The University of California at Irvine is taking the
massive open online course (MOOC) to another level with Open Chemistry.
What’s different about the project is it provides students with video and other
content for all the required courses a chemistry major would take, along with
some electives and graduate courses, online and for free.
Students have access to 15 quarter-length undergraduate
chemistry video lectures, which started with three classes of Organic Chemistry
filmed by Professor James Norwick. The videos ended up on YouTube, where
they have been viewed thousands of times. While UC Irvine is not offering credit
through Open Chemistry, it does leave open the possibility that other
institutions could use the videos to provide the laboratory experience and
testing necessary for certification.
“The UCI Department of Chemistry has broken new ground
by allowing students to follow a coherent and integrated pathway toward full
mastery of undergraduate chemistry,” said Gary W. Matkin, dean of continuing
education, distance learning, and summer session at UC Irvine, in a pressrelease.
“This is the first time that students and professors can find a complete
undergraduate major in a consistent and high-quality video format on a single
web site.”
