About Us
Instructional Resource Center (IRC)
We are part of the Computer and Information Technology (IT) team in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Alberta. We are staffed by an Industrial Internship student in Specialization or Honor Program in Chemistry on an on-going basis, and are equipped with appropriate computing hardware, software and peripherals. Our aim is to promote the acquisition, development and use of digital instructional material for the faculty in their teaching by integrating a students' university education and experience with newest technology of web design from intensive training at the beginning of the job.
What we have done
The instructional resource center was established in 1998, it has been providing support to teaching staff in the Chemistry Department at the Univeristy of Alberta for over 13 years. In past several years, IRC contributed to:
In 2003-2004, an online question database and an oline entrance evalution exam were developed. Their significant effects are allowing instructors to evaluate students entering introductory university chemistry by testing their understanding of high school chemistry and allowing students to prepare exams by using questions in the database.
In 2006-2007, the web-based learning exercises developed in the Instructional Resource Center actively engage students to solve typical chemistry problems through an interactive simulation. Professors have the ability to create their own unique set of exercises that they can make available to their students. As students complete the excise by choosing steps and answering the questions, an adaptive progress map charts their progress towards the end goal. A display area shows the information collected when steps are answered and is beneficial to visual learners. Through the use of this exercise, students can evaluate the steps that need to be taken to answer problems in Chemistry.
In 2007-2008,Twelve basic Excel tutorials on functions and formatting were created for reference, and one additional tutorial taught students to determine the least squares regression line in a set of data by building a worksheet. After viewing the tutorial, the learnt knowledge is then tested through an online assessment tool using sets of external and standard addition calibration data, which would be randomly assigned and automatically graded by eClass.
In 2009-2010, A web-accessible database program were set up that allows data processing and sharing for students in second-year analytical chemistry courses. it delivered collaborative experimentation techniques to students and allowed students from different laboratories, different campuses and different institutions to work together on large-scale projects that involved large data sets.