I just finished Organic Chemistry 2 from UNE Online today. I'll try and give you my honest take on it with info I was looking for before I took the class. I received an A in both the lecture and the lab.
Course Info
Course: Organic Chemistry 1021 and 1021L (lab portion)
Instructor: Dr. Rebecca Rowe
Time Taken: January 18th to February 25th, 2017 (5 1/2 weeks)
Books:
General, Organic, and Biochemistry (8th ed.) by Denniston (you do NOT need the online access code, so purchase this book used). Carey Supplement from UNE (must be purchased directly from UNE, as it is just one chapter taken from another book). I also bought the student solutions/study guide manual for the Denniston text but never even opened it.
Format
Lecture:
- Three discussion boards throughout course (complete waste of time and energy, but they count for 12% of the final grade)
- First section (6 weeks) all come from online lectures and Carey Supplement material. Kind of an amalgamation of material. One quiz for each week.
- Mid-term exam during 7th week (this exam was my worst performance, an 88%. I still suspect that I got marked wrong for questions that were actually test errors, as I had time to check everything in my book and notes before submitting.)
- Second section (9 weeks) comes from Denniston text. One quiz for each week.
- Final exam during week 16
Lab:
- 9 labs conducted through a virtual online lab (free with the class). One lab in paper format.
- 10 quizzes, one for each lab
- Final lab exam during week 16.
Why I took this class
I work full time banker's hours, and my local community college didn't offer Organic Chem at night. UNE was the only option that I could find that was completely online with the lab. Lots of the other courses mentioned here require at least some in-person time. UNE was completely flexible within the 16 week time frame. After checking with the veterinary college I'm applying to and making sure they accepted this class, I enrolled.
Good:
This class was very easy. I completed it very quickly, even while working full time. The difficulty is nothing compared to the first semester of Org Chem through UNE. The first half is more difficult than the second, but both are very doable.
The first half was all about lab analysis techniques. Extractions, infrared spectroscopy, proton NMR, carbon NMR, and mass spectroscopy are the main components. Most of it was straightforward.
I really enjoyed the second half of the semester. The labs corresponded well with the lectures, and the material is a lot more applicable to the medical field, as it is basic biochemistry.
Bad:
The first 2 weeks, everything you learn is from the lectures. I hated that, as I'd much rather read. The topic of extraction is constantly referred to throughout the course, but is very lightly taught during the first week. This should have been covered better for the amount of emphasis they put on it.
As with Org Chem 1 from UNE, I again had issues with questions being marked wrong when I really got them right. Dr. Rowe was not very helpful when this came up. Even after admitting some of them were wrong, she refused to change them "unless it made a difference in my final grade." This is lazy and inexcusable to me.
My suggestions to do well
- Listen to the lectures during the first half. Most of the quiz questions are direct quotes from her slides.
- Lectures during the second half mostly regurgitate material from the book, but they do help you to know what is important in the book and what is not. The book gives way more detail than is actually tested on.
- Do the practice questions from the Carey supplement.
- Skip the practice questions from the Denniston text.
- Make sure to really understand extraction and the spectroscopy material, as it will be used in all the later labs and final exams.
- Keep very detailed lab notes. You can use them on the lab final, and they will help you immensely.
- Everything is open book and open notes. Print out an "index" for your book so you can flip to pages quickly during the exams.
