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This research aims to study the students' perspectives on synchronous and asynchronous learning during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Both synchronous and asynchronous learning approaches used in online education have positive and negative outcomes. Hence, the aim is to study online education's positive and negative consequences, reflecting sync and async approaches. This research followed a mixed research approach. The key stakeholders of this research are the Indian educational institutions and students.

This research collected data from the students undergoing synchronous and asynchronous learning amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic. The data were collected (N = 655) from various students taking online classes during the pandemic. A questionnaire survey was distributed to the students through online platforms to collect the data. In this research, the authors have collected data using simple random sampling, and the same has been used for data analysis using SPSS version 26. The collected data were exposed to a factor analysis using a principal component analysis technique to reduce the vast dimensions.

The study findings show that synchronous learning is sometimes stressful, placing more responsibility on students mainly because of the increased screen time. At the same time, asynchronous learning allows the students to self-explore and research the topics assigned to them. Students also felt that asynchronous activities create a burden because of many written assignments to be submitted within a short period. Overall, the COVID-19 pandemic has been challenging for the students and the teachers. However, teachers have helped students to learn through digital platforms. The majority of the respondents opined that technological disruptions and death in the family circle had been significant reasons for not concentrating during online classes. However, the combination of synchronous and asynchronous learning has led to a balanced education.

Higher education has undergone multiple transformations in a short period (from March 2020, 2021 and beyond). Educational institutions underwent a rapid transition in remote teaching and learning in the initial stages. As time progressed, educational institutions did course navigation where they relooked into their course plans, syllabus and brought a structural change to match the pandemic requirements. Meanwhile, educational institutions slowly equipped themselves with infrastructure facilities to bring academic integrity. At present, educational institutions are ready to face the new normality without disrupting services to society.

Educational institutions create intellectual capital, which is important for the development of the economy. In the light of COVID-19, there are new methods and approaches newly introduced or old methods and approaches, which are reimplemented, and these approaches always work for the benefit of the student community.

The authors collected data during the COVID-19 pandemic; it helped capture the students' experience about synchronous and asynchronous learning. Students and faculty members are newly exposed to synchronous and asynchronous learning, and hence, it is essential to determine the outcome that will help many stakeholders.

This article discusses the use of online asynchronous discussion boards as a valuable tool for connecting students to leadership concepts, theories, and models in introductory leadership survey courses. Recommendations are given for designing effective discussion boards that engage students and enhance their learning. Student outcomes include construction of knowledge, relevant connections between course material and personal lives, and critical reflection.

This application brief describes a “Module Discussant” activity assigned in an online graduate-level leadership theory course. The assignment was designed to stimulate higher-level thinking, apply leadership theory to practice, and foster extensive communication among students in the online learning environment using a common learning management tool—the online discussion forum. This brief presents leadership educators with perspectives from two professors who coordinated the assignment, as well as the perspective of a graduate student participating in the activity. The professors and students involved report that the assignment resulted in compelling levels of engagement and critical thinking. Recommendations for future use and for enhancing the quality of the assignment are also offered.

In this paper we provide evidence of successful online learning experience with UAE students at Zayed University in the UAE. First we describe the processes and technologies used in delivering the online course "Virtual Business Challenges". Based on survey results we discuss students’ evaluations and experience and the technologies used. Overall, students had a positive learning experience in the course.

Industry and academia around the world stress the importance of professional skills (also known as soft skills, generic skills, or transferable skills) so it is necessary to be able to assess students’ attainment of these skills. An innovative method was developed in the USA for assessment of these skills in an engineering program (Ater Kranov, Hauser, Olsen, & Girardeau, 2008); this method was based around student discussion of an open-ended, unresolved, discipline-related problem, held face-to-face and subsequently analyzed using a rubric. In the research project described here, the method was adapted for the United Arab Emirates by writing appropriate scenarios for computing students, by modifying the rubric and by running the discussion on an online discussion board. The primary aims were to determine the feasibility of adapting the method and to examine its suitability. The results of the study showed that the method can be adapted and employed very successfully with UAE students. This paper presents the method, its adaptation and implementation, and the results obtained.

The objective of the study was to explore which COVID-19 teaching and learning methods, that enhanced accounting students' learning experience, should be applied at a residential university after the pandemic.

A qualitative exploratory approach within an interpretive paradigm was applied. A total of 15 semi-structured interviews were conducted with accounting students and the data were analysed using thematic analysis.

This study shows how pre-COVID-19 accounting education can be adapted by learning from the teaching and learning experiences gained during the pandemic and that there are various teaching and learning methods that can be applied in the post-COVID-19 period to enhance students' learning experience. These blended active teaching and learning methods include: the flipped classroom, discussion forum, electronic platform (to ask questions during class), key-concept videos and summary videos. Introducing these teaching and learning methods comes with challenges and the study provides recommendations on how to overcome foreseen obstacles. The contribution of the research is that it informs accounting lecturers' decision-making regarding which teaching and learning methods to apply in the aftermath of COVID-19 to enhance students' learning experience.

It is uncertain which teaching and learning methods employed during the COVID-19 pandemic should be applied at a residential university to enhance the teaching and learning experience after the pandemic. Accounting lecturers might return to their pre-COVID-19 modus operandi, and the valuable experience gained during the pandemic will have served no purpose.

As online course enrollments increase, it is important to understand how common course features influence students' behaviors and performance. Asynchronous online courses often include a discussion forum to promote community through interaction between students and instructors. Students interact both socially and cognitively; instructors' engagement often demonstrates social or teaching presence. Students' engagement in the discussions introduces both intrinsic and extraneous cognitive load. The purpose of this study is to validate an instrument for measuring cognitive load in asynchronous online discussions.

This study presents the validation of the NASA-TLX instrument for measuring cognitive load in asynchronous online discussions in an introductory physics course.

The instrument demonstrated reliability for a model with four subscales for all five discrete tasks. This study is foundational for future work that aims at testing the efficacy of interventions, and reducing extraneous cognitive load in asynchronous online discussions.

Nonresponse error due to the unincentivized, voluntary nature of the survey introduces a sample-related limitation.

This study provides a strong foundation for future research focused on testing the effects of interventions aimed at reducing extraneous cognitive load in asynchronous online discussions.

This is a novel application of the NASA-TLX instrument for measuring cognitive load in asynchronous online discussions.

The purpose of this paper is to create a “go-to-guide” of best practices in the creation of asynchronous courses. Due to the global pandemic, millions of students around the world transitioned from in-class instruction to online programs, which ranged from completely synchronous classrooms to completely asynchronous classrooms. Students were forced to learn how to engage within an online classroom environment with minimal notice and instructors were abruptly thrusted into a different operational environment, with many required to construct educational ecosystems in an unfamiliar and digitized interface. This led to several actions and the utilization of a multitude of different teaching techniques, many of which were poorly implemented.

Key words, “Asynchronous learning”, “Learning”, “Feedback”, “Online Instruction”, and “Classroom Design” were searched in online data bases (Google Scholar, PubMed, EBSCO and Data Base of Open Access Journals). These then were read by the authorial team and authoritative papers were selected by the team based on the frequency of utilization by other papers in the field and the utility of these papers for the design of asynchronous courses.

This paper explores asynchronous learning from the perspective of how instructional science and learning science can be applied to create the best classroom for both pupil and instructor.

It looks to provide a go-to-guide for best practices in asynchronous learning and the development of K-12 classrooms, graduate and medical school classrooms and finally continuous medical education classrooms. Finally, this guide looks to facilitate the development of master instructors through statements on how to properly provide feedback to students.

In the wake of the pandemic (COVID-19) throughout the United States, many educators had to promptly switch to online modality to continue to provide education to students with safety through physical distancing requirements. This study mainly focuses on delivering an Information Systems module aligned with the information systems curriculum model during a pandemic.

The authors used data collection techniques from student assignments and course tasks. These data are used for the purpose of academic assessment for the Information Systems program. The student performance is assessed on a 5-point scale (1 being low and 5 being high) for the synchronous and the asynchronous tasks related to the course. The authors compared the student performance during the pandemic to the pre-pandemic semester.

This study revealed that the technical module of an information systems course can be successfully delivered during a pandemic in a remote session. However, the authors found that there is a decline in the student performance in synchronous tasks and asynchronous tasks. But the decline of the student performance in the synchronous tasks is greater than that of the asynchronous tasks. The result of this study helps the Information Systems program with their assessment and to improve their course delivery during a pandemic.

In this paper, the authors examine the delivery of a technical module in the field of information systems via online learning models. The authors particularly examine the synchronous and asynchronous online learning models in the delivery of the technical module. The lessons learned from transitioning to the online modality can help universities better prepare for the future during unprecedented times.

This paper investigates the moderating-mediation roles of synchronous and asynchronous learning, as well as virtual self-efficacy between digital learning space experience and continuous use among learners in Ghanaian institutions of higher learning.

A convenience sampling technique was used in the selection of 604 students who answered questions on digital learning space experience, synchronous and asynchronous learning, virtual self-efficacy and learner continuous use within the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. The study employed regression analysis to measure the hypothesized paths.

The findings show that asynchronous learning partially mediates between digital learning space experience and learner continuous use, but the mediating effect of synchronous learning between digital learning space experience and learner continuous use was not significant. Further, virtual self-efficacy significantly moderates the mediated relationship between asynchronous learning and learner continuous use, but the moderated mediated role of synchronous learning was not established in the study.

Generalization of the study findings is limited due to the sampling scope, which was restricted to students of IHL in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana.

In this research, the academic scope of digital transformation was expanded from both digital structure elements and psychological perspectives within the domain of higher education literature.