Survey on Lecturers' Estimation on NMR Lecture Content: The Status Quo of German NMR Lectures and Courses

Most chemistry students struggle with interpreting and understanding NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) spectra and the general concepts of NMR spectroscopy. NMR spectroscopy seems to be difficult to both teach and learn. Therefore, the corresponding courses should be investigated in more detail. We conducted a survey with N = 39 German university lecturers in NMR spectroscopy on their course content as well as on their estimations on the importance of certain topics for understanding NMR spectroscopy in detail and found the most recent problems, conceptions, and content structure. The participants were asked to rate a list of items (belonging to [superscript 1]H NMR spectroscopy) twice: First in terms of appearance in their lecture or course and second according to their personal relevance. Our results showed that, on the one hand, students learn about the physical and chemical backgrounds and theoretical basics for understanding [superscript 1]H NMR spectroscopy and, on the other hand, about essential knowledge for practical analyzing and interpreting [superscript 1]H NMR spectra. The most covered and most important topics are the practical ones related to spectra interpretation, e.g., chemical shift, spin-spin coupling, and further background knowledge for peak analysis. Therefore, most lecturers focus on teaching usage-oriented conceptual knowledge more than theoretical backgrounds, which means that analyzing spectra is paramount, especially for beginner students. Furthermore, this review visualizes an evidence-based ranking for the most covered and as most relevant estimated NMR spectroscopy lecture contents as well as students' greatest learning difficulties in Germany. Lecturers and students are now able to validate their lectures or course structure.