This review is more for the course than the instructor since I think most students had very little direct interaction/instruction from Professor Chruma. I think the course was organized well, and the workload was fair for a one-credit course. There were a total of 5 experiments. Before lab each week, we had to watch a lecture video made by Chruma, do a 1-2 page pre-lab assignment, and take a really easy 5-question pre-lab quiz. In-lab was fine although sometimes it felt like there was a bit of a time-crunch. I recommend finding a friend/partner that you can ask questions and take turns getting/washing equipment and glassware with. We only went into lab every other week. On the weeks where we don't go into the lab, we work on and turn in the post-lab assignments that were longer and harder than the pre-labs. I was fortunate to get a nice and helpful TA which I think made a big difference since the TAs are the ones directly watching you in the lab and grading the stuff you turn in.

I took this course online during COVID so keep that in mind when reading this review. I didn't interact with Professor Chruma at all, so I don't know what kind of professor/lecturer he is, but he appears like a decent guy. Orgo I lab was so difficult and stressful for no reason. We had 10 minutes to do a 5-question prelab quiz based on the beyond labs videos (pretty easy). I didn't read a single word from the textbook and still did well in the class (I got an A-). The labs were honestly pretty boring. We had some prelab questions, in-lab questions based on the experiment and then some postlab/conceptual questions after the lab. We were given 2 weeks to complete and submit the labs which were usually around 6-7 page word documents. I recommend not leaving them to do for the last minute and posting your questions on Piazza or asking your TAs during OHs. I don't know how it'll be for in-person classes, but for us, we had to watch several lecture videos of the TAs doing the experiment. I recommend studying the basic calculation questions (percent yield, ratios, etc) for the final exam and definitely looking over the lecture slides he uses for the prelab quizzes as well. They never asked specific questions from the actual experiments themselves on the final, so don't worry about that. We had to do beyond labs worksheet since we were online, but I doubt you'll have to deal with those when you're in-person. There were 5 experiments in total. Good luck :)

This course was unnecessarily annoying and stressful. Chruma did not know how to teach an online course at all. The videos for each experiment are recorded and posted online, but they difficult to follow and make out what's going on. I would have to squint at my screen for about 10 minutes every week just to find out when the product was melting. The assignments were alright, but if you were in the first week of lab you were given basically no help on them. The second week lucked out because the first week asked all their questions on Piazza. Multiple TAs often did not know what was going on in the course, and said Chruma was not teaching well, and I agree completely with them. This class was very poorly structured, and although Chruma claims he will adjust for future semesters, I doubt he'll actually do anything good. He seemed to put this course on the back burner for the entire semester and focus more on the in-person lab. This class caused more stress than actual orgo lecture, so I do not recommend taking unless you have to.