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Asynchronous learning is a student-centered teaching technique in which online learning resources are used to enable information sharing between people in a network. In asynchronous learning, information sharing is not limited by place or time.
Asynchronous learning is facilitated by media, such as email, online discussion boards, email lists, blogs and wikis.
Techopedia Explains Asynchronous Learning
Asynchronous learning facilitates work relations between teachers and learners, even if the participants are not online at the same time, bringing a high degree of flexibility to e-learning. The asynchronous nature of participation is key to online course options. This allows participants to combine education with family, work and other responsibilities.
Participants can easily log in to an e-learning platform from any virtual location at their convenience and then download/share documents and send emails to their peers and/or teachers. Students also have the ability to spend time polishing their assignments and contributions.
Advantages of asynchronous learning are as follows:
- Students from anywhere in the world may participate, regardless of time zone or location.
- Considered the most popular form of e-learning, students, employees or other end users may access study materials 24 hours a day, seven days a week, via an intranet or the Internet.
- It allows bookmarking, which helps learners bookmark current course locations for later retrieval, and allows learners to restart a course, if necessary.
- The platform is ideal for company training. With the help of a learning management system (LMS), businesses can track training sessions and maintain detailed records, reducing human error.
- Th platform is extremely cost-effective for organizations with a large number of employees that are located in different geographical locations.
- It is much faster than a synchronous environment. For example, asynchronous e-learning generally requires approximately 25 to 50 percent of the training time used in a synchronous environment.
