In recent years, different phenomena including the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the changes in the fundamentals of education moving to approaches that highlight the role of the student during the teaching and learning process, have altered educational strategies, mandating an abrupt transition to online learning. This forced universities to accelerate their digital transformation, requiring educators to rapidly acquire and implement online tools. Universities also expanded virtual academic exchanges, broadening access and collaboration. However, the transition proved particularly challenging for experimental fields like sciences and engineering, where laboratory practices are critical. The need to adapt these practices led to a surge in research on virtual laboratories. This study presents a teaching strategy based on the “Flipped Classroom” and developed in response to these challenges.

In this work, an innovative educational strategy, based on a practical approach, has been proposed for the improvement of research skills of undergraduate students during the development of Separation Methods subject of the 3rd year of the Chemistry Degree. The dynamic was applied in one of the laboratory practices carried out, in which a total of 15 students participated in 5 different groups. The students received an email presenting the dynamic before the start of the practices so that they could begin the work prior to the face-to-face session. In the virtual classroom, they had 4 documents of interest available to prepare the session:
i) the practice script,
ii) an H5P video with questions about the use of the equipment,
iii) an H5P video with questions about the work in the laboratory,
iv) an explanatory Genial.ly about data processing.

Subsequently, in the laboratory sessions, the activity focused on the laboratory work, except for the first and last 15 minutes, which were used for the initial resolution of doubts and the discussion and extraction of conclusions, respectively. Finally, the students prepared a final report with the questions raised in the practice script. The final grade was obtained taking into account participation in all the activities described. Obtained results demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed strategy.

Keywords: Research skills, analytical chemistry, flipped classroom, separation methods.