Oct 13, 2009 - Claremont, Calif. -

Harvey Mudd College (HMC) chemistry professor Adam Johnson and his colleagues on the leadership council of VIPEr (Virtual Inorganic Pedagogical Electronic Resource) recently won the NITLE Community Contribution Award for using technology effectively to strengthen undergraduate education.

Their user-friendly website www.ionicviper.org is designed specifically for inorganic chemistry professors at primarily undergraduate institutions to share ideas and lessons, receive support, and develop friendships.

The development of VIPEr began in 2006 when Johnson initiated an inter-institutional initiative sponsored by the Mellon Foundation. He and five other inorganic chemists got together a few times that year to discuss pedagogy and content but they were frustrated at the lack of progress between meetings. When the grant ended, the group decided to keep it going and IONiC (Interactive Online Network of Inorganic Chemists) was born.        

The spelling of IONiC and VIPEr using element symbols was designed to appeal to the “inner inorganic chemist.” If that doesn’t work, IONiC members aren’t shy about wearing hats, T-shirts and tattoos with the VIPEr logo at conferences or delivering papers with stuffed snakes wrapped around their necks, which earned them the nickname “the snake people.” The somewhat off-beat campy attitude has been an effective recruiting tool for VIPEr contributors and users. However, the site addresses the serious issues of working in isolated environments, encouraging the establishment of a supportive community of inorganic chemists who assist each other's teaching and research goals without getting lost in a large community where connections through similarity are hard to establish.

Lessons include “Inorganic chemists bowling alone” about the importance of balancing face-to-face meetings with online interactions, and “Not tonight, I’ve got a headache, baby, tenure file, lecture, paper to write...” about the importance of having a large enough group so that the workload isn’t overwhelming but not too large to where members lose their sense of commitment and responsibility.        
                                   
Johnson estimated that the group is growing by one or two new members a day and has about 450 inorganic chemistry faculty members registered. That’s not too bad considering there might only be about 1,000 inorganic chemistry faculty at primarily undergraduate institutions nationwide.
   
While the group tries to keep the content fresh by adding a forum post or comment daily, postings of “objects” including suggested lessons by the leadership is averaging three or four times a year per person. Johnson posted “Chemistry Bingo Generator” in early September explaining how to help students learn inorganic nomenclature by using a handful of pennies and a “bingo” card. The hands-on learning activities engage students so that they learn better.

The website also encourages faculty to teach more broadly outside their comfort zones. For example, Johnson has spent his career studying titanium and tantalum. A colleague in The Claremont Colleges studies platinum and palladium. “We can hardly talk to each other,” Johnson said. “When you know only three or four elements, it’s hard to teach outside that.”

So when it comes to teaching magnetism, Johnson said he knows very little from personal experience. But with the website, he can pull a lesson of the website about magnets and use that.

In addition to a small NITLE honorarium, Johnson and his nine colleagues were invited to publish a case study in Academic Commons titled "Come for the Content, Stay for the Community." They shared valuable lessons tinged with humor about their attempts to embrace new technology and the culture of Web 2.0.

Currently, IONiC is funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation. The group is writing a second grant to extend the VIPEr project and launch a new one with a working name of “Back to Grad School” or B2GdS. The plan is to get faculty leaders at research universities like MIT and Caltech to talk to faculty at undergraduate institutions about important and exciting problems in the field of inorganic chemistry. The goal would be to develop learning objects for the website to address those specific issues.

In addition to Johnson, the VIPEr leadership council includes: Ethan Benatan, director of computer user services, Reed College; Jezmynne Dene, science librarian at Claremont University Consortium; Hilary Eppley, associate professor of chemistry and director of the science research fellows at DePauw University; Margret Geselbracht, professor of chemistry, Reed College; Elizabeth Jamieson, associate professor of chemistry, Smith College; Barbara Reisner, associate professor of chemistry, James Madison University; Joanne Stewart, professor of chemistry, Hope College; Lori Watson, assistant professor of chemistry, Earlham College; and B. Scott Williams, associate professor of chemistry, Joint Science Department of The Claremont Colleges.