Until 2002 industrial chemistry was a compulsory topic in the curriculum for students who major in chemistry. The decision made by the chemistry inspectorate to include this chapter within other selective chapters in the chemistry curriculum, led us to a gradual modification of the website con- tent to adapt to new requirements. new web-based activities were developed for each chapter of the curriculum and adjusted to suit internal assess- ment requirements. On a larger scale, this decision led us to move on to a non-formal learning approach and initiate our next major initiative. In 2008 we launched a national projects competition by the full name of “We Have Chemistry!—Chemistry, Industry, and the Environment in the eyes of the indi- vidual and society”. The project intended to bridge the gap between school chemistry and out-of-school learning by addressing students’ individual interests and inviting them to make personal decisions about the chemis- try-related content that they want to learn and the kind of project that they choose to prepare. Thus, the competition format was designed by combin- ing three theoretical and practical frameworks: project-based learning (pBl), context-based learning (CBl) and science competitions. These were merged into a non-formal yet well-structured educational framework where students voluntarily and independently could decide to participate, in their free time, to work on any phenomena of their choice.
The main goal of the initiative was to have students experience indepen- dent and peer chemistry learning. The teacher functioned mainly as a men- tor in cases where students wanted their help. In the beginning, only a small number of students joined the competition on their own and there were many teachers who avoided participating in the competition with their stu- dents because of being afraid of the additional time and effort the project might demand. Thus, following our objectives of equity and inclusion, we set to reach more chemistry students from more varied backgrounds and encourage them to partake in the competition regardless the availability of their teacher. To make this possible, the website was extended to include a competition section where students could connect directly to get support from the competition trained staff and access helpful information about the competition.
Downloaded from http://books.rsc.org/books/edited-volume/chapter-pdf/1746352/bk9781839165238-00127.pdf by RMIT University user on 06 February 2024
Chapter 11 136
The original competition format comprised five project categories: “film”,
“poster”, “newspaper article”, “photography” and “laboratory inquiry”, each named after the kind of learning item that students chose to submit. The main requirement regarding chemistry content was that the context of all projects should pertain to the chemical industry or daily life chemistry and emphasize explicitly the influence that chemistry has on the individual, the society and/or the environment. The first four categories were open to all chemistry students and meant to simulate the field of science communica- tion. The inquiry-lab category, which was a part of the formal curriculum, was open only to students who majored in chemistry. lately, the competition was expanded to include two additional categories, “podcast” and “comics”, which have become popular in science communication.
Since the beginning of the competition initiative, we established an orga- nizing committee that included industry people, inspectorate delegates and our staff composed of chemistry teachers and science educators. Our staff was specifically trained for the project and qualified to offer direct support for students and teachers throughout the different stages of their work (from registration to tips for improving the project before submitting the final version). Upon request, the staff helped students to find experts from the academy and industry with whom to work or interview, as well as profession- als in the varied areas of communication media. The competition annex to the original website included sub-sections about each project category con- taining explanations about specific demands, assessment rubrics with the criteria by which the judges evaluate the project, and examples of projects that won first places of that category in previous years. Originally, we also organized students’ regional conferences that would mark the beginning of the competition each year. These conferences included masterclasses with communication media experts and each student could choose to partici- pate in one of them according to their chosen category. an evaluative study showed that participation in this competition increases the motivation to study chemistry compared with the preparation of similar projects within the framework of a school set-up,10 thereby validating our decisions about the competition format.
Towards 2018 we moved a step further and decided to prepare short tuto- rial movies delivered by our collaborating communication media experts including explanations on how to prepare each specific kind of project.
These tutorials were planned to substitute the conferences’ masterclasses for there were always limiting factors regarding these conferences: (1) they took place on specific dates and hours so not all students could attend; (2) the masterclasses happened in parallel sessions so each student could par- ticipate only in one of these; and (3) teachers had to arrange for a bus and accompany the students after school hours so budget considerations were an issue for some populations. To overcome these limitations and encour- age equity and inclusion, in 2018 we introduced the filmed tutorials through the competition website section, available online for all to access in their own time. Through the competition staff, students could connect with the
Downloaded from http://books.rsc.org/books/edited-volume/chapter-pdf/1746352/bk9781839165238-00127.pdf by RMIT University user on 06 February 2024
137 Integrating Web-based Learning
professionals who gave the masterclasses. This approach proved particularly useful during the pandemic period, when the competition and its final con- ference unexpectedly had to switch to an online platform.
Following new accessibility regulations, the last upgraded version of the competition website was launched in September 2019. These regulations emphasized the inclusion of all students, embracing those with disabilities.
The site was revised to be more user-friendly and easily manageable with bright colours, bigger and more clearly defined sections, easier registration, and shorter routes to content.
The number of students who enrolled in the competition grew gradually over the years from 300 in September 2008, to 1445 students from 54 schools in 45 different cities, from all around Israel, in September 2020. Between 2010 and 2018 there was a steady average of 570 participants per year. The steepest increase in participants was recorded between the years of 2018 and 2019 when their number rose from 540 to 1095, respectively. We believe that this increase in the number of participants can be partly attributed to the upgrading of the website and its accessibility to all since we did not change our advertising strategies.
The latest version of the website became possible through an advanced platform that also allowed the collection of data about its activity. Upon anal- ysis of the number of website pages displayed as a function of time we could discern interesting patterns of website visitors’ behavior. Figure 11.1 shows a plot of the data including marks of significant events during the time plotted.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its restrictions, the last round of the competition took place during the 2019–2020 school year, during which the number of website pages displayed per day before summer recess averaged 123 and peaked around important dates matching the different competition
Figure 11.1 plot of the number of website pages displayed over the period between 1 September 2019, and 18 February 2021, including significant dates.
Downloaded from http://books.rsc.org/books/edited-volume/chapter-pdf/1746352/bk9781839165238-00127.pdf by RMIT University user on 06 February 2024
Chapter 11 138
stages (Figure 11.1). During the summer recess, as expected, this average decreased to 37. Our attention was caught by the fact that there were visitors entering the website’s pages although the competition was not launched in September 2020, and that this number was higher than that seen during the summer recess. For example, the average number of pages shown per day between 1 September 2020, and 18 February 2021, was 73.
We investigated the website activity report to understand which pages visitors generally visited when accessing our website (Table 11.6). We found that during the competition year of 2019–2020 (12 months) the total number of pages of any kind that were shown was 35 374. The main activity on the website was connected to the competition, as expected. Meanwhile, only the glossary remained as non-competition-related content, and yet it proved to form a significant part of this activity, with the glossary portal being shown on demand 1116 times. This number does not include glossary pages that were shown when a visitor typed a specific term in the main page search field. Yet, it indicates the number of times visitors purposely reached for the glossary portal first. During the observed 5.5 months from the year of 2020–2021, the total number of page displays of any kind was 13 540. The main activity on the website was connected to the website glossary, with the glossary portal being shown on demand 1292 times, 176 times more than in the previous year. For instance, the term “titration” was specifically searched 253 times during the 2019–2020 year and 391 times during the 5.5 months of 2020–2021.
From comparing the website activity during a competition and a non- competition year, we can conclude that the website still attracts visitors and still offers a platform for independent learning. Of special use seems to be the database of chemical terms in hebrew (the Glossary). Several teachers still contact the competition staff, to date, asking diverse questions about the availability of the competition section of the website. We know that in these cases teachers ask their students to engage in pBl tasks, such as the prepara- tion of posters, and provide their students with detailed instructions sheets, tutorials, and assessment rubrics that appear on our website. Teachers then assess their students’ work by these rubrics and the scores are reported as
Table 11.6 The five most-visited website pages with the number of times each page was displayed (frequency).
19 September 2019, to 31 august 2020 1 September 2020, to 18 February 2021
page name page frequency page name page frequency
Main portal 8213 Main portal 1625
Competitions portal 5020 Glossary portal 1292
poster competition 3100 Glossary: Molar volume 585 Competition
registration 2489 Competitions portal 504
photography
competition 1417 Glossary: lewis structure 485
Downloaded from http://books.rsc.org/books/edited-volume/chapter-pdf/1746352/bk9781839165238-00127.pdf by RMIT University user on 06 February 2024
139 Integrating Web-based Learning
part of the alternative assessment required for certain topics of the chemistry curriculum (comprising 30% of the final grade in the discipline). This might explain the 271 entries to the “poster Competition” page, or the “poster preparation” tutorial movie being specifically searched 122 times during the 5.5 months of the non-competition year.