The Chemistry Learning Center

The University of Illinois

Dept. of Chemistry

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Interactive Video Labs or 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 lessons are run on a local area network, and students need to come to the Learning Center to work on them. However, we are gradually moving from using LAN-based materials to Web-based materials. In the Spring, 2001 semester, we piloted a Web-based version of these tutorials for students taking the beginning organic chemistry lab course for non-majors. This fall, we are using the Web-based version for the students in the beginning organic lecture as well as the lab. They are also being used in the beginning organic chemistry lab for majors. We expect to be running the Web-based version of the IVLs (ChemNet) in all of the courses by Spring, 2003.