Integrating Chemical Information Instruction into the Chemistry Curriculum on Borrowed Time: A Multiyear Case Study of a Capstone Research Report for Organic Chemistry

To develop information literacy skills in chemistry and biochemistry majors at a primarily undergraduate institution, a multiyear collaboration between chemistry faculty and librarians has resulted in the establishment of a semester-long capstone project for Organic Chemistry II. Information literacy skills were instilled via a progressive research report, supported by a comprehensive modular virtual tutorial catered toward Rider University students, on the efficient use of SciFinder and related tasks for searching and using the primary literature. Over a six-year period, both the research report and the tutorial modules have been cyclically evaluated, assessed, and revised in order to meet our student learning objectives. This article describes the assessment-driven evolution of the research report assignment between 2010 and 2015, as well as student perceptions and learning outcomes. The technological development, feedback-driven revisions, and assessment of student learning outcomes of the SciFinder tutorial series have been included in a companion article in this Journal.