Asynchronous versus Synchronous E-Learning

E-learning in general has been advantageous for myself as I worked on my graduate degree and now on my doctoral degree. With my graduate degree I was a stay at home mom (SAHM) and e-learning allowed me to work on my degree while also taking care of my children. Now that I am working on my doctoral degree, e-learning has given me the flexibility to work around all the different parts of my life, from my personal responsibilities as a wife and mother to my professional responsibilities as a school librarian.

Working asynchronously has been agreeable with my flexible schedule, but I have enjoyed the camaraderie that synchronous learning brings. When I was working on my graduate degree at UNT several years ago, that was my first real experience with synchronous e-learning. I appreciated that outside structured meetings, I otherwise worked independently on assignments. The meetings provided interactions with classmates, and allowed for discussion of topics. This course I am presently enrolled in is my first asynchronous e-learning experience as a student–outside professional development experiences. I have appreciated that I get to work at my own pace, and that when I have had questions my professor has been readily available to discuss my questions. In that regard the class almost did not have an ‘asynchronous’ feel to it. The discussion posts allowed for collaboration and interaction. We peer reviewed each other’s work and discussed our projects.

From a design standpoint, Piskurich (2015) points out that synchronous learning has an advantage of having an instructor present to facilitate the lessons. He elaborated on this in chapter 9 by discussing how the instructor in a synchronous e-learning environment helps facilitate a lesson and in return does not have to create as much content (Piskurich, 2015). On the other side of that, in an asynchronous e-learning environment more material must be developed to compensate for the lack of instructor facilitation. My Project A and Project B have both been asynchronous e-learning and the amount of effort I have had to place into my design and development of materials has been much more than I would have if the trainings for my projects were to take place in person. However, when I think about my library lessons, which are essentially synchronous e-learning, I still put a lot of time into my materials. Chapter 10 explains that even though the instructor is a facilitator, they are not simply presenting the training. They are still expected to design and develop an engaging lesson that includes a lot of moving parts. For example, in my library lessons, I have polls, checks for understanding, interactive lessons, collaboration boards, and quiz games built into the lessons. While I do not have to create instruction slides, I still create the same and sometimes more material for my library lessons than I did for either Project A or B.

Piskurich, G. M. (2015). What is This Instructional Design Stuff Anyway? In Rapid instructionaldesign: Learning ID fast and right. essay, John Wiley & Sons.