Summary

The School of Chemistry (SoC) at the University of Glasgow (UofG) has run Interactive Teaching Units (ITUs) in the second year undergraduate chemistry curriculum for 28 years.

The aims of the ITUs are to develop transferrable skills such as oral communication & presentation, teamwork, literature searching and scientific writing, and to let students apply chemistry knowledge from lectures to real-world problems.

Feedback from students and staff in 2019/20 showed that ITUs were unpopular and ineffective, mainly due to dated material, student anxiety around peer interaction and unfamiliarity with active learning (AL) (Docherty, 2021).

This case study presents a successful new ITU format and its development over five years. Initial changes received mixed feedback, and academic staff partnered with students to bring about the final changes.

We believe that the new framework for an active-learning session is transferrable to a wide range of subjects simply by substituting discipline-specific content.

Role of student partners in co-creation of the ITU

Major new implementations in 2023/24 were developed by the co-authors: two third year students (employed and salaried as ‘student partners’), a final year undergraduate research project student, and academic teaching staff (‘staff’). The students had first-hand experience of the ITUs (in 2022/23 and 2020/21, respectively) and brought fresh, alternative insights into what they and other students found enjoyable or uninteresting, helping steer development. The staff recognise the students’ input as invaluable in developing the current ITU format and content described below.

Learning spaces and group logistics

In the traditional ITU format (Lennon et al., 2002; Grant et al., 2004; Grant et al., 2005), the cohort of ~150 students was divided across multiple weekdays and rooms. Most of the 3-hour unit was spent in small seminar rooms with a tutor (facilitator) in pre-allocated groups of 9-12, divided further into three sub-groups for most tasks (Figure 1). Students rarely knew the peers in their sub-groups, making them feel isolated and anxious; the small sub-group size (3-4 students) pressured them into contributing and presenting when they may not have wanted to; and the high staff:student ratio meant students often felt under scrutiny. Staff, many with little or no experience of leading AL, felt uncomfortable and found it difficult to engage students in such a strained environment.

The new format takes place in a technology-enhanced active learning (TEAL) room, with ~80 students seated at tables in groups of 6-9, rather than separate seminar rooms. Each table in the TEAL room has a built-in computer and microphones for easy screen-sharing and communication during whole-classroom discussion. If not available, minimum requirements are a room with tables and chairs, a projector and students’ own IT devices for literature searching; a roving microphone is highly desirable to practice public speaking and for accessibility. With the new format, each student now receives six hours of contact time (two consecutive three-hour afternoons). Staffing is reduced as we found that a session can be adequately delivered by 2-3 tutors. Students have more space to interact without staff listening to everything they say, and larger numbers create a more energetic and relaxed environment. A timeline of activities in the new format is shown in Table 1 and the corresponding classroom configurations in Figure 2.

Table 1. Timeline of the new ITU format. The order of the various elements can be adapted as required.

Timeline of activities and descriptions	Activity type (see Figure 2)	Time in min
Pre-ITU task. Before the ITU, students individually (online) rank a dozen transferrable skills by importance.		10
Introduction. Tutor gives feedback on pre-ITU task and brief overview of the overall topic.		10
Icebreaker quiz. In groups, students answer simple questions that relate lecture content to the ITU topic. Interspersed with tutor-led whole-class discussion of answers. (possible break point)		45     (15)
Introduction to academic literature. Discussion of primary vs. secondary literature and strategies for reading papers. Each group of 6 given a different paper.		5
Finding information in papers. Groups break into pairs. Each pair works through separate questions about the paper. (possible break point)		30   (15)
Overcoming presentation anxiety. Mini-lecture by senior student.		20
Preparing group presentations. Students share the questions and answers from the pair-work and prepare a group presentation. (End of first ITU day.)		40
Group presentations. Each group presents to the rest of the class: 4 min per group plus 1 min for each group to write one question on a Post-it note.		30
Q&A session. Groups prepare answers to at least two of the Post-it note questions (4 min). In turn, groups present their answers to the class (1 min per group). (possible break point)		10     (15)
Literature searching and referencing. Presentation by tutor, including live demonstration of appropriate search engines.		20
Introduction to marking rubrics. Students read 3 essays and mark according to a marking rubric. Whole-class discussion of marks given. (possible break point)		40   (15)
Generative AI awareness & ethics. Presentation of the University’s genAI policy and how it applies to the assignment.		30
PhD student talk. Presentation by current PhD student about their research (relevant to topic). Q&A on PhD life.		20
Essay assessment. Individually, after the session, students use skills gained to write an essay on a related topic.		n/a

 

Onboarding 1: Importance of transferrable skills

By 2019/20, many students thought that ITUs were irrelevant because they did not aid exam preparation or grade improvement. To increase student buy-in, we introduced an individual task about transferrable skills before the ITU: students ranked 12 transferable skills that employers seek in chemistry graduates by importance. At the start of the session, the class’s responses are compared to 98 employers’ ratings (Kondo & Fair, 2017). Our students think quantitative/analytical and problem-solving skills are most important, while employers value interpersonal and teamwork skills the highest. Highlighting the unit’s aim, to develop these soft skills in a low-stakes environment and provide groupwork experiences for job interviews, immediately boosts student engagement.

Onboarding 2: Linking lectures, ITUs and real-world problems

To address the other major aim of the ITUs, linking lecture content to real-world problems, we introduced an ‘icebreaker quiz’ as the first task (see Figure 2). The groups work through simple questions related to their lecture courses linking to the ITU theme. Students’ engagement increases as they realise connections between lecture courses and how the ITU relates to examinable content. The relaxed atmosphere and familiar material reduce anxiety and help groups settle into the unfamiliar learning environment before moving to more challenging material.

Later, a PhD student from the SoC whose research relates to the ITU topic gives a brief talk, thereby further emphasising the real-world applications of the Unit’s content. It also highlights research within the SoC and provides students with an opportunity to ask questions about postgraduate study.

Content

Students complete two ITUs, one per semester, on different themes. We introduced new topical themes, such as an ITU on carbon capture one week before the COP26 environmental conference was hosted in our city. Other recent themes have included virus mutations (after the Covid-19 pandemic), solar cells, and the chemistry of pain.

The groups are often provided with ‘real’ peer-reviewed scientific papers as a basis for their later presentations, including some written by SoC staff to enhance connections to our research (Fung, 2017). The groups can be further split into pairs to explore sections of the papers in more detail. Papers are selected and guiding questions written in cooperation between staff and student partners to ensure an appropriate level: challenging, but not overloading.

Content delivery mode and collaborative tools

In the traditional format, the sub-groups were drip-fed different information on paper throughout the session for processing, summarising, and finally presenting on overhead projectors. During online teaching (2020/21 and 2021/22), we adopted a shared online workbook using Microsoft OneNote containing all materials. This enabled sub-groups to collaborate remotely by annotating materials and answering questions on the same document in real time, and also resulted in a fully-completed version of all the students’ work, which is accessible afterwards. We continue to use shared documents (especially PowerPoint) for live collaborative editing.

Overall, the team of tutors requires the following skills: general subject knowledge (e.g. for icebreaker questions), more in-depth knowledge (e.g. analysing papers and preparing presentations), delivering engaging presentations (introduction, academic literature, genAI), facilitating whole-class discussion and Q&As, and encouraging interactions within groups. Not all tutors have to have all skills; they can complement each other. Additionally, this creates an environment for onboarding subject specialist tutors with little experience of AL pedagogies to work with colleagues who are more experienced in this area.

Integrating a skills development element

A major change in 2023/24 was the introduction of a separate three-hour skills workshop. The elements thereof are now fully integrated into the six-hour unit (Figure 2).

The academic writing skills element started by introducing literature search tools and students tried searching for their favourite lecturers’ publications. The difference between primary and secondary literature was described and students tasked to categorise some papers accordingly. Referencing, referencing styles and DOI-numbers were also covered in anticipation of the essay assessment. The essay marking rubric was furthermore introduced and students were asked to read and mark three 500-word essays therewith. After discussing the marks, it was revealed that one essay had been generated using Generative Artificial Intelligence (genAI), leading to discussion on genAI use and UofG’s policy on doing so ethically.

The oral communication skills activity aimed to develop public speaking skills. It was created and delivered by a final-year undergraduate student as part of his chemistry education dissertation, and focussed mainly on public speaking anxiety (PSA). Students were encouraged to practice some PSA-coping-techniques by engaging in one-minute debate-style presentations on fun (non-chemistry) topics in the privacy of their groups. 89.6% of students particularly liked that it was led by a student who had overcome these anxieties himself and with whom they could identify better compared to staff.

Table 2: Summary of changes to ITU format by year

Academic year	2019/20	2020/21	2021/22	2022/23	2023/24	2024/25
Location	Lecture hall plus seminar rooms.	online	online	Computer clusters with individual PCs	TEAL Room	TEAL Room
Key modifications this year	None: Traditional format. Traditional content.	Pre-ITU task. Using OneNote.	New content (Carbon Capture)	Traditional ITU format in computer rooms limits interactions severely	New content (solar cells (ITU1) + pain (ITU2)). New 3h-skills session. Student partners.	As 23/24, but skills session integrated with rest of unit.

Student feedback

At the end of the ITUs, students were asked in which parts of the curriculum they perceived they had developed various skills. Ethical approval was obtained from the UofG’s College of Science and Engineering Ethics Committee for this evaluation. Figure 3(a) shows the percentage of students who felt that the ITU did help them build the skills shown, and how this changed by year, allowing us to estimate the impact of our interventions above, which are summarised in Table 2.

The general trend observed in Figure 3(a) is a dip in skills development in 2020/21 and 2021/22 when the ITU was online. In 2023/24 and 2024/25, large increases have been observed as we adopted the new format with large groups in TEAL rooms, with input from student partners, and with explicit skills development elements.

To compare if there was a statistically significant difference between the data from 2019/20 and 2024/25, Z-scores and p-values were computed for each skill from the raw data as shown in Figure 3(b). The smallest change measured was for oral communication. This is not surprising since it initially scored high since it was the most obvious skills students associated with the ITU. For all other skills a high Z value and low p value show that there has been a very significant increase in students’ belief that these skills have improved through ITUs. In addition to the four core skills we aimed to develop (oral communication, teamwork, literature searching and scientific writing), an unexpected benefit was that more students reported developing time management and project management skills too.

Other feedback (Figure 3(c)) demonstrates the ITU’s broad appeal across a variety of factors.

Inclusivity

To improve inclusivity, students chose to sit anywhere. Many students join the tables in friendship groups of twos or threes and so have a mixture of familiar and new peers to work with. This helps form new connections and community, whilst having the support of old friends. In addition, several front-facing and background roles required within the group are discussed at the start of the session, such as researcher, slide creator, timekeeper, and presenter, so students can contribute in a way that is comfortable for them. Reading materials are made available to students in advance if required.

Sustainability and transferability

The new ITU framework is highly adaptable and we envision using it for many years. Content can easily be updated or changed to increase relevance in the future and the skills exercises incorporated could be lengthened or shortened depending on the needs of the cohort, or new activities could be introduced to develop different skills. For instance, our second semester ITU has fewer but larger groups, and gives more time to prepare presentations, which are assessed for credit.

This flexibility lends the model to being highly transferrable to other disciplines by substituting subject-specific content and modifying the skills activities as required.

Key takeaways

• Develop courses with student-partners for excellent insights, ideas and different perspectives.
• Create an inclusive and comfortable environment by hosting multiple groups of 6-9 students in the same room, lowering staff:student ratio, and defining a variety of group roles.
• Onboard students with a pre-activity task, signposting connections to the curriculum and giving evidence-based explanations of the purpose and benefits of the tasks throughout the session.

Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge informal conversations with many colleagues on ITU delivery; and the UofG Student-Staff Partnership Scheme for funding.

 

References

Docherty, F. T. (2021). Chemistry Students’ Perceptions of Employability Skills and Methods of Learning These [MEd thesis]. University of Glasgow.

Fung, D. (2017). A connected Curriculum for Higher Education. UCL Press. https://doi.org/10.14324/111.9781911576358

Grant, S., Freer, A. A., Winfield, J. M., Gray, C., & Lennon, D. (2005). Introducing undergraduates to green chemistry: an interactive teaching exercise. Green Chemistry, 7(3), 121–128. https://doi.org/10.1039/B412664E

Grant, S., Freer, A. A., Winfield, J. M., Gray, C., Overton, T. L., & Lennon, D. (2004). An undergraduate teaching exercise that explores contemporary issues in the manufacture of titanium dioxide on the industrial scale. Green Chemistry, 6, 25–32. https://doi.org/10.1039/B309878H

Kondo, A. E., & Fair, J. D. (2017). Insight into the Chemistry Skills Gap: The Duality between Expected and Desired Skills. Journal of Chemical Education, 94(3), 304–310. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.6b00566

Lennon, D., Freer, A. A., Winfield, J. M., Landon, P., & Reid, N. (2002). An undergraduate teaching initiative to demonstrate the complexity and range of issues typically encountered in modern industrial chemistry. Green Chemistry, 4(3), 181–187. https://doi.org/10.1039/B202541H

About the authors

FTD is a Senior Lecturer in Physical Chemistry and CEAG is a Lecturer in Organic Chemistry, both on education-focussed tracks. OD and AAJG are undergraduate Chemistry students who worked on the project as part of a student-staff partnership. RS graduated with an MSci in Chemistry in 2024.

Corresponding Author: Frances T. Docherty, Frances.Docherty@glasgow.ac.uk