Frequently Asked Questions

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A very large part of any university-level general chemistry course is about solving problems. When students have trouble with chemistry, it is usually either because they lack practice with problem solving skills or their professors do not go over problems with sufficient details in class.

But even when students do spend the time solving problems, they may be frustrated by not having immediately feedback. Some may not have had proper instructions on how to solve a particular type of problems. Without the right tools, some would be lost. And now many times do you have your TA or professor sitting next to you explaining how to do a problem from start to finish? Never?

igetCHEM.com is based on a learning philosophy called "learner-centered education". The idea is that if students have access to the proper instruction at the time when they most need it, they will learn best. After all, why would you eat when you are not hungry? In the same way, when students are ready to learn, they will absorb the most. Most of the instructions happen in a university setting during class time. But if you are learning to solve problems, lecture is not the best environment. Instead, research has shown that the best way to learn problem solving is when you are actually doing it.

igetCHEM.com gives you online videos for step-by-step solutions of a large number of general chemistry problems. Watching these videos is as close to having your professor sitting next to you as you can ever get. When you are confused about a problem, you can consult the video solutions. Or you can use the videos to review how to solve a particular kind of problems.

igetCHEM.com is learner-center instruction the way it is meant to be!

Try to work out the problem on your own first.

Watch the video for detailed step-by-step instructions. Pause or rewind the clip as needed to go over those parts you need more help with.

No.

The point of igetCHEM.com is to teach you how to solve problems, not to help you cheat on homework. So our problems are designed to be similar to your textbooks', but never the same. After you have learned how to solve a similar problem, you should be ready to solve your own homework problems.

Yes, membership is required to view the video solutions. Please visit our Membership Page for more information.

No special software other than a web browser is required. To get video solutions plus full captioning, Apple's Quicktime plugin is required. Quicktime is available for free as a separated download or bundled with iTunes for Windows and Mac. We recommend that you install the Quicktime plugin to get the best experience with igetCHEM.com.

All of the video solutions are also available in a flash version. All modern browsers have integrated flash capability. If you absolutely don't want Quicktime or iTunes, you may play the flash videos. But they will not come with captions and the videos are also significantly larger than the Quicktime version.

Absolutely! You can play the videos on your iPhone. Or if your device plays flash videos, igetCHEM.com will work. We recommend the Skyfire browser for mobiles, which should work on all Android, Symbian (Nokia) and Windows Mobile smartphones.

igetCHEM.com is designed to teach problem solving. Certain areas which are primarily qualitative are not covered. However, you can make a content request on the Forum.

While the voice is rendered by a computer, the inking is actually done by hand. A large part of effective problem solving is to learn how to organize data. By using real handwriting, igetCHEM.com shows you how to construct a plan for solving the problem just like in an exam or your homework, and it gives you a general template for each kind of problems. Unlike the printed solutions in your book's solutions manual, igetCHEM.com's videos actually teach you how to think about the problem.

The author has 20+ years of experience teaching chemistry at a major US university to more than 3000 students. He has used similar homework solution videos for his classes. Finding innovative ways to utilizing technology to deliver science education is his passion. (See Founder's bio for details.)

This is a known bug of the Quicktime player under 64-bit Windows Vista. However, this minor problem should not prevent you from playing the video solutions. Most recent versions of Quicktime for Windows does not have this problem.

Look for the No plugin? link on the top right.

The Apple Quicktime/iTunes plugin v7.6.6 for Windows has a bug. We have reported this to Apple, but a fix has not been issued yet. If you experience audio problems, please play the flash version instead.