Synchronous Or Asynchronous Learning?

To be rid of the regimens of learning – well, who does not want that? But learning, today, has become a part of our everyday lives. It is a necessity, if not a regimen! So while we make our peace with that, exploring the best ways and practices of imparting knowledge in the work environment have also been necessary. While various researchers are dwelling into the vast area of learning techniques that work across different types of learners, I came across a paper which brings together the learning of many useful researches and makes a concise statement on best practices. Stefan Hrastinski’s paper titled ‘Participating in Synchronous Online Education’, centers around learners pursuing the higher education or learners at the workplace.

While largely, distance education has made way for online education or technology aided learning for this group, there are mainly two modes of delivery – asynchronous and synchronous e-learning. The question of which is better is better refined when we ask instead – ‘when, why and how’ to use these to attain the best results.

The Theory Behind It All

Before going deeper into the intricacies of the two, the author gives us the three theoretical approaches to learning (Adapted from Leidner and Jarvenpaa 1995)

The objective approach is often adopted when the outcome of learning needs to be the ‘surface’ knowledge of the learning object (for example sales trainings or instructive courses). Constructivist and Social approaches are better suited when the learning outcome needs to be an in-depth knowledge assimilation by the learners (for instance soft-skills training)

The Definitions

Asynchronous learning is one way that a learner learns in an e-learning environment. This mode is backed up by collaborative tools like e-mails, blogs, or discussion boards. So, while the learners take their own course and pace through the learning material, the option for interaction is always open – within the learner group as well as with instructors. The interaction or any contribution is refined, for it is not spontaneous but thought out.

Synchronous learning, on the other hand, is through ‘participation in the social world’. With help of social media such as Chat or Web conferences the learners, with or without an instructor comes together and learns. This is closer to traditional classroom teaching, the premise behind this mode being that learning is a social phenomenon. ‘Isolation’ of the learner, which is pegged down as the main reason why drop-outs occur in online courses, is avoided by continuous contact and the feeling of being part of a learning community.

Communication – At The Heart of Learning

The author borrows from another researcher Haythornthwaite to define the types of communication which ‘define and sustain’ a learning environment.

Three Types of Exchanges in a Learning Environment –

The author then created Asynchronous and Synchronous channels of discussion to study these types of communication. Two groups of learners, from similar demographic backgrounds, were given the subject matter, questions to be discussed in the course and were also invited to submit related queries. Armed with these, the synchronous channel was run via chat for 3 hours and the asynchronous channel was held through a discussion board, spread over a week.

What arose were the benefits and drawbacks of both Synchronous and Asynchronous mode of learning – and this ‘bones-picking’ mode (while not a radical method of research) would surely help e-learning developers, instructors and learners alike to choose a mode which suits them best.

Benefits and Drawbacks

The main benefit of Asynchronous learning was illustrated by the fact that most of the communication held in that channel was content-related. This backs up the theory that asynchronous learning increases the learner’s ability to process information. So while this looks great on paper, the fact that there was little of anything else that was discussed is worrying. Planning activities and social support was minimal, again raising the issue of isolated learning and how it can eventually dissuade or discourage learners.

Benefits of the synchronous channel was that while the majority of the discussions were content based, there was also a healthy dose of the other two types of communication – very important for the ‘community’ feel in learning. While some of the topics were far removed from course content, and could be considered diversion by some, this channel allowed the flow of information as well as the motivation and involvement of the learners with the content was very high. The greater drawback as observed was that some views were not thought out properly or completely for it was a time restricted channel.

In the following table, the article finally gives what it had promised – When, Why and How to use Synchronous and Asynchronous E-Learning –

In conclusion – Synchronous and Asynchronous modes of learning compliment each other. This is an indication to training instructors as well as e-learning developers to provide opportunity for both in different learning activities.

With more media options being made added for both synchronous and asynchronous learning by the day, we believe it’s a brighter future for learning as a whole.