The goal
of this study was to determine whether students would be more successful in a traditional 15-week introductory
college chemistry course or an intensive three-week version
of the same course. In addition to course format, we also analyzed whether the students鈥?academic experience (measured as the number
of college credit hours taken by these students),
life experience (measured as the number
of years since the student graduated from high school), academic major (categorized as physical
science,
life science, or non
science), and gender had an effect on their success in the class. The results
of this study showed that, once corrected for student academic ability, students in the intensive course were more successful in this course than the students in the equivalent traditional course. However, we were unable to show that academic experience,
life experience, academic major, or gender had any significant effect on student success in these courses.
Keywords:
First-Year Undergraduate/General; Chemical Education Research; Distance Learning/Self Instruction; Constructivism; Nonmajor Courses