Dr Nathan Boase is a lecturer at Queensland University of Technology, where he teaches Chemistry courses using Cerego. Learn how he used Cerego to create custom courseware that makes lessons stick.


Q&A

Cerego: How would you describe the students on your campus? 

Nathan Boase: As many other institutions are facing, we have a broad range of backgrounds for our undergraduate students. We have many typical school leavers, who are ready for university, but often lacking previous science or chemistry education. We also have those who are coming less prepared, including first-in-family to attend university, or different cultural backgrounds.

We also have a significant proportion of mature age students, who are reentering education. Many of our students are attempting to balance large work commitments with full time study, and so are often resorting to online resources, including the ones we provide, as well as others.

 

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“One student commented on a survey, 'I like the way Cerego can replace Candy Crush on my phone'. This was an absolute win for me.

- Lecturer at Queensland University of Technology

 

Cerego: What are some of the teaching and learning challenges you face as an instructor?

NB: The diverse student background, many of whom have never studied chemistry before is the biggest challenge we face. We need to get these students up to speed with chemical terminology as quickly as possible. The other major challenge is the declining number of students who are attending class, preferring to study from home using digital resources.

Cerego: How have you tried to address these challenges in the past?

NB: To catch up students with limited prior chemistry education, we have tried a number of different activities in class, including interactive lectures and workshops.

Cerego: What has consistently come up short for you regarding the learning solutions you have tried?

NB: The major limitation of many other digital teaching tools is poor design and interactivity. Many other tools lack an intuitive user interface, attractive visual appeal, and a streamlined back end for creating content and accessing analytics. This makes it difficult for student and teacher to engage with them

Cerego: What attracted you to Cerego?

NB: I was immediately attracted to how similar it looked to flashcard style learning, which I knew was a popular learning technique among my students. As I looked into it more, the adaptivity and the engine, which encourages distributed learning and memory retrieval, really made me understand the power of Cerego.

  

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“While freeing up class time, Cerego also increased student engagement with what is typically very dry and mundane material.

- Lecturer at Queensland University of Technology

 

Cerego: How did Cerego help you address the teaching and learning challenges in this course?

NB: It allowed me to move much of the fundamental learning around the language of chemistry online, and available at the leisure of the students. While freeing up class time, Cerego also increased student engagement with what is typically very dry and mundane material. It also allowed them to study when and where it suited them, in small chunks of time. They could access Cerego on their walk or bus ride in the morning.

Cerego: What did you and your students like most about Cerego?

NB: I liked how it increased student engagement and demonstrated to the students the power or small, repetitive, and effective study sessions, compared to large "cramming" sessions. The students liked how easy to use, engaging, and fun the tool was. They liked that it was accessible on whatever device they liked, whenever and wherever they were.

One student commented on a survey, "I like the way Cerego can replace Candy Crush on my phone". This was an absolute win for me.

Thanks very much to Nathan Boase for the interview!