OrganicERs: Increasing Evidence-Based Instructional and Assessment Practices in Organic Chemistry Courses Throughout the United States

The Organic Education Resources (OrganicERs) community uses workshops, faculty learning communities, a Facebook group, and a website (https://organicers.org) with curricular materials to promote implementation of active learning approaches as we work to help organic chemistry faculty members adopt evidence-based instructional and assessment practices. Our ultimate goals are (1) a culture change among chemistry professors so that instructors are comfortable implementing pedagogical methods that facilitate student learning, promoting both equity and enhanced student success in this challenging course sequence and (2) a support network for faculty who teach organic chemistry. To facilitate this long-term process, our short term goals have been to develop a website and lead workshops as we develop a community of engaged faculty members. The initial response to our efforts has been strong. We have over 1000 verified organic chemistry faculty members on the OrganicERs.org website and over 750 members in the private Facebook group, which hosts active conversations about curricular and pedagogical topics.

The OrganicERs leadership team continues working to develop a robust theory of change to provide a framework for our efforts. To examine the impact of our workshops on participants, we have administered several surveys, following participants over time. The surveys include: the Postsecondary Instructional Practices Survey (PIPS), the Reasoned Action Approach to Predict Active Teaching Behaviors Survey (TPB), and a survey based upon Rogers' Diffusion of Innovations Theory (RDIT). We are interpreting the survey results in light of the Theory of Planned Behavior and Teacher Centered Systemic Reform. Initial survey results indicate that our workshops enable faculty participants to confidently and effectively implement more active learning pedagogies