Some factors of asynchronous communication

Of critical importance to the success of online courses is the educational design of the course. The design, guidance, interaction, and guided participation of the online discourse, asynchronous or synchronous are critical to success. The online instructor’s organization of online interactions need to be structured sufficiently to guide student interactions. Prompt feedback, participation in the interaction, and employing collaborative learning strategies are some of the pedagogical techniques required to sufficiently nurture online interaction.
Berge has noted that instructional design, rather than the delivery system, whether email, chat sessions, listserv, etc., affects the quality of the online discussions and the learning that takes place. (Berg, Z.L. 1999. Interaction in postsecondary Web-based learning. Educational Technology, 1, 5-10.) Researchers have found that unguided discussions fall into lower levels of cognitive taxonomies, and suggest that more guidance in terms of higher levels of thinking encourage their development. This guidance can take the form of an instructor’s inclusion of further information, additional questions, feedback and prompting in the form of questions.