Student Feedback on Distance Learning in the Quantitative Chemical Analysis Laboratory

The COVID-19 pandemic forced the conversion of the quantitative chemical laboratory from a face-to-face format to a distance learning format for the latter half of the Spring 2020 semester. This work provides insight into two different types of, assignments given to students during this time: a lab report and a short-answer assignment. At the conclusion of the semester, students were given a survey of their thoughts and opinions on these assignments and the distance learning format, in general. It was found that students had difficulty writing lab reports when they did not perform the experiment themselves. The short-answer assignment helped focus attention on the important concepts of the lab experiment, but improvements could be made to improve learning. Student comments in the survey suggest the importance of in-person laboratory instruction for their understanding of chemistry.