Abstract:

Overcrowding is exceptionally unfortunate when performing laboratory experiments that require an important theoretical background. Although theoretical concepts are taught in the classroom, when students arrive at the laboratory they are not able to perform the experiments on their own. What is more, they even do not know how to start. Thus, anything that can be done to help the students to understand the experimental procedures that they have to follow should be given the highest priority. In this sense, the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia has developed the Plan Docencia en Red, a program with the purpose of supporting the elaboration and use of multimedia learning material (videos and others).
The educational video was aimed for first year students of the Grado en Biotecnologia (Biotechnology Degree). In particular, the video will be used in the laboratory sessions of the course Termodinámica y Cinética Química (Thermodynamics and Chemical Kinetics). In this course, the ratio students per instructor is too high, which makes very difficult to give an individual support in the laboratory. The study of the equilibrium liquid-vapour in the water-ethanol system was chosen as the topic for the educational video. The experimental procedure to obtain the diagram of equilibrium for mixtures of ethanol-water was described, together with the theoretical background. The video was filmed in the laboratory and it is available in the Politube platform. The present communication describes the process of planning and filming the video. The next step to be undertaken is to recommend the students to use the video and evaluate its impact on their learning process by means of their final marks.

Keywords:

Educational video, overcrowding, thermodynamics.