Outcome-Based Redesign of Physical Chemistry Laboratories During the COVID-19 Pandemic

We reported a redesign of a physical chemistry laboratory course (CHEM 166) for our chemistry majors at the University of Vermont carried out during the COVID-19 pandemic. We started to teach this course after a curriculum reform, which split an upper-division undergraduate laboratory course into physical and analytical chemistry laboratories. To address both traditional challenges in course implementation and student engagement as well as additional constraints imposed by the pandemic, an outcome-based approach was applied to better integrate CHEM 166 with the existing physical chemistry curriculum. We developed clear learning objectives for the entire laboratory course, revised each experiment to align those objectives, and provided students with a coherent experience to explore the structure-properties relationships of model molecules. According to direct and indirect assessments, the students taking CHEM 166 in Spring 2021 have achieved the overall learning objectives, indicating a success of the course redesign. While some aspects of the redesign associated with the pandemic (e.g., additional safety measures) may subside, we discuss how other pandemic-related components that were integrated during the redesign will be carried forward based on their apparent positive impacts. In general, this redesign established an integrated structure for students to enhance the physical chemistry learning experience, while also creating new opportunities for practicing advanced skills in scientific communication, problem solving, and critical thinking. This work, as a useful example of outcome-based course design, can be readily adopted by other institutions and for other chemistry laboratory courses.