Using Web 2.0 in a student-centered approach to teach quantum mechanics to graduate students

CHED 435

Thomas A. Baker, tabaker@fas.harvard.edu and Alán Aspuru-Guzik, aspuru@chemistry.harvard.edu. Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, 12 Oxford St., Cambridge, MA 02138
Web 2.0 is a term used to describe the recent trend in internet applications which emphasizes online collaboration and sharing among users and includes services such as social networking sites, wikis, and blogs. These tools can be used in education, in a student-centered approach, which requires collaboration and communication between students and places more of the control of learning in the hands of the student. In this talk, we describe the implementation of some of these Web 2.0 tools and other student-centered projects in a graduate quantum mechanics class taught in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University. Projects assigned in the class included a wiki about quantum mechanics topics that were covered in class, an essay on quantum interpretations, an electronic-structure calculation, and a literature review. One of the resources used in the class was an online course web site that could be edited by any student and incorporated a homework discussion board and chat room.