Gamification of ChemDraw during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Investigating How a Serious, Educational-Game Tournament (Molecule Madness) Impacts Student Wellness and Organic Chemistry Skills while Distance Learning

Social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic presents mental health and academic obstacles for students. As mental health can strongly influence academic performance, addressing the loss of community by transitioning to distance education, midsemester, is imperative. This work draws upon the community and wellness benefits associated with online gaming and applies it to ChemDraw. The goal is to improve the class' wellness and social community while teaching valuable organic chemistry skills. In this paper, a molecule, speed-drawing tournament (Molecule Madness) is presented along with reflections describing the impacts on student wellness and organic chemistry skills. Gamification of ChemDraw is achieved by (1) treating at-home practice as video-game training and (2) using video-conferencing software as a medium for multiplayer gameplay. As the primary focus is placed on education rather than entertainment, ChemDraw is subclassified as a serious educational game. Community is developed by in-game, online chat: observers, announcers, and competitors all interact with each other in real time. The tournament provided students an event to look forward to, helped maintain/improve class community, and developed organic chemistry skills (molecular drawing, history of molecules, and conversational IUPAC) in addition to increased appreciation for IUPAC nomenclature. Although an online community cannot substitute for in-person classroom experiences, this activity supplements the loss of community associated with social distancing and could be extended to enhance community within a face-to-face environment. Additionally, ideas are presented that illustrate how other chemistry classes and topics can be gamified in computer environments (both single- and multiplayer) by drawing upon well-established gaming modes (story mode, maker mode, and speed runs). Overall, this work highlights the supplemental role that chemistry video games can play in learning chemistry: by engaging students in an alternative, yet familiar to many format, classroom community and student confidence are maintained/strengthened.