Driven by an enthusiasm for chemistry, MolView started out in 2012 as a high school project. It quickly gained traction as an easy-to-use website for students to understand and visualise molecular geometry. Ten years later teachers around the world use MolView to make tutorials and exercises, and to encourage active learning. Many researchers and educational content creators prefer MolView over more old-fashioned and comprehensive software to make quick chemical drawings and export images of them.
Many teachers already use MolView in their organic chemistry curriculum, and based on their feedback we have identified three steps in which we can enhance MolView for education. The first step is to add sketching tools for things like Lewis structures and reaction dynamics. This will broaden the range of applications. The second step is to incorporate a rich feedback mechanism into the sketcher. When an impossible structure is drawn, or when the structure does not match a set goal, the mistake will be pointed out visually. The third step is to add a mini-assignment builder for teachers. The assignment will be linked to a unique URL that teachers can share with their students.
The assignment system we are designing is minimalistic and straightforward. Based on the teacher’s configuration the student will be asked to complete a task such as; “draw 2-methyl-1-propanol”, “draw an example of an alkene”, “circle the acid group in the given structural formula”, or “select the chiral carbon atom in the given 3D model”. Our feedback mechanism can help students to complete the task when they are stuck. These mini-assignments will not only be interesting for teachers, but also for publishers and online learning platforms.
We are looking for partnerships with education platforms to evolve and integrate MolView’s chemical sketching and assessment, and enable chemical sketching in digital homework assignments and exams. If you are interested in working with us, please reach out on MolView.com!
