Project Management Agency for Innovation in Initial and Continuing VET
Networked Chemistry Studies (VS-C)
This pilot project illustrates in exemplary fashion new developments in teaching and changes in the culture of learning that the use of the Internet has triggered in recent years. The Networked Chemistry Studies project now offers instructors and students an interactive platform where users will find more than 5,000 Internet sites that offer, for example, 3D molecular structures, multimedia-based process animations, simulations of reactions, or the possibility of "practicing" on virtual equipment.
With the Networked Chemistry Studies project, instruction and learning offerings can now be geared to individual needs and individualized to a degree that was hitherto not possible using traditional media. As a result, beginners and people with other vocational backgrounds can quickly and selectively acquire the required level of basic scientific knowledge or - at a more advanced level of study - the desired specialized knowledge on a targeted basis. And since it is linked with the Internet ("global knowledge"), the Networked Chemistry Studies project's learning platform can also be used as a tool for continuing vocational training (i.e., lifelong learning).
This project gives chemistry instruction at universities a new quality and contributes to ensuring a balanced and yet flexible range of courses on offer - as is being targeted for the future, based on developments in the Bologna Process.
