The use of information and communications technology has an increasing influence on teaching activities in higher education. Information and communications technology offers the opportunity to improve students’ learning experiences provided it is used in an educationally sound way. Material such as online pre-laboratory work can be accessed by students off campus at any time to allow students some timetabling flexibility whilst offering the university a cost effective means of delivery. The effectiveness of a particular online pre-laboratory work module on students’ learning and their academic performance in a related practical exercise was investigated for this study. This investigation clearly demonstrated that those students, with a relatively poor chemistry background, who completed this module performed significantly better in a laboratory titration assessment than those who did not complete it.

Keywords: pre-laboratory work, computer assisted learning, chemistry education