Final Requirement in BSCI0515 – Journal Article Analysis

Before proceeding, make sure that you already have an approved journal article to be analyzed. It
would save you time and effort also if you go back to the basics of paraphrasing. You may access this
YouTube video if you think you need a little re-orientation on paraphrasing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MwAHsgABHk

Name: Keithleen F. Pamintuan

Journal Article Title: Analytical Chemistry Teaching Adaptation in the COVID-19 Period: Experiences
and Students’ Opinion
Author(s): Elena Rodríguez-Rodríguez, Marta Sanchez-Paniagua, Jon Sanz-Landaluze, and Mar ́ ía
Moreno-Guzmań
Year of Publication: 2020
Journal Name: Journal of Chemical Education

Step 1: What is the purpose, hypothesis, aim, and objective of the study?

a. Write down the exact statement in which the

authors describe what they were testing. (Hint:
This information may be provided in the article
as a purpose statement or as a hypothesis).
Include quotation marks around the exact
wording, and indicate page number(s).
“In this work, we describe the adaptation to an
online teaching model of two-degree analytical
chemistry courses: Pharmacy and Food Science
and Technology.” (p. 1)

The study aims to explain how teaching changed

b. Now describe the purpose of the study (as
you understand it) in your own words.
from the normal to the new normal of teaching
amidst the COVID-19 pandemic at Complutense
University of Madrid's School of Pharmacy and
Food Science and Technology degrees.
Additionally, the student’s views on the changed
in terms of theoretical and practical instruction.

The research gap that the authors were trying to

c. What was the “gap” in the research that the
authors were trying to fill by doing their study?
fill by doing their work, the Spanish Royal Decree
463/2000, of March 14th, 2020, declaring the state
of alarm led to the suspension of face-to-face
instruction. As a result, all ongoing activities
including master classes, seminars, and
laboratory practices that were meant to assist
and provide the conditions for learning were
stopped.
 Step 2: What is/are the major finding(s) of the study?
a. Make some notes about the authors’ major
conclusions or findings as written in the article.
Include quotation marks whenever you use
their exact wording, and indicate page
number(s).
b. Now write those conclusions (as you
understand them) in your own words.
The study was able to find out that the analytical
chemistry course, both in the Pharmacy and FST
degrees, was quickly adapted to an online
modality, and a mixed model of synchronous and
asynchronous methodologies was used.
Blackboard Collaborate and Google Meet
platforms were selected in the synchronous
modality. Although the students preferred to
carry out a face-to-face teaching−learning
process, they considered that the online classes
presented advantages and disadvantages similar
to the face-to-face classes. The main advantages
highlighted by online classes were the saving of
time and flexibility. With respect to practical
classes, which were basically taught in the FST
degree, they were adapted to an online modality
through the use of videos and synchronous
explanations because of the limited time and
resources to start up a virtual laboratory.
Students declared that they would have preferred
to receive the practices in a face-to-face way.
(Rodríguez et al. p. 7)
The researchers focus on the adaptation to an
online teaching model of two-degree analytical
chemistry courses: Pharmacy and Food Science
and Technology. There is an application of these
two methodologies which are synchronous and
asynchronous classes. For the synchronous
modality platforms both degrees utilized Google
Meet and Blackboard Collaborate. However,
there are existing pros and cons to online classes
which are time savings and flexibility. In addition,
practical classes, which made up the majority of
the FST degree, were converted to an online
modality through the use of videos and
synchronous explanations due to the lack of time
and funding to establish a virtual laboratory.
Among those new experiences still, face-to-face
classes are the most effective way to learn,
according to the students who patriciate in the
survey.
From the research, it has been carried out that
COVID-19 is having a serious impact on the
education system and approaches of the

Step 3. How did the authors test their hypothesis?
a. Briefly summarize the main steps or
measurements that the authors used in their
methods. Try to explain in your own words as
much as possible.
institutions for offering learning through other
mediums. According to the study, people are
facing serious issues related to learning and
looking for new approaches to learning. To
maintain continuity in learning and to share
knowledge with the students, it is recommended
to institutions adapt to an online teaching model.
Lack of technical understanding of students and
teachers is also a big challenge for the system to
offer training and support. Moreover, the sudden
shift to online learning will be difficult for
countries and educational authorities due to a
lack of infrastructure and planning for the format
that suits the new approach. It becomes difficult
for educational institutions to maintain the
operational cost and retain the students.
However, Offering training to the teachers and
collecting feedback from the parents related to
the online system will be useful for the
educational institution to overcome the issues
related to taking classes and engaging the
students.
The measurement that the authors used in their
method are:
The primary step is the Student Opinion
Questionnaire which focuses to be aware of the
student’s opinions in terms of online teaching
modality. A Likert 5-point scale was used where 1
disagrees, 2 somewhat disagree, 3 neutral, 4
somewhat agree, and 5 fully agree.
The secondary step is the Statistical Analysis
there are different variables were considered
such as the number of repeaters, students who
are enrolled in the same course as in the previous
academic year, the number of tasks given during
each period, whether in person or online, and
questions from an opinion survey with a Likert-
type response. These variables had a non-normal
distribution and are represented in the text as a
median, an interquartile range, and an average.
The Mann-Whitney U-test was used to compare
these characteristics across academic levels. In
order to compare proportions between degrees,
χ2 analyses were performed. In SPSS version 25

b. Do the authors suggest any problems or
limitations with their methodology? Do you see
any problems or limitations with their
methodology?
c. How did the authors analyze their data?
What test/s did they use?
Step 4. How Reliable are the results?
a. Do the authors suggest any problems with
(SPSS Inc., Chicago, Illinois, USA), where test
results with p ≤ 0.05 were deemed statistically
significant, data were entered and evaluated.
The work was performed during the academic
year 2019−20 in two courses that began in
January 2020 (second semester) for two-degree
studies at Complutense University of Madrid: the
Pharmacy degree and the Food Science and
Technology (FST) degree. The course, Analytical
Chemistry I, with 6 ECTS credits, is taught in the
first year of the Pharmacy degree. The study was
performed in two groups of Analytical Chemistry I
with a total of 188 students. Fundamentals of
Chemistry and Chemical Analysis is a course
taught in the FST degree (first year) with one
group of 118 students and 12 ECTS credits
including master classes, seminars, and practical
experiences. (Rodríguez et al. p. 2)
The limitation of this in the aspect of gathering
data is due to the reason of COVID-19 pandemic,
in which close physical contact is still strictly
prohibited and is needed in order to maintain the
social distancing policy to avoid the rapid increase
of cases. With that only be conducted through
the use of an online survey.
In this work, an open-ended qualitative
questionnaire was used. The questionnaire
compared online and in-person instruction, as
well as aspects of theoretical and practical classes
and the teacher's role in online instruction. Each
of the 21 questions has been given an item
number in order to make the results easier to
interpret. The questionnaire was made using the
Google Forms tool, and a link to it was posted on
Virtual Campus. Students had access to the
survey for one week before classes ended and
closed one week later. The questionnaire was
announced to students in class as well as through
a message distributed throughout Virtual
Campus.
The authors didn’t suggest any problems with the
study that could lead to unreliable results, the
the study that could lead to unreliable results?
Step 5. Based on your analysis, are the claims made in this journal article accurate?
a. Do the conclusions made (about the results)
by the author make sense to you? Are the
conclusions too broad or too narrow based on
what was actually done in the study?
b. Based on the accuracy of the methodology
and the reliability of the results as described in
Steps 3 and 4, do you think the conclusions can
be believed?
Step 6. What is the importance of this scientific work?
a. Write (in your own words) the significant
contributions of the experimental work in this
journal article as reported by the authors.
researcher provided a survey questionnaire to
prove it with evidence and computation of the
resulting survey for its reliability.
The conclusion made by the authors makes sense
because it is not too broad or too narrow. The
topic was relevant and appropriate to what is
being discussed and suggest some
recommendations. In addition, the conclusion
made by the authors is useful for the next
researcher regarding teaching adaptation in the
COVID-19 Period.
I agree that the accuracy of the methodology and
the reliability of the results are accurately
discussed in the conclusions that can be believed
by the readers. Researchers presented methods,
techniques, tools, tests, and data that made the
conclusion of the author’s quality of being trusted
and believed in.
The significant contributions of this experimental
work are the online teaching modality and a
mixed model of synchronous and asynchronous
methodologies. Blackboard Collaborate and
Google Meet platforms were selected in the
synchronous modality and found certain
advantages on it such as “save time” and
“schedule flexibility” but among that is to surpass
the suspension of face-to-face teaching activity in
all teaching levels from mid-March of the
academic year 2019−2020 because of the COVID-
19 health crisis that we’ve been experienced.
This is a strong scientific article because the
authors established the aim of their study very
well with both Pharmacy and FST degrees, which

b. Re-read your notes and explain why you
think
this is
 a strong or weak scientific article
 a strong or weak scientific study
was quickly adapted to an online modality, and a
mixed model of synchronous and asynchronous
methodologies. In addition, they have stated all
of the procedures that they have done in their
article clearly, on point, and in a detailed way.
Furthermore, those related studies that the other
authors stated represent a source that can
support the study to be strengthened more. On
the other hand, I don’t think that this article will
target readers constantly because somehow the
COVID-19 pandemic will be history soon.
However, unexpected and unplanned situations
are part of life that would be remarkable like the
COVID-19 pandemic because the whole world got
affected in all aspects that have challenged
everyone.