16 | CHEMISTRY AND MEDICINAL CHEMISTRY
Teaching excellence
The Keele Chemistry courses are renowned for their innovation and novel ways of teaching both
experimental and theoretical chemistry. All of these innovations are designed so that you can
learn in the best way suited to you and in as flexible way as possible. Highlighted here are just
some of the teaching techniques you will encounter here at Keele:
EXTERNAL EXAMINER’S QUOTE
“Chemistry at Keele is recognised
externally for their excellent
initiatives in teaching and
learning. It was clear from my
examination of topics taught,
the learning environment,
and talking to students, that
the teaching staff here go to
extraordinary lengths to ensure
excellence in their programmes.”
Team-based Learning – this is
a structured approach to problem
classes in which understanding is
tested individually using multiple choice
questions, and then you tackle the
same questions together as a team
using a scratch card to reveal if you
have the correct answer. Then once
the fundamental knowledge has been
established your team is then challenged
to solve problems together. As they say
in LEGOLAND ‘everything is awesome
when your part of a team’.
Screencasts – pioneered here at Keele
screencasts are short edited videos which
address specific topics in chemistry.
These are available 24/7 through our
online learning environment, the KLE.
So if you are stuck in your room trying to
figure out a problem late at night, then
one of our screencasts will be there
to help you with your understanding.
Sometimes screencasts are also used
as pre-class preparation to give you
a fundamental understanding or a
particular topic.
Assessment-Feedback Loops –
sometimes it is easier to see where you
are going wrong by giving feedback on
somebody else’s work. Throughout our
courses we have built in assessment
feedback loops which include anonymous
peer to peer feedback, self-assessment,
individual feedback from staff and
whole class feedback so that you can
improve the work you are submitting
and ensuring that you understand the
assessment criteria.
Purple-pens – sometimes it is difficult
to see how some problems have been
marked and where you have lost marks.
In Purple Pens sessions staff mark work
in front of the whole class so you can see
where you went wrong and make your
own corrections – using your purple pen
to distinguish from your answers!
Research-Led Teaching – our teaching
programmes are designed so that the
material presented is shaped by the
cutting edge research being developed
here at Keele. All final year students
are given the opportunity to engage in a
research project.
Authentic assessment – in your working
life you will have to present work to a
range of different ways to audiences with
diverse background. For example you
might need to give a talk, pitch and idea,
produce a poster, write a report and be
questioned on it by a panel of experts.
All of these and more are embedded into
your assessments at Keele.
keele.ac.uk/chemistry
ILONA SERAFIN MChem
“The lecturers are very
enthusiastic and inspiring.
They go out of their way
to ensure we understand
the lectures.”