Dr. Dietmar Kennepohl

I graduated Summa Cum Laude from McMaster University with a B.Sc. (Honours) degree in chemistry and continued directly my doctoral studies at the University of Alberta in main group synthetic chemistry. Before coming to Athabasca University I also did a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Guelph and was an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at the Universität Göttingen in Germany. Most of my teaching experience has been in a distributed and online setting. I hold both international and national teaching awards including being the 2021 recipient of the 3M National Teaching Fellowship. Over the years, I was a visiting professor at the University of Otago (New Zealand), Universität Göttingen (Germany), Universität Freiburg (Germany), and the Open University (England) while on sabbatical leaves.

During my tenure at the university I have been B.Sc. Program Director, Chair of Centre for Science, Director of ARBRI, and Associate (and Acting) Vice President Academic. I have also been heavily involved in science outreach initiatives including public lectures, chemistry demonstrations, invited classroom speaker, ATA Science Council workshops and talks, as well as being chief judge at the Edmonton Regional Science Fair. I was on Alberta Council of Admissions and Transfer for a decade and past board member on both the Alberta Rural Development Network and the Chemical Society of Canada.

Currently I am Co-chair of the Campus Alberta Quality Council and volunteer as the Director of the Humboldt Foundation Liaison Office in Canada. I am on the board of the American Journal of Distance Education and serve as Board member and as Associate Editor of The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning.

My research in chemical and distance education includes online chemistry courses and concentrates on the use of innovative distance delivery methods for undergraduate laboratory work. This has included developing home-study lab kits, remote-controlled laboratories, learner self-diagnostic, and more recently replacing the commercial textbook in organic chemistry with a wiki. I publish in several other areas and am a sought-after presenter at local, national, and international conferences, on topics including learning design, learning outcomes, assessment, PLAR, transfer credit, distance and online education, and emerging educational technologies.

Discover my research

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Research interests

• Chemical Education
• Online and Distance Education

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Educational credentials

• PhD, Chemistry, University of Alberta
• BSc (Summa Cum Lauda), Honours Chemistry, McMaster University

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Professional affiliations

• 3M National Teaching Fellow, 2021
• Fellow of the Chemical Institute of Canada, 2007
• Canadian Society for Chemistry, 1982–Present (Board Member, Local CIC Edmonton Section Past Chair, Past Chair of Chemical Education Division for Canada).
• College Chemistry Canada, 1993–Present. (Past President and C3 News Editor)
• Sigma Xi, University of Alberta, 1998–Present.
• Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung/Foundation, 1990–Present.

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