“A Hybrid General Chemistry Platform Used to Reach Single Digit Non-Passing Rates at UT Austin”

Consistent with the national emphasis on improving graduation rates, the University of Texas at Austin and specifically the Department of Chemistry embarked on an initiative to dramatically improve non-passing rates in its large gateway freshman courses. A course transformation project implemented over the past five years has fully converted a traditional lecture-based delivery model to a hybrid approach backed by an in-house “gchem” website developed for deployment through multiple delivery modalities. Results have been impressive. Non-passing rates that have historically exceeded 30% and as recently as five years ago were 20%, are now routinely less than 10%. This includes a recent second semester cumulative non-passing rate of just 6%. These improvements have also been seen in other gateway courses in the sciences and are a significant contributor to the rapid improvement in graduation rates at UT Austin.  The seminar details the department’s technological and cultural evolution in its growing commitment to student success.