Synchronous and Asynchronous Learning Environments

This paper discusses the organizational and pedagogical aspects, benefits, and disadvantages of synchronous and asynchronous technologies as platforms for creating distance learning environments. By comparing the advantages and challenges of the two learning environments, teachers will be able to match the appropriate learning environment and its teaching strategy to their learning goals. These two learning environments involve distance learning. Distance education (or what is commonly termed “distance learning”) is a method of education in which the learner is physically distanced from both the teacher and the institution providing the instruction. Learning may be undertaken either individually or in groups. According to USDLA (2006), distance learning is: “The acquisition of knowledge and skills through mediated information and instruction, encompassing all technologies and other forms of learning at a distance.”