Online Asynchronous Learning

The online asynchronous learning environment can be thought of like the traditional “distance learning” format, but tech-enabled: All course materials are hosted on Moodle or another web platform, and students engage with videos, readings, activities, and assessments via that platform on their own time and in their own space, rather than at a prescribed class meeting time and location.

Online asynchronous formats are particularly valuable when instructors and students are likely to be distributed across a wide span of time zones across the globe, or when access to electricity and internet resources may be spotty or uncertain.

Benefits:

  • Allow students and instructors to engage with the course materials and activities anytime, from anywhere.
  • Provide a self-paced experience in which self-regulated learners can adjust their pacing as needed to optimize their learning.

Challenges:

  • Can be more difficult to create a supportive course community and build trust between the instructor and individual students, undermining motivation.
  • Requires students to have a high level of self-regulation, time management, and help-seeking skills.
  • Can increase the potential for additional technological challenges.

Recommendations:

  • Be intentional about building community by fostering all three types of presence, building in videos and activities where students engage with one another in course-related social interaction.
  • Provide explicit guidelines for how students should reach you and how quickly they should expect to receive a response.
  • Build in activities that help students develop the skills needed to engage with the course (self-regulation, time management, help-seeking, etc.), not just the skills of the discipline or field.
  • Consider offering synchronous office hours at varying times of day, or by appointment, via chat and/or Zoom.