OLI Chemistry free for COVID-19 impacted institutions

NEW as of April 8, 2020: There is an exciting FREE online resource for high school chemistry teachers available developed by a collaborative effort between Carnegie Mellon University and WestEd, funded by the US Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences. This beta-version of online materials aims to teach and reinforce chemistry concepts in the context of real-world scenarios, while incorporating virtual lab activities and strengthening student application of NGSS practices. Click here for more information.

CMU's OLI Chemistry may be helpful to educators moving courses online due to coronavirus. These materials are free for use by Covid-19 impacted institutions. The courseware covers General Chemistry I and General Chemistry II. Each module includes short amounts of texts, worked examples (including interactive worked examples), a multitude of thoughtfully scaffolded practice problems (with adaptive and targeted feedback), and assessments. The integration of these components provides a seamless and interactive learning experience for your students. The courseware also provides instructors with data on student performance, which they can use to adapt their instruction to student needs.

We will be holding webinars to give an overview of the OLI courseware and discuss ways this free resource may help with the rapid transition to online instruction necessitated by Covid-19. A recording from our webinar on March 16 is available here. If you have any questions, or would like attend a future webinar, please contact .

The webinar linked above also discusses use of the ChemCollective virtual lab to help meet needs resulting from COVID-19. We also created an editable google doc to help instructors collaborate on use of virutal labs.

ChemCollective Resources

The ChemCollective is a collection of virtual labs, scenario-based learning activities, tutorials, and concept tests. Teachers can use our content for pre-labs, for alternatives to textbook homework, and for in-class activities for individuals or teams. Students can review and learn chemistry concepts using our virtual labs, simulations, and tutorials. The ChemCollective is organized by a group of faculty and staff at Carnegie Mellon who are interested in using, assessing, and creating engaging online activities for chemistry education.