largely preferred them at UW. However, at UVI, the opposite was true. They wanted portable, light, and cheap ways to access knowledge.
A lot has to do with how you help students learn to study. If you have students who have excelled in high schools where they were required to outline chapters in textbooks, highlight, and take paper notes from hardcopy, they will have more difficulty in adapting to a new study technique (as John alluded to in his courses). However, many students I have had that had little study skills training in HS were more flexible and willing to change. The advent of online materials in more and more HS courses will surely impact the culture of our students and this should not be overlooked when discussing these items.
As part of John and I's work, we published a book chapter on the development of ChemPaths and it included a set of "Twenty questions for developers/adopters of online textbook replacements" based on hypertext design theories, chemistry representational theories, and content considerations. I would highly suggest that this be at least reviewed as it was very influential in how John and I redesigned ChemPaths into its current state. (http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/bk-2010-1060.ch015 ). I would be happy to share any of the questions/analysis methods that were used. After all, I was in many discussions with the ChemWiki group and remain a supporter of the project as theirs grows from a community and focused on content sharing whereas in many ways ChemPaths/ChemPRIME often struggled with building community, but did a lot of focused work on student use and cohesive content production (ChemPaths/ChemPRIME started as a single textbook that was redesigned based on pedagogical design principles as per my thesis work). I have always enjoyed discussions about coming at this interesting problem from two different starting points. I hope the ChemWiki community hits critical mass... ChemPRIME I do not think ever did and I've often lamented that!
Thanks,
Justin
Response 1: Prime Time
John:
Thank you for your kind words and the past (and hopefully future) support of the ChemWiki (cue request for another letter). To refrain from posting long comments, I am going to cut up my response (and proceed backwards) to your comment into bite-sized pieces.
The evidence from the bookstore community is that students are changing their practice regarding e-texts (commercial or otherwise) vs. conventional books. The advent of the Smartphone is getting students comfortable in reading long prose online. At the moment of writing this, 29% of all students on the ChemWiki are assessing it via Mobile phones (63% via computers and 7% via tablets). We are using the Wikitexts in the ChemWiki in our classes (with assessment confirming they work), so I would argue they are ready, or can be, for prime time. The work you did with developing the ChemEdDL lead the way, no doubt, in getting us there. It is a very impressive project.
Regards,
Delmar
Response 2: Existing Questions
John:
Regarding the ChemDl’s questions. Are they open access or can I adopt them within the ChemWiki under the same protection guarantee? If so, I would gladly host them (and integrate into our growing database).
Delmar
Response 3: ChemPrime
John:
I have had an interest in integrating the ChemPrime content, which was based on your excellent textbook, into the ChemWiki. If there is a clock ticking on the content and if you give me permission (I think your Creative Commons license technically allows me, but I like to ask first), then we can start the integration next month (earlier if needed).
Regards,
Delmar
Response 4: Continuity
John:
The work you, Vitz, and Schrob did with both the ChemPrime and ChemPath is impressive and deserves noting and I should, and will, do so more often. The comments from the student are also very valuable (thanks for sharing), which I will look carefully at in formulating recommended wikitexts.
The clause that I would like emphasize in your comment is the “…unless someone takes the time to edit the wiki text very thoroughly.” Because, we are spending the time, and it is just given our current financial and volunteer support, it is taking a while (hint to anyone wanting to help out). I would point out that it is typically not an unexpected concern/result in comparing new texts (whether conventional or Wiki-based) to texts that have been established for years, if not decades and have had many faculty, students, editors, reviewers pour over with countless thousands of hours. I tend to ask people to maintain an open mind and that they are concerned with the present snapshot of ChemWiki, then take a look in a year (we have ~1000 edits a week occurring) as we are changing rapidly. Or better yet, help out.
Regards,
Delmar
Licensing of the ChemWiki
This post contains a few rambling observations. My apologies. I am impressed with the ChemWiki project, but have questions regarding sustainability and the Creative Commons licensing model.
I know that Creative Commons is all the rage these days, but not every instructor believes their intellectual property has zero value. Authors and publishers believe they have value. And I am aware of several institutions who are keen to 'appropriate' the IP of any instructor who will assign/license it for free. For example, the material on the ChemEd DL is not Creative Commons. And the licensing agreement does not even allow users to use it in their classrooms! The Terms page is silent as to the ability of ChemEd DL to commercialize the material, but a lack of clear licensing rights will lead to disagreements ... and litigation.
In another post, you mention that the Wikitext can be locally bound at cost. I'm pretty certain this violates the CC-NC attribution. CreativeCommons defines commercial as activities "primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or monetary compensation". (https://wiki.creativecommons.org/NonCommercial_interpretation) "At cost" has no legal meaning, so it could include the wages of the person running the copier, the wages of the person distributing the books to students, the wages of the supervisor, the storage costs, etc. If an organization wishes to spend money printing CC material, that's fine, but they cannot pass those costs onto the recipient and must distribute the printed work FREE. Similarly, a webhost cannot charge users a small fee for access to the Wikitext. I'm sure we could have a lively debate as to whether a CC textbook could be used to prepare a commercial MOOC. (My take is no.)
Regarding ChemWiki, I'm not sure there always be enough capable instructors willing to donate their time to integrate new information into the ever-expanding corpus of information and copy-edit the work of others. You mention that commercial hosting of the ChemWiki project would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. With no revenue stream, this may not be sustainable.
I am actually very against traditional publishers that make obscene profits off of students. I'm working on an article, but my idea is more of a 'managed development' model that is seen with some software companies. This would allow many people the opportunity to contribute to the development, recognize a core group of developers who manage integration and continuity of the living document, and allow the work to be licensed for things like institutional customization and 'at cost' distribution.
ChemPrime and Creative Commons
The notice on ChemEd DL as a whole was put there by the ACS. Originally all of ChemEd DL was creative commons. Neither I nor anyone else who contributed to ChemEd DL intended to profit from it or ever go commercial. The notice currently on ChemPrime is "Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported." Because the ACS wants to get rid of ChemPrime and ChemPaths (as well as the Moodle site with all of the questions) I am sure they would agree (assuming they actually needed to agree--they never asked my permission to put greater restrictions on my material) to porting it somewhere else.
Only the copyright owner can change the license!
If I understand correctly:
* ChemEd DL was developed under a CC license.
* Upon moving to ACS, the ACS removed the CC license and put the current one on the website.
The ACS can't do that!
Only the copyright owner can change the license or license under multiple licenses.
Agree
I agree strongly. Unless the paperwork for the transfer also gave them ownership, they cannot modify the licensing nor cannot negate the prior licensing (of the applicable content when active).
The license on the ChemPRIME
The license on the ChemPRIME Wiki remains under the CC license. The content that is a part of the ChemEd DL has always been under various licenses from the initial forming of the Digital Library. As far as I know, ACS did not change any of the existing Copyrights that were in place when we left it (unless they changed some resulting from changes in the JCE library materials, which were never CC to begin with and are owned by JCE and therefore can be changed by them). But as long as ChemPRIME has CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0 on the website, feel free to use and share! Attribution is all that is required. Even if you see that disappear, I have copies of it that were taken while it was CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0 and they will remain that for as long as I have copies!
As for the rest of ChemEd DL - there have always been different licenses for different content areas and those licenses are available within those subcontent areas - much like different items in any library.
Of course, ChemWiki can always provide free copies of free material and only charge for the envelope :-)
"Zero value" properties, NC licensing, susatainability
Roy:
Thanks for the kind words. I disagree with your premise that open-access (or CC) means intellectual property has "zero value." It just means zero-profit. Many faculty construct content with the goal bettering the common society, rather than personal profit (I think all my contributors fall in that category) or for exposure with public bylines and links to their site/project. This is especially enabled in academics, where our salaried positions often encourage such "service" activities (e.g., Broader Impacts in NSF grants). I know this is not the case everywhere though.
The aspect of commercialization in CC-NC licensing is actually vague and is discussed a lot in licensing discussions. Even CC argues that "the [NC] definition is intent-based and intentionally flexible...." Many people and most of my collaborators would support printing and binding costs as non-commercial and that is enough for me. The definition you proposed is not a widely-held interpretation for NC, but one that I have heard before. I agree with you that CC-NC textbooks cannot be used for commercial MOOCs. Most schools are not-for-profit institutions though (at least wrt IRS).
Regarding sustainability: We have plans that have been under discussion for sustained support and crowdfunding and campus or student support are two options (ads are not). Yes, commercial costs are high, but that was expressed to emphasized the quality of high level support/service that Mindtouch is providing us; the nature of our agreement is an internal matter. I would comment that Wikipedia's donation approach works, due in part to their ubiquity. The same could work for the ChemWiki (which has between 0.5 to 0.7% of Wikipedia's traffic) with 4.3 million visitors/month and doubling each year.
We are on the same wavelength with traditional textbooks publishing and I was thrilled with your presentation at BCCE this summer of your new book (your flaming card is still in front my computer). I also feel alternatives like the model you proposed has merit, I just prefer a fully open access resource as I think that approach has the greatest chance of truly addressing the textbook cost problem due to the lack of financial "energy barrier" to adoption. However, that is my opinion of course and we will have to wait to see if I am correct.
Cheers,
Delmar
NC
Creative Commons commissioned a survey in 2009 to get an idea of what Creators and Users perceived as commercial and non-commercial.
http://mirrors.creativecommons.org/defining-noncommercial/Defining_Noncommercial_fullreport.pdf
Page 180: the majority of respondents perceive 'cost recovery sales' to constitute commercial activity.
Page 187: 60 - 80 % consider 'cost recovery sales' to constitute commercial activity.
Page 195: 57 % consider use by tuition-charging school a commercial activity. (this surprises me)
I am surprised by the last number. I was expecting schools to be considered differently by the users. The response rate was not high (~500 respondents).
May I recommend a note in the Terms that clarify your interpretation of NC and possibly link to the appropriate pages of CC for support?
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Roy Jensen
good info
Roy:
Odd that my personal queries disagree with those statistics. I will take your advice and clarify it in more detail sometime in winter quarter.
Delmar
Things of Value
Hi Roy,
I know it's not a textbook, but I think the Jmol Project is an excellent similar case in point. It is a quality piece of work assembled by a committee. I must add that it is a committee with an strong and talented (brilliant comes to mind) chair, Bob Hanson. People will give away quality work. Peter Ertl and JME also comes to my mind.
I recently wrote a Florida Bird Photography eBook. I don't know if it's quality, but it's a lot of blood (literally), sweat, and tears. I was looking for a guide for my copyright page that would carry my intent. I stumbled across Woody Guthrie's approach, an approach that I borrowed for my eBook:
"This song is Copyrighted in U.S., under Seal of Copyright #154085, for a period of 28 years, and anybody caught singin it without our permission, will be mighty good friends of ours, cause we don't give a darn. Publish it. Write it. Sing it. Swing to it. Yodel it. We wrote it, that's all we wanted to do." W. Guthrie
Many creative people will give away quality work.
Otis
JMol, Moodle, Wordpress, ...
All of these are quality products. I have two different points to make:
* All are backed by a core group of developers. Everyone can make suggestions and submit code, but only the core developers can commit code. This maintain the quality of the code (although I remember being at a conference and one of the core developers scrambling because his commit broke the program). :)
* These programs are licensed under GPL, which allows others to integrate their programs into commercial products. So there is no a commercial interest in seeing Moodle, Wordpress, and others succeed (not sure about JMol).
I mentioned I was writing an article encouraging 'managed development', I mention ChemWiki in the article because it has a managed development foundation and is the best scientific example I have seen of 'managed development' of instructional material.
Roy Jensen
Roy,
Roy,
Thank you for raising these issues.
As one of the developers/contributors, I understand the concerns and wanted to chime in with my experience with one of the platforms, Jmol, which prior to Oracle's acquiring the IP rights to Java, was robust, easy to code, and relatively easy for servers to deliver. Since Java security issues came up, and the incessant Java updates, the user experience has been seriously impacted making Jmol unsuitable for easy student use, and making Jmol problematic. It has taken time to have the talented, committed open-source Jmol community to find a solution, but they have with Java scripting.
As you noted in your threaded comments, there are many challenges, but I have found with patience they have been surmountable and in the case of the ChemWiki largely due to Delmar's resilience, understanding of technology, and his ability to adapt the ChemWiki to meet technical challenges. If Delmar chooses to go down this thread he can relate many, many stories over the course of the ChemWiki's development.
cheers, Ron
ChemWiki and TLOs (Teaching and Learning Objects)
Hi Delmar,
This multifaceted post deals with digital Teaching and Learning Objects (TLOs). By TLO, I am referring to animations, simulations, videos and other digital objects that can be used [read embedded] into a lesson.
My first question deals with instructor discovery. I see them throughout the corpus, but is there a way I can see all the TLOs on the site? Can I repurpose them to the idiosyncrasies of my own class's wiki-etext?
My second deals with protocols for uploads. What type of metadata do you require, and how is that used? I see at the bottom of most (if not all) pages there is a section for external links. Do you allow embedded iFrames (which is essentially an external link) like those YouTube uses. I see you do allow links,
http://chemwiki.ucdavis.edu/Wikitexts/Howard_University/General_Chemistr...
My third deals with specific TLOs that target a specific class where a specific cohort of students interact with a research based database, collecting their actions and potentially providing feedback. My labs use the Carnegie Mellon ChemCollective in this way, and would it be possible to create a portal through a UALR ChemWiki-eTextbook? (If you go to the last link of this comment, which deals with software verification, once my students login, they have access to simulations where we collect log-files of their activities in IRB approved research project). Would I be able to use this within the ChemWiki environment to not only collect student answers, but also collect data on student actions [read mouse clicks] within the TLO?
My fourth deals with software problems. For example, when I go to this page, there is a TLO that does not properly load.
http://chemwiki.ucdavis.edu/Physical_Chemistry/Physical_Properties_of_Matter/Phases_of_Matter/Gases/Virtual%3A_Gas_Laws/Boyle's_Law
I know I have an updated version of Java and many other Java applications work fine. My question is not so much this particular TLO, but the problem in general. This is a perpetual problem, with both client and server side issues. My question is, do you have a protocol set up for users of the ChemWiki to address client-side issues, and report potential server side ones? What does someone do if they come to a digital TLO that does not work on their computer? Have you consider something along the lines of this? Where we test the client computer for the software, and direct them to help if they are missing it.
http://collective.chem.cmu.edu/chem/ualr/
Could something like that be integrated into TLOs through the proper metadata. That is, when you embed a TLO, you must associate it with a help object that is associated with the technology of the TLO. Then before the TLO loads, it checks that the client side software is present and properly configured, and sends you to a tutorial if it is not? This seems to be a problem that will not go away, and just because something works today, does not mean it will work tomorrow.
Thanks again for sharing your work with us.
Cheers,
Bob
linking, iframes, and meta-data
Bob:
Yes, you can repurpose TLOs within wikitexts just like text/figures within the corpus. As for types of meta-data, we are dynamic and can add any level of taxonomy we need. Currently only author, vet level, target level are used. We have also used a range of uncategorized tags like "Java." A new meta-date feature that was added a few days ago by Mindtouch is to assign a page summary to each page that can be also used separately from the main text.
I discourage external links (with exception of links attributed to contributors bylines) as I want to avoid a link rot situation, which will happen if the site if not aggressively curated to remove dead links. However, students (and faculty) do add them and, while we do not have a suitable alternatively to the external content, I tend to keep the links on our pages. However, I want them to be gone eventually once we are reasonable built. Iframes are reasonably sloppy way to bring content over from other pages and I am also not supportive of using them for the same reasons as hyperlinks, however, we do have a handful of pages with iframes (e.g., http://chemwiki.ucdavis.edu/Analytical_Chemistry/Instrumental_Analysis/Chromatography/Chromatographic_Separations). I prefer to have the PheT simulations to be native to the ChemWiki rather than iframed in (eventually).
Bob:
Bob:
Regarding bridging different systems: This topic can be very lucrative in understanding how students use these sorts of online systems effectively. Yes, in principle, we can couple the two systems together (and in a crude fashion rather easily). This may be better enabled after we build a single sign on (SSO) application that we want to use to couple the different STEMWikis together (and perhaps couple to other systems like yours or annotation software etc) so users can move seamless across the entire Hyperlibrary.
We are able to get user dependent tracking of behavior (based on user ID) and can give you that information to track to students (with proper IRB approval on your end). We did this with our pilot regarding tracking student performance in the class with student study habits (at least on the ChemWiki) and that will be discussed in more detail in our upcoming manuscript.
We use either Google Analytics or an analytics capability internal to the Mindtouch system to track user activity. We currently do not currently track mouse clicks, but we do track user-specific flow (and aggregated flow) in the pilot. This is a lot of information to requiring a good statistician to help make sense of the data (but you already know that).
Delmar
Java-pains....
Bob:
Unfortunately, Java pains will never go away until we go away from Java. I will probably say the same thing about HTML5 in a decade. This is the nature of the web based technology beast.
David Blauch from Davidson College made an impressive set of TLOs addressing a range of chemistry topics requiring 3D visualization. He built his system using the powerful Java3D infrastructure, which (to my knowledge) is not an actively maintained add-on to Java (please correct me if I am in correct). We have about 30 of his pages on the ChemWiki that worked well years ago, but after the migration to the Cloud and the java security issues, have not worked terrible well. I need to either hide those pages from view or figure out a way to fix them; they are just so good when they work that I cannot bare to hide them. Hence, even if you installed Java3D, it won't work on the ChemWiki. Check out Blauch's pages as I am sure they will work for you there (after installing Java3D).
As for a mechanisms to identify such problems on the client-side: each page has a voting and feedback option at the bottom (if one logs in as a user via a freely available account). This is one of the main mechanisms that users use to contact me with problems.
We do not have more sophisticated testing system like you have because our TLO infrastructure is still in its infancy. I do not see any reason why we cannot implement a system like what you proposed and I think it is a good idea (once we have integrated a sufficient number of TLOs within our system).
Delmar
TLO discovery
Bob:
Regarding TLO Discovery: In the immediate future, we have a high priority plan to rebuild the TLO infrastructure within the entire Hyperlibrary (we broke it partially when we migrated to the cloud a year ago). As for discovery of TLO (and any other Modules), we will eventually design a portal to facilitate the discover process, but we have stalled on that since it is only beneficial once we get a critical mass of TLOs within the system, which is limited by time, money, and hardware; we hope to address properly by the end of summer.
One way to currently discover content is the search option, which is in the upper right hand sidebar. However, it is a very powerful mechanism, if used properly. For example, the advanced Search options (http://chemwiki.ucdavis.edu/Special:Search?search=java&qid=495945&fpid=34&fpth=#) can search the corpus based on "Tagging" (i.e., meta-data). Now, the page is no t currently setup to provide the range of meta-data you can search for (the goal of the planned portal). If you search for "Blauch" or "Banks" you will find their pages (as contributors).
Delmar
Should it be a textbook?
First of all, I think that your efforts are laudable, and I have used your site.
(1) Keep your site as self-contained as possible. I used that principle when developing BestChoice, no external links and only embedded TLO's. It is a lot easier to control. BTW I also used only HTML and JavaScript for interaction when we started in 2002, and HTML has not gone away, instead the rest of the world has decided our approach is a good idea! I am not sure whether we have achieved critical mass, but we have certainly gone well beyond use only by the home university.
(2) Based on my experience, I ask the question, Are we stuck in the past? Is the textbook model the holy grail? The web is capable of much more than pages with text followed by questions with the answers given immediately thereafter. The questions and interaction to answer those should be embedded as well all on the same document. Students learn by doing, and none of us have any idea whether the students attempted the questions if they are simply presented to them carte blanche with answers. Indeed, while hits in Google Analytics give page visits, visiting the page is not the same as using the page. Is it possible to do embedded questions in a wiki? That would provide more revealing statistics.
(3) It is my experience that students are linear animals. They start at the top of the menu (or block of activities) and work their way down. All of us need structure and the fewest possible distractions while we are learning. Links on a learning page which bring up another page with heaps of words (I clicked on distillation) are in my view distractions. Is it possible to have definitions embedded in the page so that this type of thing does not happen?
(4) High school students need content in a different depth to university students. As the pages develop is there a provision for the author to target them at a particular audience?
self-containment, textbook models, politcs of textbook adoption
Sheila:
Thank you for your kind words.
(1) That is my goal and I am glad you offered similar advice. Oddly, not everyone agree and I routinely get proposal reviews arguing that hyperlinking to existing content will solve everything and that our efforts to be self-contained are largely wasted. I admit that I am unfamiliar with your BestChoice site, but look forward to reviewing it once I get time this month.
(2) The question as I see it is why we attempted to simulate the textbook as clearly the web provides a richer capability. The answer originates from a desire to have an impact. We decided that the best way to convince faculty, especially conservative faculty, to adopt a substitute to conventional textbooks is to (at least initially) generate something that looks like a textbook. We can then start to take better advantage of online technology, but I noticed that efforts to jump start projects that do not resemble things people are familiar with often fail. I have to often remind my team that our primary project is to make an impact and then to leverage that impact to disseminate new chem ed. Technologies. The reverse, I think, is much harder to do. We intend to integrate the Q&A system within the modules and is a key to why I think we can “compete” with more established (but commercial) homework packages.
(3) Yes, in fact that question has been posed several times by Prof. Halpern from Howard U. We have the technology to do that, but it is just not one of our top priorities, so I haven’t jumped on it yet. I will add that to the proposal going out next month though so that it will be addressed.
(4) Yes. The politics of K-12 textbooks adoption in the US are appreciatively different from post-secondary. I targeted not just my level of teaching, but also a lower hanging fruit. We want to eventually address high school content and have it mixed the more advanced content. Our core/wikitext infrastructure should be able to handle this properly.
Thanks for the good comments/questions.
Delmar
ChemWiki for Pchem?
I have stumbled onto the ChemWiki frequently while searching for material to use in my teaching but I have never really used it. However, this discussion has piqued my interest in trying to use it for a new "Foundations in Physical Chemistry" course I will teach in the spring. I have a very small class so I can try new things and this seems like a good idea.
Without having drilled into the material online, is there enough content for me to use for this level course? I envision the course to be a cross between gen chem and pchem - a "math light" version but covering quantum, spectroscopy, bonding, stat mech, thermo and kinetics (YIKES - how am I going to do this!?!)
I'd love to hear if others have used the ChemWiki to support a class like this and what their experiences have been.
Nancy Levinger
pchem
Nancy:
I have not been especially happy with our p-chem book (and most others texts too), so I have planned for a long time to use the ChemWiki in upper divisional p-chem classes (we used it a bit for pchem for life scientists, but not for chemist majors) and I have been asked several times to build the proper wikitexts. We have had a lot of pchem added recently (and still being added) at the grad and undergrad level (e.g., Greubele, DeVoe, Tuckerman, Simons and many others have contributed solid content in quantum, thermo and stat mech); check out our latest newsletter that discussed that aspect on the front page (http://chemwiki.ucdavis.edu/@api/deki/files/33530/Newsletter.10.pdf).
If you are interested, I am willing to work with you in constructing something that fits your needs with as minimal effort as possible on all sides. I have used it for a grad level spectroscopy class that focuses on analytical and inorganic chemist, so it is sort of light p-chem. The wikitext is remedial as I last taught it three years ago (http://chemwiki.ucdavis.edu/Wikitexts/UC_Davis/UCD_Chem_205%3A_Larsen). I'll email you next week with details.
What you may also be interested in both contributing and using (and I was pitching it the Dallas ACS meeting a bit) is the construction of the UltraWiki that merges my chem ed effort with my research as there isn't a great, modern and accessible ultrafast spectroscopy book around (many decent ones though). Moreover, the field needs a 'recalibration,' but that is best discussed offline. This effort is underwritten by Spectra Physics and will go live next year some time.
Cheers,
Delmar
External content
All this Wiki stuff is quite amazing - so many new ideas and terminology. It's fascinating, if a little disorienting. Regarding links to external material, even if you keep your class materials completely self-contained (no external links), students will still Google things on their own time and thus end up in the wide and wild world of unregulated, uncurated, and likely confusing treatments of topic from independent sources. As a (retired academic) author of some old-fashioned, plain-vanilla, Web-based technical content, I get lots of pageviews from students and instructors (judging from their ISPs and search terms). I'm wondering if there is anything I could do, perhaps in terms of metadata or licensing, that would make it easier on students and instructors to determine if independent material like mine is useful and to make it more useful.
Tom O'Haver
toh@umd.edu
http://imerrill.umd.edu/facultyvoice1/?p=3231
Tom:
Tom:
That is a very interesting idea, but will clearly require a lot of commitment and resources to maintain the standard capable of addressing the ever changing web. It is an enormous undertaking to do correctly (in my opinion) as there are obvious large resources like yours, but there also are tens of thousands of faculty/students with a just few pages of good content. I would predict that a badge/license system would ultimately go extinct unless ACS (or some other big organization) provides resources to support a working committee of sufficient size to evaluate the range of chemistry topics and to handle the system in perpetuity.
I favor integrating content within a central system like the ChemEdDL or my system and then curate/evaluate content from there. This approach introduces a mechanism for self-evaluation, maintenance, hosting, and preservation. Moreover, it does not force authors to give up control (if they do not want to) and if big enough and good enough, will provide a valuable resource that students do not have to Google random sites (of questionable quality) to address their questions.
I would argue that is where the ChemWiki is going by curating contributed content, but that is my long term view and not one that I typically discuss.
Regards,
Delmar
pchem
Delmar,
I am interested and willing to work on constructing materials for the course I plan.
I would also be very happy to help with your UltraWiki effort. This would be particularly useful since that field is changing so fast. Let's be in touch.
Thanks for the options,
Nancy
P Chem in ChemEd DL
There was quite a lot of online p chem material in ChemEd DL but I just checked an none of it seems to be working now. Part of it is in JCE and part is pure ChemEd DL, so licensing varies. There was a wiki version of a p chem textbook and a separate non-wiki version. There are also questions for use with the textbook (in JCE QBank). The page with links to all of these (but non-working links) is http://www.chemeddl.org/communities/physical.php. Theresa Zielinski at Monmouth University collected all of this. She has been retired for about 5 years now, so I don't know if she could still help.
Self Contained Web Page
Delmar,
This is the Local Storage Example I promised earlier:
http://chemagic.com/editablepage.htm
It needs a lot of formatting and coding work, but the basic concept is this:
1) The page is self contained. All supporting resources are in the htm file - images, jquery, JS, etc. Most designers would call this crazy, but if an instructor's intent is to build a whole from a mosaic, I think this is essential - think the old lab shorts, all self contained units.
2) Local Storage is used for initial teacher or student editing. This editing can be done in design or HTML mode. The page is completely self contained. It is its own wysiwyg editor.
3) After initial editing, the html file can simply be saved via browser html save. This new file is an easy hard copy backup.
I think an initial response will be that browsers can save resources. My feeling is that if you are drawing from a mosaic of resources, this will become untenable.
I'll work on improving this page over the next week.
Otis
Local Storage
Otis:
Thank you for this example. You even keep the images embedded, which I try to avoid, since different pages often link to the same image. The Mindtouch system does have the nice capabilities of adding CCS and javascript (JEM) directly into pages. I will take a closer look at the idea you posed.
Cheers,
Delmar
I'll Keep Thinking About This
Delmar,
Yeah, and you're going to have server storage and bandwidth issues that I don't have to face.
Apple's Webarchives would be a slick solution, albeit one that does not allow off line use. Unfortunately, there are platform issues with Webarchives.
I still think that the textbook aspect of this requires some level of user-edibility and file self containment. We're currently redoing Tom Newton's O-Chem Web Text with these thoughts in mind. I'm especially interested in the students being able to produce a permanent record of their answers to the many interactive problems that he has. That's why the "birdie quiz" maintains a record of the response.
I'll keep thinking about this. It's an interesting problem. Tom's USM O-chem Web text needs to be ready for the summer semester, so I'll keep you posted on our progress.
This has been a very interesting an thought provoking session...
Otis
self containment
Otis:
I will look forward to greater discussions on the matter. The wiki infrastructure allows for each embedding of figure and even storage of source files for later editing (which is a goal of ours at some point). I look forward to seeing what you do with Newton's content; I have drooled over his stuff for years, but never got permission to integrate. Let me know when I can take a look at what you are doing and if you want an editing account on the ChemWiki, I can provide one so you can see what we can do.
Cheers,
Delmar
Distribution of question banks
*different topic*
Last month, my institution issued a dictum: instructor cannot require students to pay for access to online homework systems. This removes services like Sapling, etc., but also explicitly lists online sites managed by the publisher where the cost of access is included in the new textbook cost, but that students purchasing used textbooks would have to subsequently purchase access to the online homework. A second factor is the requirement of the student to provide personal information (name, student ID, email) to a third party. This is effective 01 January 2015.
I'm not actually complaining about this. My question relates to the question banks that different groups have created: what options are there to give/share those question banks with instructors and institutions? How easy is it to port questions across different platforms: Moodle, D2L, Blackboard, etc.?
Roy Jensen
OpenStax
To add another option to the mix, OpenStax is producing a chemistry book that should be available in early 2015. Students can use the ebook for free or purchase a print copy at cost.
Collection of Questions is in ChemEd DL
I mentioned this earlier in this discussion but it bears repeating. A large collection of questions suitable for use with Moodle or BlackBoard is available in the ChemEd DL at http://moodle.chemeddl.org/course/view.php?id=28. It costs a one-time fee of $20 to download all of the questions and you need to verify that you are a teacher, not a student, to get the questions. More information is at http://www.jce.divched.org/jce-online/jce-resources-student-assessment-qbank.