Abstract:

Introduction:
Use of TICs in the academic environment has been rapidly gaining popularity over the last 15 years. It helps create a learner-centered, efficient and flexible e-learning environment. In this context, a new complete, free and easy to use app for the teaching and learning of organic compound and drug nomenclature was created.

Aims:
To improve the teaching and learning of the organic compound and drug nomenclature through the creation of a new app for mobile phones (TuFormulas). To also determine the quality of the new app and compare it with others apps that were very similar to TuFormulas.

Design:
The app is in Spanish, comprises three sections (nomenclature of non-heterocyclic, heterocyclic organic compounds and drugs and structurally complex drugs) and is available for the Android and iOS systems. The organic compound and drug nomenclature exercises were prepared and grouped according to their degree of difficulty. A questionnaire evaluating the app’s ease of use, its operation, its aesthetic and the content accuracy was designed (several features were evaluated within each item). Two evaluations of TuFormulas and the corresponding statistical data analysis were carried out. The app was modified after the first evaluation in order to improve its quality. Two different apps (neither being available for iOS) were selected among the ones already available in the cloud (app 2 and app 3), according to the inclusion selection criteria: language (Spanish), content (nomenclature of organic compounds) and freedom of use. The corresponding evaluations were carried out, using the previously designed questionnaire. The non-parametric Mann-Whitney test was used for all the statistical data comparisons (statistical significance level < 0.05).

Results:
The exercises for the app were generated, the app was created and its quality evaluation and the comparison with apps 2 and 3 were carried out. The means (all the standards deviations were calculated for each mean) of the first evaluation about the app’s ease of use were comprised between 8 and 8.93, about its operation 6.21 and 9.43. The ones relating to its aesthetic were between 7.07 and 8.71. Errors regarding the content accuracy were detected. The means of the second evaluation about the app’s ease of use were comprised between 9 and 9.54, about its operation 8.31 and 9.69. In this instance, the means relating to its aesthetic were between 7.91 and 9.62. Errors about the content accuracy were corrected. A good improvement was observed compared to the first evaluation. When comparing the three apps, all the results for TuFormulas were higher values compared to the apps 2 and 3 (the means for app 2 about its ease of use were comprised between 7.43 and 9.14, about its operation between 3 and 9.19 and about its aesthetic between 4.5 and 8.71. The means for app 3 about its ease of use were comprised between 6.8 and 9, about its operation between 0.8 and 7.8 and about its aesthetic between 3.75 and 8.7). Statistically significant differences were detected in many cases.

Conclusions:
A new app for mobile phones about organic compounds and drug nomenclature was created (TuFormulas). Its evaluation and comparison with two different apps were carried out. The results showed that TuFormulas exhibited the sufficient quality to be used as a teaching/learning educational tool with students in Higher Education.

Keywords:

e-learning, gamification, nomenclature, organic chemistry, medicinal chemistry.