About REAL CHEM

REAL CHEM was built by educators who understand how students learn chemistry, and by extension, how to help them succeed. Making chemistry meaningful is a core part of REAL CHEM's mission: our goal is to allow learners to discover chemistry's role in their world, and their potential to shape it. REAL CHEM shows students aspiring to any career how their future might be enriched by thinking like a chemist.

The REAL in REAL CHEM stands for Relevant, Engaging, Active Learning. REAL CHEM incorporates high quality videos and real-world connections to break down complex concepts and connect students with real voices in chemistry so they can envision their own careers in STEM. REAL CHEM's real-time insights into student progress help instructors identify where students need additional guidance, which enables targeted support and streamlined course management. The provided discussion prompts and module activities deepen students’ understanding with engaging topics for classroom discussion and contextualized, worked examples of complex math concepts. Finally, the deliberate practice, PhET simulations, and Exploration activities included in every unit allow students to play an active role in their learning and simulate solving problems that affect them every day.

REAL CHEM was born in 2023 when Arizona State University and Carnegie Mellon University joined forces to reimagine chemistry education. Today, Carnegie Mellon University's Open Learning Initiative brings decades of learning science research to REAL CHEM, creating proven approaches that drive student success. Arizona State University's ETX Center contributes the cutting-edge technology that helps REAL CHEM reach more students effectively. REAL CHEM is collaborating with partner institutions to conduct extensive classroom testing that helped refine our approach.

Carnegie Mellon University's Online Learning Initiative developed REAL CHEM to comply with a wide range of accessibility, privacy, information security, and other technology requirements your institution may have for online courseware.

• OLI Terms and Conditions
• OLI Privacy Policy
• OLI’s research and data policies and practices
• OLI’s Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT)
• OLI’s Higher Education Community Vendor Assessment Tool (HECVAT Lite)
• OLI’s Higher Education Community Vendor Assessment Tool (HECVAT Full)
• OLI’s Security and Operations Policy
• Course Instructor and Student Online Consent Form language

If you need to accommodate students with disabilities with an equally effective alternative access plan (EEAP), here is a template for an  EEAAP (PDF) to help you design a successful plan of action.

We're excited to work with you! Please complete a brief survey which help us follow up with you about your interest in participating in the HBCU-AL$ project with REAL CHEM.  You can also just email us at gerry.hanley@csulb.edu