Didactic strategy for the virtual experimental teaching of chemistry

The pandemic induced by COVID-19 caused the teaching-learning process in universities to be carried out through the virtual modality. Experimental learning of chemical sciences under this modality constitutes a challenge for students, since laboratory practices are designed to be developed in person. The objective of this research was to elaborate a didactic strategy for the teaching of the experimental component of chemistry in the virtual modality. For this purpose, simulation software (VirtualLab ChemCollective), recording software (Zoom Meetings, Adobe Premiere Pro and Google Meet), video editing software (Camtasia, Ice Cream Video Editor) and the Moodle platform were used. All the necessary documentation was prepared (timetable, study guides, teaching materials, among others) and a survey was administered to 980 students who participated in the study. Once the didactic strategy was evaluated, class attendance was 88.6 %, the average grade obtained by the students was 7.8 points out of a possible 10; 78.0 % of the total, and more than 94 % of the students surveyed were satisfied with the quality of the teaching-learning process of the experimental component carried out virtually. It was concluded that attendance had a similar behavior in the evaluated semester compared to the previous period, so that the virtual modality used in the analyzed semester did not influence student retention, and that the average grade increased by 4.4 %; which corroborates the effectiveness of the didactic strategy applied.