Effects of Online Teaching and Mental Ability Grouping on Achievement in Organic Chemistry among University Students in South-West, Nigeria,

This article investigated the effect of online teaching strategy (using Google online classroom) and mental ability groupings on achievement in organic chemistry among university students in southwest, Nigeria. The study was carried out among 100 level science students in two Nigeria universities in the southwest, Nigeria. Students involved were those offering basic organic chemistry as a pre–requisite course leading to the award of Bachelors’ Degree in science, applied science and Science Education. The study adopted a pre-test, posttest, quasi experimental and control group research design using a 2 x 2 factorial representation. A total of 160 undergraduate students offering chemistry were involved in the study and data analysis was by Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). Result of finding affirmed the efficacy and supremacy of online teaching strategy over the conventional teacher–student classroom interaction teaching strategy (F(1,155)=49.015, p 0.05; n2 =.22). It also revealed that students’ mental ability had a significant effect on students’ achievement in organic chemistry (mean difference = 12.71, p 0.05). The study recommended that, chemistry teachers especially at the undergraduate level should adopt online teaching method in the teaching of organic chemistry. This should be done in such a manner that the gap between high and low mental ability students is bridged. Keywords: mental ability, online teaching, undergraduates, achievement, organic chemistry.