The Department of Chemistry at the University of Illinois
The Chemistry learning center
Interactive Video Labs (ChemNet)
The Interactive Video Labs (IVLs), also known as ChemNet, have a long history in the Chemistry Learning Center. Created by Stanley Smith, the Murchison-Mallory Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Education, these interactive chemistry tutorials have evolved along with the Chemistry Learning Center.
These lessons combine text-based explanations of chemical concepts with video images of corresponding laboratory demonstrations. Students can actually observe and carry out experiments on the computer that would be too dangerous to do in an introductory chemistry course.
(In this lesson
on acids and bases, students answer questions about the composition
of a sea shell and observe what happens when hydrochloric acid
(HCl) is dropped on its surface.)
Today, most of these IVL lessons are run on a local area network, and students need to come to the Learning Center to work on them. However, we are using a web-based version for students in the beginning organic lecture as well as the lab.
