The role of PLTL in improving the outcomes for a large enrollment general chemistry course

CHED 401

Melanie M. Cooper, cmelani@clemson.edu, Charles T. Cox Jr., ctcox@clemson.edu, and Barbara Lewis, barbarl@clemson.edu. Department of Chemistry, Clemson University, 259 Hunter Laboratories, Clemson, SC 29634
Over the past few years the success rate in the introductory general chemistry course at Clemson University has fallen dramatically. As a response, in Fall 2005, we instituted a number of changes in an attempt to improve the learning environment and the student success rate. One such change was to provide PLTL sessions for students in this course. However, the resources needed (group leaders, space, and money) were more than we could provide for all 1300 students and some hard decisions had to be made about where an when to implement PLTL. This report will discuss two different implementation strategies, in Fall 2005 and Spring 2006, and the results we observed in student performance.