Asynchronous Elements Research Articles

Impact of academic self-efficacy on online learning outcomes: a recent literature review.

In recent years, the concept of self-efficacy has garnered attention in educational psychology research on motivation. Within an academic context, academic self-efficacy (ASE) reflects learners' belief in their ability to achieve educational goals. However, most research has focused on traditional face-to-face classroom settings, with little exploration in distance learning environments like online and e-learning. The current review aims to update a previous study (Yokoyama, 2019[40]) and examine differences in online learning types: asynchronous, synchronous, and blended learning. The study's findings reveal that in mixed environments combining synchronous and asynchronous elements, or in blended settings merging face-to-face classes with asynchronous learning, ASE positively impacts academic performance akin to traditional face-to-face classes. However, in asynchronous online learning environments, ASE's influence on academic performance might be slightly weaker compared to synchronous learning environments. The paper will subsequently discuss the pedagogical implications derived from these results.

Asynchronous learning design—Lessons for the post-pandemic world of higher education

In this article, the author describes the use of a storytelling approach in a learning design with significant asynchronous elements. This approach was introduced in an upper-level international trade course with close to 200 students in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As most live “lectures” took place online and were subject to disruption due to Internet issues, the bulk of the content delivery was asynchronous, with the storytelling approach using “Sways” to address some of the common issues about engagement with asynchronous learning elements. The grade distribution and student feedback indicated that this approach was effective in achieving the stated learning goals. Finally, the author discusses how to adapt this approach to courses at other levels.

Transversing Sexualities and Critiques of Capital

This forum has come about through a series of conversations and discussions over a period of time in 2021-2022. Our ambition was to bring together scholars from different disciplines and perspectives, hoping for mutual curiosity and dialogue. We invited the participants to the forum to consider the following question:
 “How can we understand the complex and often contradictory ways through which sexualities and capital are related to, shaped by, and constitutive of each other?”
 Due to restrictions and exigencies of the corona situation together with time zone obstacles, the conversation had different modes. The fi rst part of the forum consisted of an online video-recorded conversation between M.E. O’Brien, Nat Raha and Grietje Baars. The conversation was moderated by Liu Xin and Mathias Klitgård. Laura Horn provided editorial support. Jin Haritaworn and Lisa Adkins then kindly sent their contributions to this conversation in writing. What you will read in the following is hence a conversation across three continents, which mixes synchronous and asynchronous elements, and which aims to show the strengths but also divergences and open questions in these different engagements.

On the Conditions for the Passage of a Signal Through a Chain of Asynchronous Threshold Elements

On the Conditions for the Passage of a Signal Through a Chain of Asynchronous Threshold Elements

Lockdown lessons learned. Reconceptualising a Sociology of Education module in ITE using a TPACKframework, optimising pedagogy, enhancing student outcomes through the provision of inclusive and accessible opportunities for learning

ABSTRACT The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020 forced Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to quickly reimagine and rethink how lectures and tutorials would continue, how students would be assessed and progressed and how standards would be maintained. This paper focuses on the pedagogical lessons learned from the online pivot in 2020 and how that learning was then harnessed in the 2020–2021 academic year in the reconceptualization and redesign of a Sociology of Education module in one HEI in Ireland. The module was scaffolded by the TPACK framework (Mishra, P., and M. J. Koehler. 2006. “Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge: A Framework for Teacher Knowledge.” Teachers College Record 108 (6): 1017–1054), which supported dynamic teaching, learning and assessment approach delivered using both synchronous and asynchronous pedagogies. The paper explores levels and types of student engagement, student outputs across both synchronous and asynchronous elements of the module and how the overall module design impacted positively on student outcomes and student engagement. The provision of multiple points of engagement/tasks for students both synchronously and asynchronously ensured an inclusive strengths-based approach where students felt comfortable and confident enough to engage, articulate themselves and contribute to the module.

UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT ENGAGEMENT WITH SYNCHRONOUS AND ASYNCHRONOUS COURSE ELEMENTS

This study aims to understand student engagement with synchronous and asynchronous elements across the lecture and laboratory sections of a Civil Engineering undergraduate course. This course provided a unique chance to observe and compare synchronous andasynchronous elements as they run concurrently and in parallel. Behavioural engagement, a measure of how many students accessed a course element, was determined from logging data obtained from the course website. The experience of students taking part in virtual laboratoryexperiments was evaluated with surveys to monitor perception of the experiential laboratories transition to a virtual format. Examining the logging data of 95 students, it was found that students engaged with synchronous lecture material at higher rates and more consistently throughout the semester, averaging 69% participation, whereas asynchronous lectures averaged 33% participation by the suggested date of viewing. Notably 60% of studentsaccessed the supplementary asynchronous concrete lab video within the recommended timeframe, suggesting when provided as a supplementary resource and in a creative format, there may be higher levels of engagement. This study shows that asynchronous content, despite being valuable for self-paced learning and accessibility, should not be the primary form of student engagement as students accessed it at a less consistent and routine pace.

Twelve tips for clinical teaching with telemedicine visits

Telemedicine is now an established mode of clinical care for most medical specialties, and clinical teachers must teach and precept learners in this modality. However, faculty need training on how best to teach students when caring for patients via telemedicine. Effectively incorporating learners into telemedicine visits to optimize their education is a critical skill for clinical teachers. In this article, we review 12 practical tips unique to telemedicine to engage and educate undergraduate medical education learners in building their clinical skills. We outline synchronous and asynchronous elements before, during, and after the patient encounter to facilitate teaching while improving patient care. These principles can also be adapted for teaching in other health professions as well as postgraduate medical education.

USING ACTIVE LEARNING IN HYBRID LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS

In this paper, an innovative pedagogical approach relying on flipped classroom and offered in a hybrid learning environment combining on-site and off-site attendees is proposed. The set-up is furthermore tested on two short courses offered at Chalmers University of Technology and analyzed using student course evaluation questionnaires. Several elements constitute the backbone of the courses. Such elements are either offered in an asynchronous fashion or in a synchronous fashion. The asynchronous elements are made of textbooks specifically written for the respective courses, pre-recorded short webcasts explaining the key concepts of the textbooks and on-line quizzes giving formative feedback to the students. Such elements should thus be studied by the students before attending the synchronous sessions. Because of the preparatory work made by the students, the synchronous sessions can focus on much more active forms of learning under the teacher’s supervision. The success of the pedagogical approach entirely depends on the contents of the synchronous sessions, which need to be carefully planned and designed so that they promote student learning. Although the hybrid learning environment gives rise to some additional challenges from a teacher’s perspective, it also gives much more flexibility in attracting students from remote locations, without compromising the learning experience.

Using real patients in e-learning: case-based online training in child and adolescent psychiatry.

Objectives: In undergraduate medical education and in the subject of child and adolescent psychiatry, examining young patients face-to-face is a key element of teaching. With the abrupt shutdown of face-to-face teaching caused by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, a case-based online training program integrating audio and video of real patients was developed.Methods: The blended learning platform CaseTrain guides medical students in their final year through real child-psychiatric patient cases, such as anorexia, autism, or attention deficit disorder, through presentation of video and audio of real patients and parents. The teaching format complements lectures on child psychiatric topics, comprising asynchronous elements (self-study using the digital material) as well as synchronous elements (web-conferences with a specialist). Learning objectives for students were set to develop knowledge of the spectra of psychiatric disorders that affect children and to recognize approaches how to assess and manage common psychiatric problems of childhood and adolescence.Results: The feedback from medical students through oral and written evaluation was positive. They appreciated getting to know ‘real-world patients’ in times of such a pandemic, to learn explorative techniques from role models, and to be in close contact with the supervising specialist. In consequence of critical feedback on the length of some video sequences, these training units will undergo revision.Conclusions: Case-based online training may continue to be a useful option in a post-pandemic future as integral part of medical education, complementing face-to-face lectures and training in (child) psychiatry.

Detailed implementation of asynchronous circuits on commercial FPGAs

This paper provides the essential details of implementing 4-phase bundled data and speed independent asynchronous circuits on FPGAs. The required Xilinx synthesis tools including attributes, constraints and hardware implementation of basic asynchronous elements like Cgate, delay line, and handshaking modules are discussed. Finally, two design and implementation examples of asynchronous circuits are introduced. In order to reduce area and energy overhead, an N-stage pipeline with internal loops is proposed and employed in asynchronous Fuzzy Logic Controller (FLC). It is observed that synchronous FLC operating at 100 MHz consumes 27% more dynamic power while occupying 23% fewer FPGA resources compared to its asynchronous counterpart. At the same time, the asynchronous circuit has obtained an improvement of 19% in FLC performance compared to synchronous FLC. The other implementation example explains the technical details of the design and implementation process of speed independent circuit using Petrify and ISE at the LUT level. Both design examples are implemented and tested successfully on FPGA board.

Motivating Course Completion in Executive Development

An innovative online approach to executive development is described. The approach utilizes asynchronous and synchronous elements, required submission of assignments, and other features resembling those of online college courses. Design of the learning experience, though, has been observant of the various motivations of busy executives. The approach so far has resulted in high rates of course completion.

Windows into teaching and learning: professional growth of classroom teachers in an online environment

The Windows into Teaching and Learning (WiTL) project was developed by researchers at one large urban institution in the southeast region of the United States as a way to facilitate online clinical experiences for content area methods students during summer coursework. Utilising both synchronous and asynchronous elements, WiTL addressed the issue of students gaining meaningful clinical experiences in coursework offered during the summer. Though the purpose of WiTL was initially for methods students to engage in observations of and conversations with practising classroom teachers, an unanticipated outcome occurred. In this paper, the authors describe the WiTL process and discuss the impact it had on the professional growth of the practising classroom teachers. The results indicate that WiTL encouraged teachers to utilise reflective practice in rethinking their pedagogy and used technology to facilitate professional learning community among classroom teachers.

Despite Faculty Skepticism: Lessons from a Graduate-Level Seminar in a Hybrid Course Environment

Despite the fact that online education continues to grow, the vast majority of faculty remain skeptical that online courses can yield the same student learning outcomes as traditional face-to-face courses. In an effort to determine if online graduate courses can be effective, in this study we explore the extent to which qualities commonly found in graduate-level seminars can be replicated in hybrid graduate-level courses. A course for students in a higher education graduate program titled “The American Community College” serves as the study case. The course was developed as a hybrid with synchronous, asynchronous, and in-person elements intended to foster highly interactive exchanges of information, deep analysis of subject matter, and advanced means of communicating one's ideas; all elements of a successful graduate-level course. Web technologies including wikis, blogs, and podcasting provided creative and varied pedagogical tools, which could be fully realized only when students were immersed in the online learning environment. Data collected from students across two semesters and assessment of learning outcomes indicate the value and success of the approach and several advantages to in-person courses, generating a set of implications.

METHOD FOR IMPLEMENTING ASYNCHRONOUS CIRCUITS ON FPGA

FPGA device is a dominant implementation medium for digital circuits. Unfortunately, they do not support asynchronous circuits because of the lack of asynchronous circuit elements such as Muller gates, etc. In this paper, new efficient approaches are proposed to prototype asynchronous circuits on Look-Up Table-based (LUT) FPGA rapidly. The developed techniques are based on building of elements which play an important role in asynchronous circuits. The hazard-free elements are predefined in libraries in HDL and EDIF format. Timing and/or area constraints for place&route tool are automatically generated to map the asynchronous elements on suitable FPGA’s logic blocks. Several FPGA devices such as Altera, Xilinx and Actel could be used as target for the implementation.

Parallel processing speed increase of the one-bit auto-correlation function in hardware

Recently, a serial implementation of the one-bit auto- and cross-correlation functions (ACF and CCF respectively) in a field programmable gate array (FPGA) has been developed, based on asynchronous delay elements and counters, known as the counterbased correlation. This paper proposes a method of parallelizing this otherwise serial process, offering significant improvements in the applicability of this approach to more types of ACF. Furthermore, the possibility of obtaining lag results from a parallel data sequence without first shifting the entire sequence has been realized, hence decreasing the number of clock cycles necessary for the calculation of the ACF. A synchronous design was preferred here for reasons of stability and portability, the technology of choice again being an FPGA. The advantages offered by the counterbased implementation in terms of device area usage and speed still apply. A practical implementation in the instrumentation of an upcoming space mission is also discussed.

Moving online: Taking teaching and learning beyond four walls

In this session, Stephen Rowe shares his experiences developing an entirely online offering of an Australian undergraduate course catering to 200 students enrolled across 3 campuses. The model that was developed serves as the centre-piece and end-point of his PhD. Practical integration of synchronous and asynchronous elements of the online model will be described. By recording synchronous sessions, staff time normally spent on repeat sessions was freed-up and used for additional support of student learning across each week. Asynchronous elements of the model allowed students flexibility with their assessment tasks and enabled them to progress through content at their own pace. As well as describing the online model, some of the key lessons learned, student activity, results and feedback will be presented for discussion.

Analytics of trigger functions

The construction and analysis of trigger circuits as asynchronous elements of sequential logic are considered. The study is performed for a generalized model based on a trigger function, which is represented in analytical form and structured so as to ensure the possibility of constructing trigger circuits with preset characteristics. On the basis of the obtained results, a classification system for asynchronous triggers is suggested and conditions for the emergence of dangerous signal competition in trigger circuits are determined.

Development of Asynchronous Data Processing System by using General-purpose Microprocessors

Development of asynchronous data processing system is usually based on dedicated asynchronous elements. Advanced generalpurpose microprocessors have a set of features facilitating development of asynchronous data processing system. Such a system is designed for non-stationary signals using non-conventional digital signal processing methods. Implementation of the principles of the data level-crossing sampling, switching system to power reduction modes and asynchronous interaction between system units is determining asynchronous nature of the system. Paper represents architecture of the system implemented on Philips P89PLC936 microcontroller using a principle of the level-crossing sampling. The system is able to process input signal with maximum frequency fmax = 2kHz using sampling level number N = 7. Ill. 3, bibl. 10 (in English, summaries in English, Russian and Lithuanian).

Stochastic multiplicative processes for financial markets

We study a stochastic multiplicative system composed of finite asynchronous elements to describe the wealth evolution in financial markets. We find that the wealth fluctuations or returns of this system can be described by a walk with correlated step sizes obeying truncated Lévy-like distribution, and the cross-correlation between relative updated wealths is the origin of the nontrivial properties of returns, including the power-law distribution with exponent outside the stable Lévy regime and the long-range persistence of volatility correlations.

An FPGA for implementing asynchronous circuits

Field-programmable gate arrays are a dominant implementation medium for digital circuits, especially for glue logic. Unfortunately, they do not support asynchronous circuits. This is a significant problem because many aspects of glue logic and communication interfaces involve asynchronous elements, or require the interconnection of synchronous components operating under independent clocks. We describe Montage, the first FPGA to explicitly support asynchronous circuit implementation, and its mapping software. Montage can be used to realize asynchronous interface circuits or to prototype complete asynchronous systems, thus bringing the benefits of rapid prototyping to asynchronous design. Unfortunately, implementation media for asynchronous circuits and systems have not kept up with those for the synchronous world. Programmable logic devices do not include the special non-digital circuits required by asynchronous design methodologies (e.g., arbiters and synchronizers) nor do they facilitate hazard-free logic implementations. This leads to huge inefficiencies in the implementation of asynchronous designs as circuits require a variety of seperate devices. This has caused most asynchronous designers to focus on custom or semi-custom integrated circuits, thus incurring greater expense in time and money. The net effect has been that optimized and robust asynchronous circuits have not become a part of typical system designs. The asynchronous circuits that must be included are usually designed in an ad-hoc manner with many underlying assumptions. This is a highly error- prone process, and causes implementations to be unnecessarily delicate to delay variations. Field-programmable gate arrays, one of today's dominant media for prototyping and implementing digital circuits, are also inappropriate for constructing more than the simplest asynchronous interfaces. They lack the critical elements at the heart of today's asynchronous designs. Unfortunately, resolving this problem is not just a simple matter of adding these elements to the programmable array. The FPGA must also have predictable routing delay and must not introduce hazards in either the logic or routing. Futhermore, the mapping tools must also be modified to handle asynchronous concerns, especially the proper decomposition of logic to fit into the programmable logic blocks and the proper routing of signals to ensure that required timing relationships are met. Ideally, we need an FPGA that can support both synchronous and asynchronous circuits with comparable efficiency. As a step in this direction we present Montage, an integrated system of FPGA architecture and mapping software designed to support both asynchronous circuits and synchronous interfaces. The architecture provides circuits with hazard-free logic and routing, mutual exclusion elements to handle metastability, and methods for initializing unclocked elements. The mapping software generates placement and signal routing sensitive to the timing demands of asynchronous methods. With these features, the Montage system forms a prototyping and implementation medium for asynchronous designs, providing asynchronous circuits with a powerful tool from the synchronous designer's toolbox.