Don’t dismiss asynchronous learning, experts say. Improve it.
Most instruction at community colleges remains remote this semester as the COVID-19 pandemic stretches on.
Some are concerned that remote instruction will further widen equity gaps among students. Previous research shows that students who take courses online are less likely to persist than their peers who take courses face-to-face, and underrepresented minority students have lower performance than other groups, like Asian American students, in online courses.
But experts in online learning argue that it’s the way a course is designed, not whether it’s synchronous, that determines whether a student will succeed.
“For community college students in particular, because they’re usually nontraditional students, asynchronous learning is really useful,” said Sean Morris, senior instructor of learning design and technology at the University of Colorado at Denver and director of the Digital Pedagogy Lab. “In our current situation, asynchronous learning is the way to go.”