Bridging the gap : face-to-face or online?

BACKGROUND: The transition between high school study and the first year of an undergraduate science degree can be difficult. Undergraduate science (and often, engineering) students are required to study chemistry. This presents challenges that are most salient in students who have not studied high school chemistry. To meet these challenges, students without HSC chemistry are encouraged to enrol in a pre-session "bridging course", which provides a foundation for tertiary-level chemistry.1 The transition to tertiary chemistry also has challenges for those with the requisite high school credentials, which the University of Wollongong (UOW) bridging course fails to meet. Many of these students have gaps in their knowledge, or do not fully understand key chemical concepts. Only when the topic is re-taught at the university level, do these students realise their lack of ability. This can impede their progress, with consequent reductions in marks and academic confidence. AIMS: The primary objective was to test electronic ways of providing student support in transitioning and compare these with traditional face-to-face methods. Thus we have published a cross-platform chemistry e-book that acts as an alternative or supplement to the first-year bridging course and a synchronous online help service. A secondary objective was to analyse and compare student attitudes to online learning compared with face-to-face. CONCLUSIONS: The e-book needs to move online as mobile learning is not a key driver, and the content should have greater focus on worked problem sets and interactive simulations to account for the multiple learning styles of students. This will also allow the online help service to be integrated into it. Examples of these will be demonstrated at the presentation.