Asynchronous Online Learning Environment Research Articles

High-Impact Teaching Practices in Higher Education: Understanding Barriers, Concerns, and Obstacles to Their Adoption

This research explores the barriers, concerns, and obstacles undergraduate STEM educators face when implementing high-impact teaching practices (HIPs), the application of which may improve student learning outcomes. Because our study took place during the COVID-19 pandemic, our results also shed light on the unique challenges of utilizing HIPs in asynchronous online-learning environments. Thirteen undergraduate instructors were interviewed about their current teaching practices in order to identify barriers to or support for adopting HIPs. Data collected through semi-structured interviews revealed administrative and financial restraints as barriers to effective teaching which have been found in previous research. A number of new and unique obstacles emerged out of teaching remotely or online during the pandemic, including a heightened concern over the instructor’s ability to connect with students and engage in the best teaching practices. This research extends our current understanding of barriers and concerns about adopting HIPs in undergraduate STEM courses because of the unique perceived threats that emerged during the pandemic. We identify strategies to equip faculty with the support they need to provide equitable learning experiences, including access to consultants who support curriculum development and implementation in the classroom, ongoing educational coaching, and increased access to professional-development opportunities and a community of inquiry to discuss teaching strategies.

Fun and Different Course

This article examines how one instructor employs the principles of gamification in an introductory U.S. history survey. Through the use of a "choose your own grading adventure," which includes 350 assessment choices, the instructor has created a course where students exercise their autonomy and demonstrate their competency over course content. The article argues that gamifying an introductory college-level survey has many advantages for students. Most notably, the course's grading adventure motivates students to complete work in one of the more difficult course modalities -- an asynchronous online learning environment -- as evidenced by the high proportion of students who earn an A each semester.

The Holodeck model, learning environments, and resilience in higher education

This paper proposes a flexible framework for developing asynchronous online learning environments for multidisciplinary contexts at an Australian university. The project addresses the need to build organisational resilience following the fragility demonstrated by educational institutions during the emergency transition to online learning in 2020. The paper examines the challenges experienced by staff and students, the future implications and the potential of the Holodeck model of a learning environment in circumventing these barriers. The analysis of the strategies implemented through various educational technologies in criminology, teacher education, international relations and research methodology, demonstrated its applicability in diverse academic fields. The paper promotes the capacity of the Holodeck-based framework to provide systematic support structures for university online and on-campus programs, and, consequently, to develop institutional resilience in multidisciplinary university contexts. The paper also outlines the next phase of the project, focusing on a student perspective of the use of the Holodeck model.

Examining self-regulated learning as a significant mediator among social presence, cognitive presence, and learning satisfaction in an asynchronous online course: A partial least squares structural equation modeling approach

Using a 33-item 5-point Likert scale and partial least squares structural equation modeling approach, this study examined the role of 347 Chinese college first-year students’ self-regulated learning as a mediator among social and cognitive presences and their learning satisfaction in an asynchronous online course during the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, it examined the extent to which their self-regulated learning and cognitive presence mediated the influence of social presence on their learning satisfaction. The results indicated that participants’ self-regulated learning had a significant positive effect on their learning satisfaction. It also had a significant mediation effect between social presence and their learning satisfaction, as well as between social and cognitive presences. Furthermore, social presence played a significant role in participants’ self-regulated learning and their learning satisfaction through the mediation of their self-regulated learning and cognitive presence. Implications for designing asynchronous online courses are discussed. Implications for practice or policy Course designers should consider how to leverage and increase students’ social presence in the asynchronous online learning environment. Course designers should make it a priority to clarify learning goals, inform learning activity time, provide prompt feedback, design appropriate autonomous tasks, arrange appropriate social learning activities, and specify optional online learning paths. Course designers should foster learners’ self-regulated learning, help them build online confidence, manage their time well, and overcome difficulty in completing the online learning tasks.

Asynchronous student engagement in analysis of climate data achieves learning objectives related to climate change understanding, statistical competence, and climate anxiety

Learning in asynchronous online environments has gained importance over the last several decades, and educational environment shifts from the COVID-19 pandemic appear to have increased this need. Science educators and students need information about which approaches work in the asynchronous environment where informal feedback tends to be reduced, compared to other teaching modalities. In this study, we asynchronously implemented a learning module across 5 institutions that guided students (N = 199) from prescriptive data analysis through guided inquiry and eventually to open inquiry. The module focuses on the science behind climate change. Students work with the same authentic data sets used by professional scientists to examine geologic history and causes of climate change. By analyzing contemporary atmospheric carbon dioxide and temperature data and then using the 800,000-year record available from the Vostok ice core proxy record of atmospheric properties, students identify the causes of climate change and discover the unprecedented nature of recent atmospheric changes. Using a pre/post-module assessment, we demonstrate improvement in students’ understanding of climate change processes and statistical methods used to analyze data. However, there was no evidence that the module develops students’ scientific reasoning about the relationship between causation and correlation. Students maintained that correlation is not causation, even when a robust causal mechanism (i.e., the greenhouse effect) explains the link between atmospheric carbon dioxide and temperature. Finally, our analysis indicated that generally, anxiety about climate change was reduced during the module, such that students become less anxious about the climate change the more they learn about it. However, science-denying students experienced much higher anxiety about climate change than students who accepted the scientific consensus about climate change. Climate science-dissenting students were so few in this study that a statistical comparison was not possible, but this intriguing finding warrants further investigation of the role of anxiety in science denial. Mainly, this study demonstrates how asynchronous online learning environments can indeed support the achievement of learning objectives related to conducting authentic science, such as increasing understanding of climate change and statistical concepts, all while not provoking anxiety about climate change.

Promoting College Student's Systems Thinking

This study examined how college students in a medical school in China engaged in learning in asynchronous online learning environments during the COVID-19 health crisis. A quasi-experimental design approach was employed to compare if a class of students had better learning outcomes and developed systems thinking when asynchronous discussion forums incorporated an inquiry-based pedagogical approach in one unit, whereas the other unit followed a traditional instructor-led approach. In sum, 25 junior students participated in this study. Quantitative results show that the students had statistically significant higher assessment scores and improved systems thinking when the unit incorporated the inquiry-based pedagogical approach. Qualitative findings also demonstrated how students engaged in learning and how the instructor scaffolded students' inquiries and learning. Practical implications for instructors' teaching online courses are also discussed.

How Does Student Access to a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) Change During Periods of Disruption?

Higher Education often faces disruptions to teaching due to wider events, such as industrial action by staff or the recent COVID-19 pandemic (Li et al., 2022). Digital learning tools (such as Virtual Learning Environments, VLEs) can be used to support teaching and learning processes reducing the impact of disruptive events. This case study, compares student VLE behaviour across three consecutive cohorts featuring two “typical” university semesters (2016 and 2017), and one semester (2018) which featured industrial action. Learning analytics from students’ activity on the VLE system analyzed. Findings show that high- and middle-performing students tend to increase their use to compensate for the lack of teaching, whilst lower-performing students reduce their access possibly due to lower levels of self-efficacy and self￾regulation. These findings suggest that educators need to consider how VLEs could be designed to support students when learning should be delivered through an asynchronous online learning environment. For example, educators should consider designing VLE spaces that promote flexibility, and supporting self-regulation, whilst also providing clear guidance on structuring learning activities.

Guiding Course Development: Trauma-Informed Rubrics for Asynchronous Online Learning Environments

Trauma has a ubiquitous and deleterious impact on learning and engagement, impacting students in physiological and psychological ways and thus interfering with nearly every facet of the learning experience. Educators who are attuned to these effects can design trauma-informed courses that anticipate and attend to student needs. We contribute to the extensive research on humanizing and trauma-informed pedagogies in online spaces by focusing on instructional approaches that can be structured to enhance student safety, engagement, and learning outcomes within asynchronous learning environments. We propose two rubrics – one focusing on the instructor role and other focusing on course content – to provide guidance to instructors and course facilitators in their course development of trauma-informed content in online learning environments.

Investigation of the Effect of Formative Peer and Instructor Feedback in Asynchronous Online Learning Environment

Investigation of the Effect of Formative Peer and Instructor Feedback in Asynchronous Online Learning Environment

The inner voices of students in asynchronous online learning approach

Many schools around the world are looking for various approaches to continue the delivery of teaching and learning delivery despite the threat and challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Educational institutions considered the idea of mixing and matching the different teaching and learning approaches to address the learning needs and conditions of the students in this time of global health crisis. In the Philippines, the problem of uncontrolled surge of COVID-19 cases put face-to-face classes still on hold, thus, resulting for colleges and universities to engage in emergency remote education. This phenomenon paved the way for courses like National Service Training Program or NSTP, which is a community-based immersion course, to resort to asynchronous online learning delivery. Interestingly, there were three themes or types of learning engagements that were revealed in a study using a phenomenological research design to ten purposively selected NSTP 2 students. These themes are student-content, student-teacher, and student-student engagements. It was found out that the theme student-content engagement is highly present in an asynchronous online learning environment while the other two forms of engagement can be described as limited or lacking. This scenario suggests the need for policy makers and curriculum developers to rethink and revisit the course design and delivery of NSTP 2 to address the challenges experienced by the students in this type of online learning approach.

Recommendations to Improve African-American/Black Students’ Experiences and Achievement in Asynchronous Online Community College Courses

ABSTRACT This brief is rooted in the purpose and findings of a qualitative study that explored the experiences and perspectives of African-American/Black community college students in asynchronous online learning environments. A growing number of African-American/Black students are enrolling in California community colleges and online courses. However, African-American/Black students have disproportionately poor academic outcomes in online community college courses, and little is known regarding their online learning experiences. Key recommendations in this brief center on the importance of promoting and investing in online student services, providing opportunities for online student communities, and investing in ongoing online faculty training.

The Productive Engagement SPACE: A Guide to Improve Critical Learner Interactions in e-Learning Environments.

The Productive Engagement SPACE: A Guide to Improve Critical Learner Interactions in e-Learning Environments.

Game—Gimme a Better Price! A Negotiation Role Play on B2B Pricing in Hotel Revenue Management

We present a classroom role play to immerse students in the difficulties of applying value-based pricing principles to the practice of B2B price negotiations at different levels of the hotel value chain. The students assume roles as hotel chain and individual hotel management and as key business clients to the individual hotels. Through strategic and tactical preparations that rely on incremental additions of information on the goals, students prepare themselves to negotiate aspects linked with B2B pricing in a hotel revenue management context and collect points based on their success. After the negotiations, they systematically reflect on their performance vis-à-vis their set intentions. The role play is targeted to be an assignment in master’s level hotel revenue management teaching, but it could be modified to target bachelor’s students or other fields in which value-based pricing is still at its infancy. Based on our experience with running the game in a classroom as well as twice remotely because of COVID-19, it is compatible with both forms of learning and could potentially be extended to an asynchronous online learning environment.

The community of learners in an asynchronous online learning environment: an illustrative case study in graduate courses

Online learning has been growing steadily as an essential instructional mode in most higher education settings. In response to its popularity, many studies have been conducted to provide a better understanding of how learning occurs in this environment. Various frameworks and theories have been adopted to examine learning in this environment. Drawing upon the community of learner model, the present study aimed to expand the understanding of online learning, moving more toward a situative, sociocultural approach to learning from an individualistic, self-regulated approach to learning. This study examined two graduate online courses as cases to illustrate how learning as a collective process of participation in activities work in an asynchronous online learning environment. The findings of this study could help expand and deepen the discourse on how everyone learn in online learning environments, providing a new approach to examining teaching and learning in online learning environments from a more situative, sociocultural perspective.

An Integrative Approach to Promoting Wellness in Older Adults: An Online Undergraduate Course

As gerontology and geriatric programs look to grow their connections with health and allied health areas, examining emerging health care areas is important. Thus, this session will present key concepts and pedagogical strategies from an innovative online undergraduate course, An Integrative Approach to Promoting Wellness in Older Adults, that is taught in the Erickson School at the University of Maryland at Baltimore County. The course brings together a conventional western allopathic approach and a holistic, patient-centered, integrative approach which includes complementary therapies, to promote wellness in older adults. Specifically, the session will present a comparison of the philosophical premises of conventional western and integrative approaches to health promotion. It will present a holistic model of health, an overview of the effectiveness and safety of different complementary therapies, and examples of how an integrative approach with conventional western and complementary therapies can be used in to promote health in older adults with particular chronic conditions. Also, a discussion of the incorporation of diversity content in the course, an integrative approach to health promotion for underserved populations, and specific pedagogical strategies used to facilitate learning in synchronous and asynchronous online learning environments are included. Session presentation techniques include a PowerPoint presentation, demonstration of examples of conventional western and integrative approaches to health promotion in older adults through case studies, and audience participation.

Students' perception of a hybrid interprofessional education course in a clinical diabetes setting: a qualitative study.

ObjectivesTo explore what the student participants learned and how they felt about the use of three educational settings, namely, face-to-face workshop setting, asynchronous and synchronous online learning environments and interactions with outpatients in a real-world clinical setting in a hybrid interprofessional education course. MethodsThis qualitative study used semi-structured in-depth interviews with healthcare undergraduate student participants in a course comprising workshops in three educational settings. A total of 15 healthcare undergraduate students, which included four medical, three pharmacy, five nursing and three nutrition students, completed this IPE course. All students agreed to participate in the study. We conducted four focus groups selected using convenient sampling. Focus group transcripts were analysed using the 'Steps for Coding and Theorization' qualitative data analysis method. We investigated the students' perception through the experience of three educational settings in the hybrid interprofessional education course. ResultsThe students recognised that this course had three types of educational spaces, namely, real, semi-real and unreal. Then, the positive changes in the awareness of students are trained in recognition of the patient perspective, the recognition of the roles discharged by the other professions and the recognition of the functions of their own profession after experiencing the educational spaces designated for this course. ConclusionsThe repeated experience of participants to real, semi-real and unreal educational spaces promoted changes over time in the students' awareness of interprofessional competencies with respect to patient-centred care and ameliorated their readiness to undertake interprofessional tasks.

Comparison of Students' Academic Performance in Mathematics Course with Synchronous and Asynchronous Online Learning Environments during COVID-19 Crisis.

There are two categories in which educator can deliver open distance learning (ODL) via an internet connection, namely Synchronous Online Learning (OL-sync) and Asynchronous Online Learning (OL-async). At Universiti Teknologi MARA Cawangan Pulau Pinang (UiTMCPP), lecturers could conduct ODL in OL-sync or OL-async due to MCO which was enforced on March 18, 2020. Therefore, this study was conducted to compare the influence of different learning styles with OL-sync and OL-async on UiTMCPP students' academic achievement during the COVID-19 crisis. This study will present the data analysis of research quantitatively. Independent sample t-test is going to employ, and the result indicates a significant difference between the mean of the two online learning approaches with a significant value of 0.004. Therefore, we can conclude that the OL-synch approach gives better result in students' academic performance. It is consistent with the findings of Duncan (2012), which recommend that online learning of the synchronous approach will give a better academic performance for the students.

ONLINE EDUCATION: LEARNING OUTCOME, SUCCESS & CHALLENGES

This paper’s intents are to render the learning outcome, success and challenges that emerge in an online teaching and learning environment in comparison to the traditional face to face classroom environment. First of all, we will examine how the students acclimate to the new online digital learning atmosphere after the traditional face to face learning environment; what challenges and barriers the students encounter in a synchronous and in an asynchronous online learning environments? Second of all, we will focus on how professors adapt to the new digital online teaching styles and examine the new essential teaching innovations that arise in order to achieve and go beyond the expected learning outcomes; how to remit to the students’ challenges and retain the positive and engaging learning environment? In addition, our aims are to examine new pedagogical innovations that naturally emerge while responding to the students’ travails and to smoothly navigate them to achieve the expected learning outcomes.Furthermore, our paper’s intents are to portray how an online learning environment can attain more effective learning outcomes in comparison to the traditional face to face classroom environment; how to think beyond our horizons and to enhance the learning outcomes in a digital learning atmosphere while addressing the students’ challenges? Moreover, we will emphasize how the immediate graded feedback and students’ feedback serve as pertinent tools in achieving the learning outcome and inspires students to learn in an online atmosphere.

Using a Design Thinking Approach for an Asynchronous Learning Platform during COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic abruptly shut down schools in an urban based school district in the Spring of 2020. As the closures persisted over months, an immediate educational need arose for online curricula that could help alleviate the learning gaps caused by the shutdown. The purpose of this study was to create a process and model for the development of a fully asynchronous online learning environment for prekindergarten through 2nd grade students that could help other districts implement similar projects. Since the turnaround time for development and implementation was a matter of weeks the project team used an iterative process to solve a “wicked problem” and identified solutions to create an improved user experience. A modified design thinking model approach was developed through the process of developing this six-week, theme based virtual curriculum that included interactivities in early literacy, writing, reading comprehension, science and math. This adjusted model includes 6 stages: discover, interpretation, ideation, experimentation, implementation, and evolution. This research focuses on the processes involved during each of the stages and the resulting use by the intended audience. The curriculum was used by over 5,800 prekindergarten through second grade students during the 6-week period of the summer of 2020. The online platform continues to be used by students presently.

Asynchronous Online Learning Experiences of Students in Pandemic Process: Facilities, Challenges, Suggestions

This study examined students' experiences in an asynchronous online learning environment. Studentsevaluated the asynchronous online learning environment in terms of interaction, feedback, academicand technical support, active learning and assessment. The study, which was carried out with aqualitative research approach, was conducted with 28 students studying in faculty of education. Duringthe pandemic, students continued all their courses for 9 weeks with asynchronous distance education.At the end of the semester, the interview form was sent to the students via e-mail. At the end of thestudy, it can be said that in the process of asynchronous online learning, students experience a lack offace-to-face interaction even if they do not have communication problems with the instructor. Studentswere able to get support when they needed it. However, they had problems getting instant feedback. Itwas seen that students had the opportunity to learn flexibly without time and space, to learnindependently by doing unlimited repetitions at their own pace and to plan their own learning process.However, it was revealed that they could not do group work with their friends and felt socially isolated.Students objected to the evaluation of their class performances with assignment. Students suggestedthat live broadcasting activities take place at regular intervals, opening the comments section under thevideos, conducting discussion board activities, establishing fast support systems, using alternativeevaluation methods such as online testing and online presentations during the asynchronous onlinelearning process.