What do we mean?

• Learning outcomes: statements that describe the knowledge and/or skills that students should acquire by the end of a class, assessment or programme. Learning outcomes should also describe the context in which skills/knowledge will be acquired, and the level to which students will be able to demonstrate their proficiency.
• Moodle forum: a discussion tool within Moodle courses where staff and students can hold conversations in the form of posted messages.
• Asynchronous: learning activities which are not taking place simultaneously in real time.
• Peer feedback:  students assess each others' contribution to a learning activity.

What is Asynchronous Learning?

'Asynchronous learning' refers to forms of learning and teaching that place flexibly online and do not require learners and/or tutors to be online simultaneously. While asynchronous learning activities lack the immediacy and dynamism of synchronous learning, they provide learners with flexibility allowing them to work 'at their own pace'. If used well, they can also be harnessed to create community and foster engagement online. As such, good quality online learning programmes seek to find a balance between synchronous and asynchronous activities.

It's important to realise that the use of asynchronous activities need not require tutors to spend large amounts of time creating resources and learning objects. Rather, tutors should think of themselves as curators, whose role is to guide and direct students to content, and to help them to contextualise it. Such content may take the form of pre-recorded videos, audio, reading or other online resources, and might involve interaction with peers in whole class or small group contexts through collaborative tools (e.g. discussion forums).

Top Tips

1. Create a Moodle Discussion Forum

Getting the approach to social elements right is key to engaging students online. You can get the ball rolling through ice breaker activities (perhaps ask students to introduce themselves, and tell everyone one interesting thing about themselves). Whatever learning objectives you want to achieve through a forum, be clear about why students should engage with it, and what they are expected to do. If the objectives are too vague or unclear, many students will shy away from posting. Bear in mind that international students in particular may not feel confident about appropriate discussion board etiquette. Allay these fears by providing a clear code of conduct (and modelling good ways to begin forum posts), or perhaps begin with an online activity where students discuss etiquette and collaboratively agree on a code of conduct that will be used for discussions on the unit. You can then pin the code of conduct to the top of the discussion board.

2. Be consistent with Forum responses and communication updates.

If students are going to invest their time and effort in online discussions, they need to feel that they are being listened to, and that their contributions are recognised. When this happens they will feel valued and are more inclined to stay engaged with discussions. To encourage engagement, respond regularly and consistently to discussions, and provide updates or new discussion topics at the appropriate moments. To ease some of the workload involved in monitoring discussions, consider using individual or group based peer-feedback activities.

3. Set clear expectations and learning outcomes

It's particularly important with online learning to make clear to learners upfront the desired learning outcomes and everything that is expected of them, (e.g. deadlines and assessments). So if their contributions to online discussions will be marked, make it clear to students what the marking criteria will be. Likewise, where contributions to group-based assessments will be assessed individually, make clear to students how the marks will be apportioned.

4. Foster an environment of discussion and interaction

In addition to an online 'news' forum where you can post regular course updates, and specific targeted discussion activities (either whole class, or small group based) you may wish to consider using a Q and A forum. This will allow any questions from students to be answered once, in one place, for the benefit of the cohort, easing the demands of personal emails. Additionally, you may find that online discussion works best in small group scenarios, particularly if the cohort is large, as students may not wish to feel that they are posting their opinions for a large number of peers to see. Consider using Moodle Groups to provide opportunities for small group interactions.

5. Provide a range of different resources

Online resources are an essential part of asynchronous learning activities, and while you may wish to create some of these yourself in the form of video presentations of key ideas etc, don't fall into the onerous trap of creating everything. It's not necessary. Instead direct students to relevant resources that already exist on the web (perhaps try the BoB service) and give them meaningful, (perhaps group based), activities to complete that are based on these resources. Remember - curate content, and contextualise it for learners.

6. Monitor and guide the online learning journey

Although asynchronous learning activities are designed with the intention of allowing students to work at their own pace, and at the times that suit them, the student learning journey still needs to be facilitated by your subject based expertise. You can do this by sparking discussion, moving-on any online discussions that have run their course, or strayed too far from key topics, and by ensuring that the design of asynchronous activities leads students to engage with core learning materials and their peers.