Incorporating ScreenCasts into Chemical Engineering Courses

Abstract Incorporating ScreenCasts into Chemical Engineering Courses: If You Make Them, They Will WatchAn online inventory of ScreenCasts covering topics in chemical engineering has been created toprovide innovative resources for students and faculty in chemical engineering education.ScreenCasts are recordings with narration created on Tablet PCs, interactive whiteboards, etc.designed to supplement course lectures. Contrary to video lectures where a professor isvideotaped during class, ScreenCasts are shorter (~10 min) videos that demonstrate methods insolving example problems, provide instructional tutorials on using software in labs or courseassignments, and/or reinforce key topics in more detail than afforded in the classroom. With anincreasing amount of students possessing “information at their fingertips”, ScreenCasts provide atool for students anywhere to access at their own pace and time. Qualitative student feedbacksurveys during and after a course suggest that the majority of students find them “very useful” to“one of the best features of the course”.Our goal is to support faculty in developing ScreenCasts while providing a central location forsharing these resources. At www.learncheme.com, we have created an inventory of ScreenCastsin six core chemical engineering courses (thermodynamics, kinetics, materials & energybalances, fluids, separations, and heat transfer), as well as sections on engineering calculations,material science for all engineers and practice problems for the Fundamentals of Engineeringexam. Within 2 months of posting our initial ScreenCasts online, over a thousand visitors fromall over the world watched these ScreenCasts over 2,500 times. We have expanded further byposting our ScreenCasts on iTunes U which allows the viewer to download the videos. Currentlywe have produced almost 450 screencasts with 45,000 views and 43,000 downloads.We are in the progress of developing a methodology for creating successful ScreenCasts, asdetermined by student use and effectiveness in improving student understanding. We plan todiscuss various methods for creating ScreenCasts, reasons for and against spending time editingraw video, and how to disseminate them through a number of channels for students to accessonline. Qualitative surveys and online usage will also be documented and presented in supportof using ScreenCasts in chemical engineering courses. Finally, future plans for expanding andimproving our project will be presented.