Asynchronous Online Environment Research Articles

Around the World in an Insta(Group): The Potentialities of an Arts-based Online Method

This article outlines an innovative method involving an Instagram private chat group with participants from around the world. We illustrate how qualitative methods and arts-based methods in an asynchronous online environment can be useful across disciplines. We analyze the experience of running a two-month-long discussion about reading bestselling fiction with an international group of 16 Gen Z readers to foreground key potentialities of the method. We argue that the flexibility, co-production, and transnational critique aspects in the research process allow researchers to employ a feminist research methodology leading to rich experiences for both the participants and the researcher(s).

Humanizing digital Learning: Strategies for Amplifying educational Impact

The text underscores the growing importance of digital education higher institutions and the need to adopt a 'human-centered' approach to maximize learners' potential. This approach focuses on the needs of both learners and educators, recognizing their unique perspectives. The shift to online learning presents challenges, requiring educators to design virtual courses that replicate in-person dynamics. Sustaining engagement and meaningful relationships in virtual classes is crucial for the well-being of both students and instructors. The text emphasizes the significance of strategies such as office hours, online group work, and overall interaction to create a classroom-like atmosphere and foster connections between students and instructors. These measures contribute to a more responsive online learning environment that addresses individual student needs. Humanizing online learning involves recognizing students as individuals with unique needs, moving beyond mere device interaction. The text discusses challenges in asynchronous online environments, emphasizing the importance of synchronous interactions to combat feelings of disconnection. Various strategies are suggested to humanize online learning, including the use of technology to enhance availability and engagement, personalized feedback, and the incorporation of diverse learning activities. Instructor-student relationships are highlighted as crucial in online learning, impacting students' perceptions and satisfaction.

Embodiment and asynchronous storytelling in science classrooms

ABSTRACT Background In science education asynchronous online interactions have increased dramatically during the recent pandemic and some of these practices will stay. One of the characteristics in asynchronous exchanges is the spacing and sequencing of online interaction. It means that dialogue partners do not necessarily receive immediate feedback as is the case in a face-to-face exchange. This article presents student produced stories in science education as part of asynchronous activities. When we communicate experiences with the world through stories, we also convey embodied information. The question arises what role the body may play in such exchanges. Purpose The article explores the role embodiment plays in science education when communication takes place asynchronously, specifically when students are tasked to share their science explorations with others. Sample Three examples (primary, secondary and tertiary science education) are presented. Data were ethnographically collected that include fieldnotes, videos (including video observations), photos, interviews, student and teacher prepared materials. Design and methods Using a storytelling method, the article presents how the materiality of the online asynchronous environment affords embodiment. Storytelling as a method was chosen to give participants a voice. Results Embodiment played an important role in all three examples. It helped students to share how they conducted experiments for others to follow or share their experiences or impressions about scientists’ work. Embodiment expressed students’ emotions associated with the topics that were presented. Embodiment personalized the students’ productions and was a deliberate choice for sharing information about inquiring about star constellations, e-mobility or the nature of scientists’ practices. Discussion In asynchronous online dialogue students can reflectively share through their stories how they perceive and inhabit the world. Embodiment plays an important part of meaning making and as exemplified here, allows to show and share understanding.

Fostering Intercultural Competence: A Case of an Asynchronous Online Japanese Language and Culture Course

Analyzing cultural characteristics is a cognitively challenging task that allows learners to increase their open-mindedness and deepen their understanding of both local and global communities by utilizing online resources, especially when in-person interaction in classroom settings was impeded, resulting in an asynchronous online course. The purpose of this paper is to examine how intercultural competence, which can foster learners’ attitudes, could be encouraged in an asynchronous online environment for a Japanese foreign language course from empirical perspectives. The population was learners who possessed Intermediate and Advanced-level proficiency of Japanese. Learners’ outcomes were compared between an online asynchronous course using Deardorff’s (2006) Process Model of Intercultural Competence in the curriculum and a face-to-face class without using Deardorff’s model. The result of using Deardorff’s process model of Intercultural Competence in the curriculum, constructed based on “Understanding by Design,” which is comprised of 3 stages: (1) identifying desired results, (2) determining acceptable evidence, and (3) planning learning experiences and instruction (Wiggins & McTighe, 2005), suggested that learners could deepen their insights toward a target culture and society through multiple opportunities for learners to investigate the relationships among perspectives, practices and products. Keywords: asynchronous online course, backward design approach, intercultural competence, process model, world-readiness standards for learning languages

Harnessing H5P for Asynchronous Active Learning

Active learning, as defined by Bonwell and Eison (1991), involves students in doing things and thinking about what they are doing. Extensive research has highlighted the numerous benefits of active learning, including increased attendance rates (Kozanitis & Nenciovici, 2022), improved learning outcomes (Ruiz-Primo et al., 2011), reduced achievement gaps for underrepresented students (Haak et al., 2011; Theobald et Al., 2020), higher-order thinking skills, and enhanced student performance (Freeman et al., 2014). In comparison to traditional lectures, any form of active learning has proven to be beneficial to student learning (Schneider & Preckel, 2017). However, most research on active learning has focused predominantly on face-to-face synchronous classrooms, with little attention to active learning in online asynchronous environments. This presents an opportunity to explore design solutions that promote active learning in these asynchronous settings where students lack real-time interactions with educators and peers. The advent of HTML5 (HyperText Markup Language version 5) or H5P has the potential to revolutionise active learning in online learning settings. As a free and open-source content creation tool, H5P offers various interactive and engaging content types that enable students to interact directly with course material in meaningful ways. This interactivity encourages students to participate actively in their learning process rather than passively obtaining information from lectures. Drawing from two case studies conducted at an Australian university, this presentation highlights how H5P can be used to enhance active learning in online asynchronous courses. The first case study investigates the design of H5P training modules for a platform that supports researchers in humanities and social sciences in their sensitive data access management. This platform is part of a nation-wide project involving 12 partnering institutions and government agencies in Australia. The second case study explores the implementation of H5P learning activities in a Vietnamese language course over three years. In both cases, H5P is used as a plug-in within the Moodle learning platform. Data collection for these case studies included interviews with educators and learning designers, Moodle reports, and participant feedback surveys. The findings from the thematic analysis and the learning analytics revealed substantial benefits of using H5P for active learning, along with the technical and pedagogical challenges encountered during the design process. The presentation features exemplary cases and insights from the case studies to suggest H5P design solutions that foster active participation, reflective thinking, and knowledge construction for students in online asynchronous settings.

Asynchrony and promotive interaction in online cooperative learning

The positive effects of cooperative learning are well-documented in face-to-face environments, but its efficacy in asynchronous online environments remains unclear. Recent experimental research suggests that in comparing face-to-face and synchronous versions of cooperative learning, motivation, achievement, and cooperative perceptions, all decrease under asynchronous online conditions, which raises questions about how and why this occurs. The purpose of this study was to clarify this issue by testing whether asynchrony promotive interaction and moderates the association between cooperative goals and cooperative outcomes, using a repeated-measures experimental–control design. Results indicate that asynchrony affects promotive interaction in a way that disrupts the processes that occur in cooperative learning. Notably, the academic support component of promotive interaction was more susceptible to the effects of asynchrony, as it decreased among asynchronous students over time, particularly among those reporting above-average levels of cooperation, belonging, and positive emotion.

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.

A pedagogy of care for information literacy and metaliteracy asynchronous online instruction

A pedagogy of care embraces elements of critical pedagogy, culturally responsive pedagogy, trauma-informed pedagogy, and feminist pedagogy in order to create educational spaces wherein the learner feels seen as an individual and cared for, and in turn enacts care for others. Although since the COVID pandemic there has been more exploration of care in the online environment, a pedagogy of care in a completely asynchronous environment has not received as much attention as other modes of online instruction. Similarly, while much research into metaliterate learning has to-date focused on the cognitive, metacognitive and behavioral domains of learning, there has been little focus on the affective domain. This article presents an exploratory, qualitative study to explore two questions:•Can a pedagogy of care effectively be applied in the asynchronous online environment?, and•Could prioritizing the affective domain of learning help support applying metaliteracy in practice?It is proposed that a pedagogy of care, described here as being implemented in an online library general education course, could play a role in bolstering students' comfort with the emotional aspects of information and promote metaliterate learning.

Student-content interactions: Exploring behavioural engagement with self-regulated inquiry-based online learning modules

Technological innovations and changing learning environments are influencing student engagement more than ever before. These changing learning environments are affecting the constructs of student behavioural engagement in the online environment and require scrutiny to determine how to facilitate better student learning outcomes. Specifically, recent literature is lacking in providing insights into how students engage and interact with online content in the self-regulated environment, considering the absence of direct teacher support. This paper investigates how instructional design, informed by the factors relating to behavioural engagement, can influence the student-content interaction process within the fabric of inquiry-based learning activities. Two online learning modules on introductory science topics were developed to facilitate students’ independent study in an asynchronous online environment. The study revealed that students showed a high commitment to engaging and completing the tasks that required less manipulative and pro-active effort during the learning process. The findings also revealed that instructional guidance significantly improved the behavioural engagement for student groups with prior learning experience in science simulations and technology skills. This study highlights several issues concerning student engagement in a self-regulated online learning environment and offers possible suggestions for improvement. The findings might contribute to informing the practice of teachers and educators in developing online science modules applicable to inquiry-based learning.

Discussion Activities in Asynchronous Online Learning: Motivating Adult Learners’ Interactions

This quantitative study investigates the impact of four types of discussion activities on adult learners’ asynchronous online interactions. Specifically, this study aims to understand how different discussion activities incorporated into online discussion boards motivate adult learners’ online participation. The four discussion activities are video-based text discussion, student-generated problem-based case discussion, self-created meme discussion, and discussion through debate. Results show that all four discussion activities, to a great extent, help motivate adult learners to actively interact with learning content, the instructor, and peers in different ways. Significantly, our study shows that participants identified student-generated problem-based case discussion as the most effective and that the debate was the least effective among the four discussion activities. Results also indicate that the instructor plays a significant role in the design, instruction, and follow-up of discussion activities. This study provides insights into using multiple discussion activities in fully asynchronous online environments for adult learners’ active learning.

Using podcasts to cultivate learner–teacher rapport in higher education settings

ABSTRACT Developing rapport with learners has presented challenges for Higher Education teaching practitioners since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, who increasingly facilitate learning within synchronous/ asynchronous online environments. Podcasts are of renewed interest as a digital learning resource in this context. We explored, inductively, views of podcasts designed for teaching and learning purposes held by students (n = 11) and by practitioners (n = 5) in two disciplinary settings. Textual feedback on two sample podcasts per student was subjected to content analysis. Findings underscored the value of podcasts as digital learning resources to help nurture teacher–student relations. Podcasts may help establish teacher credibility, may help teachers feel more familiar/approachable to learners and may provide an outlet to communicate in a kind, informal tone to attenuate learning-related anxiety. We draw on findings from our small-scale exploratory study to present practical guidance for developing podcasts designed (in part) to cultivate teacher–student rapport.

Reading Together

This teaching reflection examines how “reading together” was fostered in synchronous and asynchronous online environments in two undergraduate creative writing courses through participation in a virtual book club. In the first course, prior to the pandemic, students had the option of meeting in person or via Zoom while we read Daisy Johnson’s Oedipus Rex retelling, Everything Under, for the book club. In the second course, during the pandemic, students had virtual synchronous and written participation choices while we read together Jessica Anthony’s political satire, Enter the Aardvark, with the author visiting in two sessions. In both cases, the goals were consistent: to get students reading as writers; to foster intrinsic motivation through personal choice; and to satisfy students’ desire for community connection while still accommodating personal schedules and geographical location. A virtual book club lets students read on their own schedule and in their own space, but still share their experience and observations with peers over greater distances (and time zones) than would otherwise be possible.

Conceptual Representations of Participation in Synchronous and Asynchronous Digital Education Environments for Vocational Education and Training Students

New critical educational issues arose during the implementation of distance education in the COVID-19 period. One of the most serious was the lack of non-verbal communication between students and teachers during distance education, as the physical contact of teaching was "mediated" by the digital environments of synchronous and asynchronous education. In this paper, we first describe and then take the first steps to fill this gap by designing non-mandatory descriptive methods for distance communication. To achieve this, we use conceptual representations and examine material by the real participation of Vocational Education and Training students in synchronous and asynchronous online environments. We present examples of verbal and non-verbal communication from student participation, using specific online applications, namely Mentimeter.com Hot Potatoes, and Wonder.me. Moreover, through the overall analysis of the issue, we illuminate the dynamic changes in the field of education, both due to the digital transformation of the institutional structures and to the change in attitudes and characteristics of students that result from these transformations.

Designing for Framing in Online Teacher Education: Supporting Teachers’ Attending to Student Thinking in Video Discussions of Classroom Engineering

Participating in discussions of classroom video can support teachers to attend to student thinking. Central to the success of these discussions is how teachers interpret the activity they are engaged in—how teachers frame what they are doing. In asynchronous online environments, negotiating framing poses challenges, given that interactions are not in real time and often require written text. We present findings from an online course designed to support teachers to frame video discussions as making sense of student thinking. In an engineering pedagogy course designed to emphasize responsiveness to students’ thinking, we documented shifts in teachers’ framing, with teachers more frequently making sense of, rather than evaluating, student thinking later in the course. These findings show that it is possible to design an asynchronous online course to productively engage teachers in video discussions and inform theory development in online teacher education.

Active Learning of Dental Physiology in an Asynchronous Online Environment: Lessons Learned During the COVID‐19 Pandemic

Active learning is a student‐centered teaching technique that uses interactive, multimodal strategies to create a more engaging classroom setting compared to the traditional didactic lecture. Previous work by our research group showed that active learning in a first‐year dental school physiology course improved student confidence with the material, unit exam performance, long‐term retention of content, and perception of teaching effectiveness1. While there are many forms of active learning, this particular study utilized engaging lectures, in which students are given short periods of lecture, followed by “breaks” that can consist of minute papers, problem sets, brainstorming sessions, or open discussion.As the COVID‐19 pandemic forced faculty to suddenly shift to online teaching, there were concerns about how to actively engage students via distance learning. This was further complicated by an administrative decision at our School of Dentistry to present the course material in an asynchronous format using pre‐recorded lectures.Since the original study completed in 2013, the Dental Physiology course has increased the amount of active learning components with 48% of the contact hours containing a high degree of active learning, 23% moderate amounts of active learning, and 29% traditional didactic lectures. It was desired to assess the effectiveness of active learning strategies in an online, asynchronous environment on student performance, attentiveness, and satisfaction levels. This study was determined to be exempt by the Institutional Review Board of the University of Louisville (#20.0655). Results indicated that pre‐recorded sessions that incorporated active learning improved student performance compared to the pre‐recorded traditional lectures. Similarly, active learning improved student perceptions of the course and teaching faculty.However, compared to earlier sections of the course that were presented face‐to‐face, the online, asynchronous format significantly lowered overall student performance and satisfaction. These results suggest that online physiology teaching, when presented in an asynchronous format, may pose significant challenges. While this study demonstrated the continued effectiveness of active learning strategies, further research is needed to optimize these methods and effectively engage students in online, asynchronous coursework.1. Miller CJ, McNear J, and Metz MJ. A Comparison of Traditional and Engaging Lecture Methods in a Large, Professional‐Level Course. Adv Physiol Edu 37: 347‐355, 2013.

Newly Emerged Online Educational Framework in Nursing Major during the Pandemic of COVID-19

The pandemic of COVID-19 has globally interrupted the education systems. Many countries includingJordan forcefully moved to online education. This study is designed to build an innovative Framework toovercome the concerns and challenges of online clinical teaching.A cyclical module of the Online Clinical Training Pathway (OCTP) was created to provide an opportunity forstudents to document their learning, in the form of a reflection guide. Each module aims to attain the intendedlearning outcomes through a set of four integrated learning activities. OCTP success was assessed by regularevaluation parallel with semi-structured interview targeted faculty members and students across courses andstudent levels. The results emerged a new framework of the teaching and learning of synchronous distancelearning among participants. Technical limitations were also observed with regards to internet-connectionspeed and reliability. Quality indicators of the synchronous and asynchronous online environment wereissues that need to be addressed. Creating opportunities to enhance online engagement through the use ofnew framework methodology provides a promising direction to bring experiential education into the onlinecontext.

DIGITAL MEDIA: FRIEND OR FOE? PRESCHOOL TEACHERS’ EXPERIENCES ON LEARNING AND TEACHING ONLINE

Teaching using a synchronous and an asynchronous online environment has become increasingly widespread across the education sector and now this process has been accelerated, temporarily or permanently, due to the Corona Virus (SARSCoV- 2) pandemic. The mass closure of nurseries, kindergartens, schools, high schools and universities has prompted the rethinking of the teaching and learning processes. Educators were forced to shift to an online mode of teaching overnight even if they did not properly feel capable to do so. Our study seeks to explore the experiences on teaching and learning online encountered by preschool teachers during their work in the context of COVID-19 physical school closure and explore the meaning of such practices in shaping in-service kindergarten educators’ perceptions of digital media and online delivery. The participants of the present study are kindergarten teachers (n=21) with a minimum of three years and a maximum of 10 years of teaching experience. They work with the same age group (three- to sixyear- old children), from 9 public inner-city kindergartens. By making use of a phenomenological qualitative inquiry, data was collected through participating at semi-structured interviews via ZOOM videotelephony software program in June 2020. After the data was recorded and transcribed, three main themes were distinguished. The key findings indicate that all the teachers experienced challenging moments while delivering online, but they were also able to identify advantages in such a stressful context. The results of the study show the need of a modernized approach to pedagogies on educational technologies and media that is driven by research informed analysis.

Using Structured Teams to Develop Social Presence in Asynchronous Chemistry Courses

Structured collaborative peer teams are widely recognized as a high-impact pedagogy that supports learning outcomes for diverse learners but it can be difficult to implement this pedagogy in an online environment. This communication describes a structure to use collaborative teams to develop and sustain a community of inquiry in an asynchronous online environment. Courses were designed to support the individual learner by developing strong peer-to-peer learning in teams. We describe how asynchronous teams were structured and what specific activities (cognitive and instructor-based) helped teams work effectively through the term. This practice was applied in two different environments: a first-year course at a two-year community college and a first-year lab sequence at a four-year university. At both institutions, student reflections described how teams supported learning and allowed development of process skills. Our results suggest that structured teams can support student learning in asynchronous classes at a wide range of institutions.

The Scholarship Circle: an introduction to writing for publication for nursing faculty

BackgroundThis case report describes a collaborative effort between a health sciences librarian and an instructional designer to create and implement a writing professional development experience called the Scholarship Circle. It was aimed at increasing scholarly productivity by junior and nontenure-track faculty in a college of nursing.Case PresentationThe Scholarship Circle activities were carried out in a synchronous and an asynchronous online environment over ten weeks and included weekly lectures from nurse-scholars, discussions and peer reviews, and writing support from the librarian. The Scholarship Circle designers surveyed participants before and after the course to explore faculty perceptions and conducted a bibliographic analysis to gauge increases in scholarly productivity.ConclusionsWhile both tenure-track and nontenure-track faculty perceived lack of time as a significant barrier to publication, only nontenure-track faculty perceived lack of writing experience and getting started as significant obstacles. In the two years following the Scholarship Circle, faculty with doctor of philosophy and doctor of education degrees produced the greatest number of scholarly publications, whereas faculty with other degrees demonstrated a modest increase in scholarship. Online writing support programs have the potential to positively impact scholarly productivity for junior and nontenure-track faculty, especially if they emphasize time management for writing, confidence-building strategies, and a flexible format that allows peer review and collaboration as well as participation by seasoned scholars and remote participants. Partnership between health sciences librarians and instructional designers is key to the successful design and implementation of writing support programs.

DEVELOPING LEARNING COMMUNITY IN ONLINE ASYNCHRONOUS COLLEGE COURSES: THE ROLE OF TEACHING PRESENCE

This paper builds on the model we have developed for creating quality online learning environments for higher education. In that model we argue that college-level online learning needs to reflect what we know about learning in general, what we understand about learning in higher-education contexts, and our emerging knowledge of learning in largely asynchronous online environments. Components of the model include a focus on learner roles, knowledge building, assessment, community, and various forms of “presence.” In this paper we focus on two components—teaching presence and community—and review the rationale and benefits for an emphasis on community in online learning environments. We argue that learning is social in nature and that online learning environments can be designed to reflect and leverage the social nature of learning. We suggest that previous research points to the critical role that community can play in building and sustaining productive learning and that teaching presence, defined as the core roles of the online instructor, is among the most promising mechanism for developing online learning community. We present a multi-institutional study of 2,036 students across thirty-two different colleges that supports this claim and provides insight into the relationship between online learning community and teaching presence. Factor and regression analysis indicate a significant link between students’ sense oflearning community and their recognition of effective instructional design and directed facilitation on the part of their course instructors—and that student gender plays a small role in sense of learning community. We conclude with recommendations for online course design, pedagogy, and future research.