Article

pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc

Activating Students Interest and Participation in Lectures and

Practical Courses Using Their Electronic Devices
Maikel Wijtmans,*, Lisette van Rens, and Jacqueline E. van Muijlwijk-Koezen

Section of Medicinal Chemistry, Amsterdam Institute for Molecules, Medicines and Systems, VU University Amsterdam,
Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Department of Research and Theory in Education, VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
S Supporting Information
*

ABSTRACT: Interactive teaching with larger groups of students can be a challenge, but the
use of mobile electronic devices by students (smartphones, tablets, laptops) can be used to
improve classroom interaction. We have examined several types of tasks that can be
electronically enacted in classes and practical courses using these devices: multiple choice
(MC) questions; open-ended questions; and 3D visualization of (bio)molecules and
complexes. We have introduced these tasks dynamically in several educational contexts in
our teaching programs. Specically, attention is paid to applying devices in introductory quizzes
at the start of a course, throughout lectures, and in practical courses. Each application has been
found by us to oer signicant merits in terms of connecting theory and practice, full formative
assessment (including an improvement in interactions of introverted students), monitoring
progress, engaging students early on in research, stimulating 3D molecular feeling, and
maintaining student attention. From the student perspective, evaluations revealed overall
positive feedback on several key aspects of our approaches. In all, we believe that this mutually
benecial way of teaching can be of broader application, also in nonchemistry-related curricula.
KEYWORDS: First-Year Undergraduate/General, High School/Introductory Chemistry, Second-Year Undergraduate,
Upper-Division Undergraduate, Internet/Web-Based Learning, Testing/Assessment, Medicinal Chemistry, Drugs/Pharmaceuticals,
Molecular Modeling

INTRODUCTION

in-class interaction in larger student groups using the portable

devices (at that time: iPad tablets) of students.
We have since learned how to embrace all types of devices
that students may bring along, not only because our tablet loan
program was stopped last year but also because some classes in
previous years contained students from other programs without
a tablet loan protocol. The range of devices nowadays includes
laptops, smartphones, and tablets, all with varying operating
systems. The power of smartphones in teaching has already
been reported by others.4 Indeed, it is our belief that the
current generation of students is comfortable with incorporating electronic devices into teaching, because information
technology (IT) has become such an integral part of their lives.
We report here on how we have increasingly used students
electronic devices in our teaching programs during the past 3
years as a means to conduct formative assessments. Particular
attention will be paid to using devices to conduct various types
of live questions and to increase 3D molecular thinking about
(bio)molecules and molecular complexes, as well as to
embracing as many types of devices possible. While the
presence of devices will require responsible behavior of
students with respect to potential distraction (gaming,
Facebook, Twitter, etc.), we intend to demonstrate how the

Interactive teaching is believed to stimulate deep learning with

students.1 Indeed, a very recently published meta-analysis
suggests that activated teaching methods are eective in a
broader context.2 Asking questions, working on problems, and
buzzing (short discussion activities to refresh the concentration
span) are forms of interactive teaching. These specic
interactive teaching methods work particularly well for teaching
in smaller groups.3 Stimulating a deeper level of thinking in
class with larger groups of students (50 or more students)
remains a challenge, especially with respect to shy or less vocal
students. The emergence of electronic tools and the increase in
use of portable devices by students provide opportunities for inclass activating and can provide rapid and ecient ways to
engage larger groups of students.
Our Pharmaceutical Sciences bachelor and Drug Discovery
and Safety master programs both address early drug research
and place strong emphasis on the chemistry component. Prior
to 2010, a pilot study run by one of us (J.E.v.M.-K.)
demonstrated the successful use of physical clickers (Classroom
Performance System, McGraw-Hill) or SMS (Short Message
Service) voting in classrooms. Between 2010 and 2012, the
department launched the Mobile Learning Initiative, in which
rst-year students were equipped with a loan iPad tablet. It was
in this setting that we rst initiated our eorts to increase the
XXXX American Chemical Society and
Division of Chemical Education, Inc.

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teacher can turn the devices into powerful instant-activating

tools in the classroom.
We conceptually envisage our approaches so far as a matrix
(Figure 1): the types of electronic tasks can be thought of as

Table 1. List of Explored Apps/Software and Brief

Characteristicsa
Name
GoSoapBox
Socrative
iMolView
Liteb
NDKMol
ESMol
Jmol
Molecules
PyMol
Chem3D
Jmolb

Figure 1. Matrix representation of the use of electronic tasks in various

educational contexts. The size of the symbol corresponds to the
amount of our incorporation of the given task in the given educational
context during our explorations.

GLMol

Operating
system

Purpose

All (browserbased)
All (browserbased)
Android/iOS

MC/open-ended
questions
MC/open-ended
questions
3D visualization

Android
Android
Android

3D visualization
3D visualization
3D visualization

iOS
iOSc
iOSc
Windows/
Macintosh
Windows/
Macintosh

3D
3D
3D
3D

visualization
visualization
visualization
visualization

3D visualization

Database Source

PDB/Drugbank/
PubChemd
PDB/PubChem
PDB/PubChem
PDB/PubChem or
NCI/NIH resolver
PDB/PubChem
PDB/PubChem
PDB
PDB/PubChem or
NCI/NIH resolver
PDB/PubChem

The list was compiled in Nov 2013. bEmpirically dened by us as

having proven most useful in terms of optimally broad use in our
classroom. cAvailable for iPad, but (as of May 2014) not for iPhone.
d
PubChem source available as of May 2014.

being on the horizontal axis, whereas the educational contexts in

which the tasks can be used should be envisioned on the vertical
axis. The green symbols represent nodes which we have
explored already, with the size of the symbol corresponding to
the amount of our incorporation of the task in the educational
context. It is up to the creativity of the teacher to explore any
task in any context and perhaps expand the matrix with new
rows, columns, and nodes. As an extension, we hope that Figure
1 also conveys the message that the advantageous use of mobile
devices is not conned to chemistry curricula.

the highest and disclose a basic tutorial for this app. For
laptops, Jmol10 has proven to be an ecient tool because it too
can handle small molecules and PDB structures. We refer to the
Supporting Information for more details on these key apps/
programs.

TYPES OF ELECTRONIC TASKS

Figure 1 illustrates the types of in-class electronic tasks that
were used and monitored. These will be discussed in detail
below. Depending on the nature and diculty of the task and
educational context it is used for, a task took anywhere from 2
to approximately 10 min including feedback.

DEVICES AND SOFTWARE

Several articles have addressed the use of chemistry and drug
discovery apps for mobile devices.57 For our teaching
purposes, all nodes in Figure 1 critically depend on the
appropriate apps/software. Thus, one needs to take note of the
most common devices in the classroom. In Sept 2013 in our
classrooms, these were tablets (iOS/Android), smartphones
(iOS/Android), and laptops (Windows/Macintosh). For all
devices we found apps/software that were appropriate for the
tasks shown in Figure 1. Table 1 shows an overview of apps/
software tested by us. The table was compiled in Nov 2013 and
is based on experience gathered by us, although we do not wish
to imply this list to be universally complete. Some 3D
visualization apps have already individually been mentioned in
teaching and research contexts,5,6 but aligning a full array of
apps and operating systems with our intended goals had to our
knowledge not been reported and required some time
investment. Except for GoSoapBox, for which the teacher
may have to contribute a fee, all listed apps are free for use for
students and teachers alike. In the table, we have indicated the
apps/programs that we have found most useful in terms of
optimally broad use in our classroom. For polling purposes,
GoSoapBox8 is currently our preferred tool for several reasons.
iMolView Lite has been our app of choice for in-class 3D
visualization on smartphones and tablets, because (1) it is
available for both Android and iOS devices and (2) it is able to
visualize both small molecules and PDB structures. Interestingly, a very recent review on apps for visualizing PDB
structures on iOS and Android devices covers many of the apps
we had explored over time.9 The authors also rank iMolView

Multiple Choice (MC) Questions

The use of MC questions, also known as polling or IAQ

(interactive anonymous quizzes), is a well-known concept in
teaching as it gives teachers the opportunity to assess student
understanding, prior knowledge, etc. Polling is classically based
on, e.g., colored cards, physical clickers, or even thumbs.11 Eric
Mazur and others have pioneered polling as a tool for formative
assessment.12,13 The use of smartphones as modern clickers has
previously been alluded to.14 Conceptually, by resorting to
browser-based software one can engage virtually all types of
devices in the classroom, not relying exclusively on
smartphones. Toward this end, we have used the software
program Socrative 1.015 and, more recently, GoSoapBox.8,16
Electronic polling equips the teacher with the known
advantages of classical polling, such as getting insights in the
progress of class material and providing students with a
progression mirror. The anonymous character ensures a safe
context17 and may encourage increased participation by
introverted or insecure students. Accordingly, we often also
introduce the answer I do not know to have an accurate
overview. We allow students to discuss the question among
each other before, and sometimes after, answering. This is
related to the concept of Peer Instruction, which is suggested to
improve understanding.18 We have noted how some students
worked and answered as duos or even as teams and all at their
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own pace, which is facilitated by the electronic character nature

of the polling.
When compared to physical clickers, electronic polling has
several advantages:
1. No special physical preparations, such as obtaining
physical clickers, are necessary. It provides a rapid and
easy way to poll with equipment that is always around
(i.e., devices).
2. Pictures and text can be shown on the devices along with
the answer letters (A, B, etc.). We employ this to allow
students to take a multiquestion quiz at their own pace
(vide infra). For single questions, though, we prefer to
have all textual answers/pictures listed on the plenary
screen, with the devices merely showing the corresponding answer letters.
3. Polling results are visible in real time to the teacher on
her/his device (an arbitrary illustration is shown in
Figure 2A), which is a great asset for focused feedback
and another step forward since the very early days where
paper inspection was sometimes required.19 Using, e.g.,
GoSoapBox, a teacher can also enable the option of
having results be visible in real time on a students device
immediately af ter his/her submission is complete. This gives
students an overview of their peers views while,
importantly, an answer cannot be changed anymore
(minimizing copy-cat behavior).
Open-Ended Questions

Figure 2. (A) Screen capture of the responses on an arbitrary MC

question using GoSoapBox. (B) Comparative results of a prospective
question from an electronic introquiz in a rst-year general chemistry
course having taken place at the start of the rst semester in three
consecutive years (academic years 20112012, 20122013, and
20132014). The question involved (Which salt is the most
soluble?) is referred to in the main text, while the format of this
question, including possible answers, is shown in Figure S10 in the
Supporting Information. The x-axis shows the 5 possible answers (A to
E), while the y-axis shows the percentage of answers. Answer C is
correct, while answer E is I do not know.

Some polling software, like GoSoapBox and Socrative, also

allows for open-ended questions to be lled out rapidly and
anonymously by students in class. Typically, a spreadsheet with
all the answers immediately becomes available on device of the
teacher, who can browse through the answers in real time or
afterward. It is a unique protocol that clearly sets apart the use
of devices from physical clickers. However, the best way to deal
with the answers on open-ended questions is more complex
and, for us, still a work in progress. It is evident that, for more
focused feedback, in-class results would have to be inspected by
the teacher at a later stage, bordering grading. In nding a
balance between excessive grading time and eective use of
open-ended questions, we realized that the mere fact that
students can be triggered to think about a challenging or key
question without prepared MC answers is a gain in itself. In line
with this strategy, we have primarily used open-ended questions
to conduct early expectation management/pitfall awareness
among the students by having them think about important
course aspects ahead of time. General feedback may be
provided by the teacher after quickly inspecting the results in
real time. Often, the anonymous results to an open-ended
question were sent to the students as a PDF document after the
class for optional viewing. For the teacher, the answers on
open-ended questions provide a rich source of thoughts.

databases such as PubChem20 for small molecules, and the

PDB database21,22 for biomolecules and complexes. The
software allows rotating and zooming and as such provides
students with an opportunity to get a 3D feeling for
molecular systems. Students are told that the downloaded
structures still represent static depictions (X-ray, NMR,
calculations, etc.) while molecules are much more dynamic in
real life. By including recently published structures, students
can also be familiarized with the key notion that chemical
knowledge is continuously expanding, well beyond their
textbooks. During many of the in-class 3D tasks, the variety
of devices (and thus of required software) may be perceived by
the teacher as technically somewhat demanding, but a good
preparation by the teacher and clear instructions to the students
greatly help. With the incorporation of Anaglyph stereo mode
in certain apps/software for mobile devices (e.g., Jmol,
iMolView Lite, ...), in the near future we plan to explore this
feature in conjunction with inexpensive red-cyan 3D glasses to
get an even more realistic 3D experience on the devices. The
successful use of the Anaglyph stereo mode in teaching on
nonmobile devices has previously been alluded to.23

3D Visualization

A more chemistry-specic task is 3D visualization, because

small and large (bio)molecules and the interaction between
these play important roles. It is paramount that the appreciation
of the 3D structure of (bio)molecules and its role in chemistry
and drug action must be triggered among students as early as
possible. During some classes as early as rst-year level,
students are given small in-class tasks in which they need to
inspect the 3D structures of relevant molecules or complexes.
Structures are downloaded on the spot from freely accessible
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3. Which oxidation state is incorrect? for the oxidation of

methanol. On average, only 23% percent of students
correctly identify that the C in CO2 is not +2, while on
average 41% answer I do not know.
The high percentage of I do not know or wrong answers on
these prospective questions clearly conrms that the background knowledge on the topics is very limited. Students are
ensured that the involved topics will be dealt with in detail
throughout the course. Thus, an initial high amount of I do
not know or wrong answers also demonstrates to students that
many new topics will be dealt with in the course. As such, it
contributes to phases 1 (task denition) and 2 (goal setting) of
the four-stage model of motivation described by Winne and
Hadwin.24
We regularly use open-ended questions in an introquiz for a
course, since we think they can be very useful there to provoke
thoughts on the contents of the course. Exemplary questions
that we used in that respect are as follows:
1. What do you think is the most dicult part of the
course and why?
2. What do you think is the least dicult part of the course
and why?
3. In previous runs of this course, we have seen teams
which rst did all the computational work and then
proceeded to do the synthetic feasibility study in the very
last days. Please comment on any pros and any cons of
such an approach.
The collected anonymous results provide the teacher with a
rich insight in the students thoughts and are later sent back to
students for optional viewing.

APPLICATION OF ELECTRONIC TASKS IN

EDUCATIONAL CHEMISTRY CONTEXTS
Having dened key electronic tasks along the horizontal axis of
the matrix (Figure 1), we proceed with showing detailed
examples of the use of these tasks in various educational
contexts, thus populating the vertical axis and nodes in Figure 1.
Introquiz at the Start of a Course

An introquiz at the start of a course is a powerful way to assess

prior knowledge so appropriate connections can be made
between knowledge gained in previous classes and upcoming
course content. This has most extensively been used at the start
of a rst-year general chemistry course, taking place at the very
beginning of the rst semester. We use a quiz with 15 MC
questions and administer these during the rst plenary
gathering. A few ref lective questions were used, referring to
easier questions on material that students should know
already from high school and that is a stepping stone for the
upcoming course. The answers on this summative part often
have a high scoring percentage (see, e.g., Figures S1 and S2 in
the Supporting Information). Importantly, we also deliberately
incorporate prospective questions which deal with material that
students have likely not seen before but that will be part of the
upcoming course. Not surprisingly, such questions have
proportionally high amounts of the I do not know answer
and/or of wrong answers (see Figure 2B, and Figures S3 and S4
in the Supporting Information). For teachers, this setup gives
the powerful opportunity to inspect the prior knowledge on the
class material, which in this course is important given the inux
of students from many dierent high schools, and at the same
time provide students with a course overview. For students, it
serves as an activating glimpse on the course contents and on
their own prior knowledge. We have the answer histograms for
each of these introductory questions return again when the
involved material is dealt with (sometimes >1 month later) to
confront students with their answers given at the start of the
course (Figure S10B in the Supporting Information). Occasionally, we re-ask the question and thus have students inspect
their progress in the course (Figure S9 in the Supporting
Information).
Interestingly, after 3 years of taking this introquiz with the
same questions, we could compare the overall results per year
allowing us to somewhat assess the yearly general level of
student inux from high school (see Figure 2B, and Figures
S1S8 in the Supporting Information). Over 3 years, no major
dierences were noticed, suggesting that the level of knowledge
from high school had remained roughly analogous. The power
of the introquiz can be illustrated by using the 3-year statistics
to pinpoint a few consistently notorious prospective questions.
Three of these are as follows:
1. Which salt is the most soluble? accompanied by three
Ksp values (solubility ion products in water) for salts
having dierent numbers of ions. On average, only 12%
percent of students correctly recognize that the number
of ions plays a role, while on average 45% pick the salt
with the highest Ksp value and 41% answer I do not
know how to determine this. The results for this
prospective question are shown in Figure 2B, while the
format of the question is shown in Figure S10
(Supporting Information).
2. What is the pH of a 1.0 108 M HI solution? On
average, only 15% of the students answer correctly while
on average 45% answer pH = 8.00.

Lectures

During regular lectures, MC questions prove a powerful tool to

activate students.13 Particularly, strategic questions can show
teachers and students alike whether the material and concepts
are grasped appreciably. We keep the amount of questions per
lecture below four and select strategic time points based on the
notion that these tasks can refresh the concentration span. An
average concentration span for students being normally
estimated to be ca. 20 min,25 it stands to reason to use ca.
20 min time points for interactive tasks.
A unique application of polling is to engage the students in
questions about chemical research. Toward this end, we have
used literature research articles as well as our own (sometimes
still unpublished) research. A MC question with several
possible directions is posed and students are asked their
opinion as researchers. This way, scientic chemistry research,
which is often very abstract especially for rst-year students, can
be introduced very early on in a somewhat befriending manner.
Four examples of used research-oriented questions are shown
below.
1. What precursor would you pursue as a researcher?
referring to the large-scale synthesis of the drug Tamiu
during which the researchers had to consider precursors
other than quinic acid.26
2. Which compound seems most interesting to test the
halogen-bonding hypothesis? referring to our own work
in which evidence pointed toward an important role of a
halogen atom in activation of the CXCR3 receptor by an
organic ligand.27
3. Which of the following proposed guests do you think
will bind best? referring to research based on host
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guest complexation between ferrocene and cucurbit[7]uril.28 Figure S11 (Supporting Information) shows the
format of this question.
4. What is your hypothesis? concerning the mode of
action of cisplatin and referring to research in which a
crystal structure of a cisplatin-bound double-stranded
DNA decamer was reported (vide infra).29
Regularly, 3D visualization tasks were applied during lectures,
all accompanied by a task/question and tailored to the subject
at hand that day. In a sense, this is formative assessment
concerning 3D thinking. Here, we list a few exemplary tasks:
1. Are these two structures superimposable? For historical
reasons, the enantiomers of thalidomide are used for this
purpose ((R)- and (S)-2-(2,6-dioxopiperidin-3-yl)-1Hisoindole-1,3(2H)-dione). Students were asked to work
in pairs so as to be able to compare the involved
structures on two screens by rotating etc.
2. Is the orientation of the two phenyl rings in a biphenyl
unit parallel? The structures of the drugs losartan and
urbiprufen are used.
3. Find the hydrogen bonds concerning a small peptide
with alpha-helices. PDB structure 1IYT is used.30 The
format of this question is shown in Figure S12
(Supporting Information).
4. Find the hydrogen bonds concerning a pleated sheet.
PDB structure 1SA8 is used.31
5. Pinpoint the seven transmembrane helices in a G
protein-coupled receptor. PDB structure 3P0G is
used.32
6. Pinpoint the proposed halogen bond in a complex of a
protein and an iodine-containing ligand. PDB structure
2YJ8 is used.33
Open-ended questions were occasionally used in lectures. An
interesting protocol is one in which 3D visualization and openended questions are combined. Illustrative is a research-based
question concerning the drug cisplatin (vide supra). Students
were asked to work in pairs and compare, in 3D on their
devices, the crystal structures of two double-stranded DNA
decamers, one without bound cisplatin (PDB 309D)34 and one
with bound cisplatin (PDB 1A2E).29 Figures 3A3C show
screen captures of the latter on devices common among
students. An accompanying research-oriented question on the
mode of action of cisplatin (What is your hypothesis?) was
answered in class as an open-ended question on their devices.
Plenary feedback was then given, and the spreadsheet gave a
broad overview of thoughts afterward. Figure S13 (Supporting
Information) shows the format of this question.

Figure 3. Screen captures of 3D visualizations on devices, exemplied

by use of PDB entry 1A2E (a complex consisting of cisplatin bound to
a DNA decamer) on (A) a laptop using Jmol, (B) an Android tablet
using iMolView Lite, and (C) an iOS tablet using Molecules.

Information for format). This ensures that students can take

the quiz at their own pace. Quiz topics address safety,
observations, theory, and mechanisms. In the basis, this method
utilizes the spacing eect because tests are being administered
at spaced intervals (usually 1 day).35 At the end of the month, a
winner, having the highest score, is announced. To this end, the
quiz is necessarily single blind (names are known to teachers
but not to peers) and each question is graded with 1 (correct
answer), 0.5 (incorrect answer) or 0 (I do not know). This
grading scheme, of which the students were aware, was set up
to facilitate a learning curve, i.e., discourage guessing yet not be
too harsh on wrong answers. Exemplary questions are on
carbocations when trityl alcohol is synthesized, on oxidation
states when KMnO4 is used, on types of aromatic reactions
when a nitration is performed, etc.
Open-ended questions were used in practical courses as well.
Most notably, a practical course can be started with a handful of

Practical Courses

Practical courses play a vital role in any chemistry- and/or drugoriented curriculum, because they aim to have students
combine various learning goals such as technical skills, theory
and concepts, planning, and reporting techniques. This
combination of focus points sometimes diminishes the time
students allow themselves to spend on correlating practice with
theory. In an eort to stimulate this correlation, we have set up
a daily quiz during a month-long full-time second-year practical
course in organic chemistry. Every day starts with a plenary
gathering during which a quiz is administered. This quiz is
dierent every day and consists of 3 to 5 MC questions with
associated text and pictures being shown on devices and not on
the plenary screen (see Figure S14A,B in the Supporting
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the quiz (using scores, bonus days, etc.) is deemed nice by

students but not necessary per se to induce participation. As an
important token to the activating character of this quiz,
students acknowledge that the quiz causes them to think about
things they consider relevant but would not have thought about
themselves (Table S7 in the Supporting Information).
Most notably, all closing evaluation statements (typically in
the form of These approaches should be done again next year
and, where applicable, optimized) are without exception
answered with a strong agree (Table S1 in the Supporting
Information), which we consider as a token of encouragement.
It is also worth mentioning that the evaluations revealed that
the transition from exclusively iPad tablets to various device
types was not a problem (see Supporting Information for more
details).

open-ended questions that, as discussed previously, aim to

gather thoughts of students on the course itself and at the same
time raise awareness of common pitfalls with respect to, e.g.,
planning responsibilities of students. Throughout the practical
course, open-ended questions were also incorporated into the
daily quiz to encourage students to ponder a research question
related to their own experiments. One example of a format that
was used for this purpose is shown in Figure S14C in the
Supporting Information. An occasional 3D task was used to
help in interpretation of a 1H NMR spectrum.

EVALUATION

Teachers

Within our teaching programs in the last 3 years, a few teachers

have been early adapters and have applied the electronic tasks
outlined in this manuscript to varying extents. The application
of MC questions in lectures (with smaller and larger groups) or
practical courses (quiz) has been implemented most frequently.
The consensus among involved teachers is that the electronic
MC questions represent eective and easy-to-use tools for
stimulating students to ponder topics relevant to the course and
for obtaining snapshots of the level of understanding/
application. The ability to activate large groups (150200
students) was considered an advantage. The amount of
preparative work and time spent in class on the tasks are
considered acceptable by the teachers, and they plan to use it
more often in the future. From visual inspection during the
tasks, it is the impression that a majority of students participate.
One of us (M.W.) has explored all nodes depicted in the
matrix (Figure 1). With respect to the open-ended questions,
the answers can provide a rich insight into student thoughts
when questions are selected strategically. Only a marginal
amount of silly answers were posted. Indeed, open-ended
questions can serve to conduct expectation management and/
or early pitfall awareness among the students. The 3D
visualization tasks required considerable time investment due to
the necessity to test run on multiple types of devices.
Gratifyingly, though, these 3D tasks proved a very valuable
addition to the lectures since concepts that do not always
translate properly in 2D (molecular structures, interactions in a
complex) could now be brought to more life by the teacher on
the devices. Good instructions are key (see Figures S12 and
S13 in the Supporting Information).

CONCLUSION
IT (information technology) is nding its way into
contemporary education. We have demonstrated that this is
for the better as it can provide a means to rapidly and
simultaneously activate groups of students. Using appropriate
apps/software and tasks, one can turn electronic devices
(smartphones, tablets, laptops) into a powerful tool that can be
used for formative assessment in the classroom. Larger groups
of students, bold and shy ones alike, can be triggered to
participate in small tasks such as answering MC and openended questions on class material. Moreover, the use of 3D
visualization oers an in-class way to have students acquaint
themselves with 3D structures of organic molecules, biomolecules, and drugtarget complexes. These tasks should be
thought of as being on one axis of a matrix, with the other axis
being the application in any educational context (introquizzes,
lectures, practical courses, etc.). Besides the positive experiences among teachers, we have found that students also
appreciate and value these collective activating approaches.
Taken together, we demonstrate that the use of mobile devices
is a mutually benecial way of teaching and therefore should
deserve attention in other curricula, not only chemistry-based
ones. Thus, while we have tailored all our electronic
questioning to chemistry- and drug-related topics, it is evident
that our protocols can be extended to nonchemistry classrooms
too.

Students

ASSOCIATED CONTENT

S Supporting Information
*

Among involved courses, 6 (practical) courses have been

subjected to electronic activating tasks at a notably intense
level, and these were therefore concluded by a voluntary
evaluation with students using the Likert scale and GoSoapBox
(Tables S1S7 in the Supporting Information). From the
evaluation results, it has been gratifying to observe that students
highly value our approaches. Certainly, occasional points for
attention are given and these are taken along in further design.
But in general the overall evaluations of in-class electronic tasks
have been positive (Tables S1S7 in the Supporting
Information). Students appreciate the anonymous character,
the I do not know option, the insights in class material and in
3D structures they obtain from the in-class tasks, etc. As a
practical advantage, it is acknowledged by the students that the
small interactive tasks help in keeping attention. The monthlong quiz in the synthesis practical course is highly valued for
the anonymous character, for correlating theory and practice,
for getting insights in the experiment, etc. The game aspect of

Features of key apps/programs, comparison of introquiz results

of three consecutive academic years, eect of re-asking an
introquiz question, exemplary question formats, and key
evaluation results. This material is available via the Internet at
http://pubs.acs.org.

AUTHOR INFORMATION

Corresponding Author

*E-mail: m.wijtmans@vu.nl.
Notes

The authors declare no competing nancial interest.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
From the VU University Amsterdam, we wish to express thanks
to Rob Leurs, Iwan de Esch, Chris de Graaf, Martine Smit,
Henry Vischer, Marco Siderius, Chris Vos, Nico Vermeulen,
F

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Romano Orru, Hubertus Irth, Johan Vermeer, and all other

fellow teachers as well as Danny Scholten, Jelle Reinen, Albert
Kooistra, and all other PhD students/postdocs involved in our
teaching activities. Willem-Jan van Zeist, Bart van Ommen, Rob
van Leeuwen, and Michel Jansen (all from VU University) are
acknowledged for logistical and/or technical assistance.
Benjamin Berte (Socrative), Dave Mulder and John Pytel
(GoSoapBox), and Andrew Orry and Eugene Raush (MolSoft)
have been instrumental in technical communications, for which
we are grateful. All involved Bachelor and Master students are
acknowledged as the exploration of electronic tasks would not
have been possible without them. We thank Tabitha Sprau
Coulter (Pennsylvania State University) for proofreading the
manuscript. M.W. is grateful to the Royal Netherlands
Chemical Society (KNCV) for awarding its annual national
teaching prize to him, based substantially on work described in
the current manuscript.

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