3D Molecular Interactive Multimedia for Building Chemistry Students' Spatial Ability

Abstract

Building students' spatial ability to assist them in understanding molecular geometry requires proper multimedia. This study investigated the effectiveness of 3D molecular interactive multimedia (3D-MIM) in improving chemistry students' spatial ability. Thirty chemistry education students of a public university in East Java, Indonesia, participated in this study. This pre-experimental pretest-posttest design employed a set of spatial ability tests referring to the three main dimensions of spatial abilities (spatial relationship, spatial orientation, spatial visualization) and semi-structured interview. Our finding showed that students' spatial abilities for the three domains after experiencing the 3D-MIM fall in the strong and large effects category. The values of N-gain falling in the moderate category and effect size (d) in the high category confirm the effectiveness of the 3D-MIM.