Lessen uit de lockdown: synchroon vs. asynchroon online onderwijs

In de coronacrisis heeft het hoger onderwijs diverse keren over moeten stappen naar online onderwijs vanwege lockdowns. Gelukkig zijn er in die tijd veel tips gedeeld waarmee docenten hun voordeel konden doen. Eén van de eerste vragen die docenten zichzelf in deze situatie stellen is de vraag of het van belang is dat er synchrone, online bijeenkomsten georganiseerd moeten worden via bijvoorbeeld MS Teams of Zoom? Of is het ook mogelijk om een effectieve online cursus te verzorgen die volledig asynchroon is? In een recent verschenen studie in Journal of Computer Assisted Learning zijn studenten bevraagd over hun ervaringen tijdens cursussen waarin er online synchrone bijeekomsten waren via bijvoorbeeld Zoom of tijdens cursussen die online plaatsvonden maar waarbij er geen synchrone bijeenkomsten waren. De auteurs maken voor hun onderzoek gebruik van het Community of Inquiry framework van Garrison en Anderson (2001). 

De resultaten van het onderzoek laten zien dat in synchrone cursussen studenten sterkere social en teaching presence ervaren dan in asynchrone cursussen. Opvallend is ook dat in synchrone cursussen de social presence (bv. of studenten zich verbonden voelden met hun medestudenten en of ze goed met hen konden communiceren) positief samenhangen met ondere andere de cijfers die studenten haalden in de cursus. Het volgen van een cursus met synchrone online bijeenkomst lijkt dus voor een andere ervaring te zorgen dan een volledig asynchrone cursus. Deze stude kent wel twee beperkingen: de studie is niet opgezet als een experiment maar als een survey dus er was weinig controle op externe variabelen die ook invloed kunnen hebben op de resultaten en de studie leunt stevig op zelfrapportage.

Het abstract

Background

Online learning and teaching were globally popularized due to the impact of Covid-19. The pandemic has made both synchronous and asynchronous online learning inevitable in regions privileged with the technological affordance.

Aims

This study was designed to examine and compare the effectiveness of both learning modes through the Community of Inquiry framework.

Materials & Methods

Comparative analyses on a sample of N = 170 undergraduate students who took both synchronous and asynchronous online courses in Spring 2021.

Results

The paired-sample T-tests results indicated a significant difference in social presence, cognitive presence and self-evaluated performance.

Discussion & Conclusion

Teaching presence significantly influenced social presence and cognitive presence in both learning modes. However, under synchronous learning mode, social presence significantly impacted self-evaluation, grades and school identification. While social presence only influenced school identification under asynchronous learning mode. Theoretical and practical implications were also included.

Lay Description

• This paper is particularly informative as a comparative study, because we sampled students who had both synchronous online courses and asynchronous online courses in the Spring 2021 semester. And we only compared students' experiences within themselves using paired-sample T-tests, meaning that we compared the learning experience of the same person under two learning modes, rather than compare two samples.
• Although synchronous learning and asynchronous learning are both online learning methods, students had significant different experience in social presence and cognitive presence in the two learning modes, and had significantly higher self-evaluated performance in synchronous learning mode. They learned in a more socially engaged and cognitively engaged way in synchronous online courses.
• Through structural equation modelling tests, we found that social presence was the most important factor in synchronous online courses. It impacts students' self-evaluation, grades, and identification to their attended schools. However, in asynchronous learning mode, teaching presence was the most important factor.
• What is particularly interesting is that social presence leads to lower self-evaluated performance, but higher grades in synchronous learning environment. Students might dislike the fact that they had to talk and discuss in online courses just like in face-to-face courses and they'd rather sit back and do the assignment without synchronous instructions. But, they do better without social interactions in synchronous class meetings.