Publishing firms that market fiction novels have for some time now reaped the benefits of selling their product in an electronic form: the "e-book". The premise behind such a move is that a major segment of the market, the college and precollege age group, has not been historically drawn to reading printed materials, but is quite predisposed toward using software. In the academic realm, a similar phenomenon is also at work. Students who tend not to read their textbooks naturally gravitate toward and readily use software tutorials. Sanctuary and Woolsey have attempted to exploit this student tendency in the development of Organic CD, a Windows 95- and 98-compatible program also available for Macintosh. Organic CD, however, goes well beyond being a software tutorial and is a large move in the direction of an electronic textbook.

Organic CD covers most of the topics found in traditional texts for the full-year sophomore organic chemistry sequence. Fourteen chapters are organized by the classic functional group approach. The software is easy to load and operate, utilizing many of the modern strengths of the media: animations, sound, help tools, word searching capability, and interactive features where students can answer questions and then receive immediate feedback. There are hundreds of animated graphics to help students visualize the chemistry addressed. The CD also provides many things that a conventional text would, such as a table of contents, a glossary, in-chapter problems, a periodic chart, and a large assortment of reference tables.

The strengths of the software package are numerous. Reaction mechanisms underlie the author's approach. Mechanisms are completely animated step by step and are exceedingly well done. Students can interact with the software and predict each step of a mechanism and the animated protocol will then tell them whether they were correct; if they were not, the software shows and then explains the proper step for that mechanism. The visual manner in which the mechanisms "come to life" is highly effective and quite engaging. The in-chapter problems are also superb: very well thought out, and presented in an interactive manner. The questions come in several forms, but most use the multiple-choice format in which each incorrect answer is explained in such a way as to describe where the error in thinking arose and why the answer is incorrect. The correct answer is also fully explained. Structures created via molecular modeling are creatively incorporated into the program so that students can see structures in many formats (space filling, ball and stick, etc.) and can rotate them to get a more tangible visual feel for the molecules. Throughout the program, spoken comments allow students to more easily follow the various steps, listening rather than reading. Provision is made for faculty to use the animated mechanisms in the classroom lecture format; the mechanisms can be driven in a Powerpoint-like format with the sound turned off, enabling the instructor to illustrate and explain the concepts in a stepwise fashion. Finally, and in a most general sense, the software is highly intuitive. Any student can quickly navigate through the program and utilize its full capability without a training session.

The authors state that

The long term goal [of this project] is to develop a full [independent] electronic text. At this stage, we see 'Organic CD' as additional material for the student to work through at their own pace at their computer. As such, the material is presently considered to be supplementary to a [conventional] text book. We have tried to make the material generic so that it goes with any text. We leave the details of applications and long verbal descriptions to the text book.

On the basis of the authors' testimony that the current product is a supplement that will ultimately grow into something larger, then I can see only one weakness in it. As a supplement to a standard text, the breadth of topics covered is fine with the singular, though glaring, exception of the complete lack of any spectroscopy treatment. Future versions, even those still considered as "supplemental" to an existing text, need to have spectroscopy chapters. Apart from this one omission, I know of no aid available in any format that will better enable students to learn the mechanistic aspects of organic chemistry. Although the material presented in each subject area is exceptional, only 50-60% of the reactions typically addressed in most conventional texts are covered. Further, a more extensive set of interactive questions needs to be developed for inclusion in each chapter. To strengthen the CD, the author should consider incorporating hyperlinks to useful organic chemistry sites.

In its current form, Organic CD should be a highly recommended aid to students of organic chemistry. However, I am far more excited about what Organic CD can become once the authors have achieved their long-term goal: a complete stand-alone electronic text. Extrapolating the quality and effectiveness of the current version of Organic CD to the scope and scale of a complete text, the potential exists for a new revolution in teaching organic chemistry. To see what might be the future, I suggest you browse the Web site for MCH Multimedia where demonstrations of Organic CD are available.