Synchronous learning and asynchronous learning during COVID-19 pandemic: a case study in India

1. Introduction

An intellectual asset is a part of intellectual capital, which helps in earning capabilities in the future. Higher education is an essential aspect of creating intellectual capital (Rosa and Jakubowska, 2014). The history of education goes back to civilization itself. In the distant past, India used to have the Gurukul system of education, where anyone who wants to study can go to the teacher's house and request the teacher to teach them. If a guru accepts them as students, they can stay in the guru's place to acquire education and help with home chores and activities. The guru would allow a student to learn everything they wanted to know, from learning Sanskrit to reading all Holy Scriptures and Mathematics to Metaphysics. Every country has its way of bringing about changes in education. In India, a cutting-edge education system was introduced, bringing English education into the system, where more emphasis is given to education in the English language. Teaching was confined inside the classroom in this education system, and educators' connection with nature disappeared. However, it paves the way for every child by providing fundamentals to all different subjects at the early stages. The education sector has seen tremendous changes in a couple of decades with the help of innovation in technology, which provides plenty of choices for scholars to investigate in any field of their choice (Shelke, 2018). A digital revolution created an enormous change in the education sector and made education more flexible than in the early stages. According to the World Economic Forum's Global Competitive study, Finland has the most well-developed education in the world (Dickinson, 2019). Though India has not been fully developed in means of infrastructural facilities and quality education, there are new policies and regulations such as the New Education Policy 2020 to enhance the quality of Indian educational system, says Freire-Garabal and Núñez (2020). Educational institutions trained their faculty members to follow and implement the fundamentals of hybrid teaching to create a new experience for the student communities in the post-lockdown. In the post-COVID-19 lockdowns, when educational institutions reopened, students were eager to experience the on-campus sessions. To better facilitate teaching-learning, educational institutions witnessed “Hybrid Pedagogy,” a new method to use technology to create a better learning environment for students on-campus and for students on the online platforms at the same time. These hybrid sessions reduced the face time and allowed students to experience technology-enhanced activity for students outside of class. Faculty members were trained through different Quality Improvement Program and Faculty Development Programs to relook into certain components such as course design, course resources, teaching aids, grading instructions, nature of assignments and grading procedures and so on. There was a further progression from Hybrid Pedagogy to the “Synchronous and Asynchronous” learning style. Gathering students and teachers in a physical classroom to interact, exchange knowledge, capture on-time feedback and learn on a fixed schedule is called “Synchronous learning,” which can happen through an online platform or offline platform. Asynchronous learning aims to reduce the burden of learning in a scheduled time and helps the students learn through recorded videos, webinars, podcasts, online training courses. The success of any online discussion requires both asynchronous and synchronous modes of learning. For the well-being of the students, a combination of (Synchronous and Asynchronous) learning has been facilitated. These teaching-learning strategies enhance development, increase the happiness quotient, embrace institutions' brand image and individual goals for a better society. When we probe into the evolution of education from the Gurukula system to the current hybrid pedagogy, teaching and learning have undergone multidimensional changes and outcomes. Moreover, the perception of the student community on Synchronous and Asynchronous learning has to be explored as it remains a research gap. The students' perception is critical to be explored because new teaching pedagogy in light of the COVID-19 pandemic is no more hypothetical than we are currently experiencing it. These predictors from the analyzed results will help the institution, teachers, students and all the connected stakeholders to frame new strategies and take decisions when required.

2. Scope of the study

The sudden pandemic outbreak has affected the educational sector, which stands as an essential determinant in producing intellectual assets for the growth and sustainability of a nation. Institutions are adopting new ways of learning to reduce the burden during online education. This research focuses on how synchronous and asynchronous approaches have created a shift in the education sector in this pandemic and also tries to introspect the various online learning options and platforms available for the student community to learn in the pandemic crisis. In this research, the researchers try to understand the positive and negative outcomes of synchronous and asynchronous learning and analyze students' experiences. The study will help us understand whether synchronous learning and asynchronous learning are student-friendly and understand whether students are ready to accept this new change introduced by educational institutions. Hence, this research confines exploring the synchronous and asynchronous learning approaches from the perspective of Indian students.

3. Expected contributions from the study

Globally, the impact of the COVID-19 crisis is a massive hit on educational institutions, and educational institutions have facilitated education on digital platforms. Not all students can buy laptops and have a broadband connection to take up online classes. The rural areas in India do not have basic infrastructural facilities. Henceforth, when the qualitative data were collected, it was evident that synchronous and asynchronous learning approaches were known only to those students living in the urban and township areas. Moreover, only a few universities have implemented such innovative teaching-learning pedagogy in the COVID-19 crisis. Through this research, a valid suggestion has been proposed to the Government of India to include the underprivileged children to receive free education and also distribute free electronic gadgets such as digital tablets and laptops and encourage them to learn without any disruptions. Moreover, since the balanced learning approach is new, higher educational institutions can train faculty members to use innovative and sensible teaching methods. Platforms such as SWAYAM, Coursera can provide free training courses on synchronous and asynchronous learning methodologies facilitated by professors and academicians of top institutions of the world.

4. Theoretical underpinning

From the view point of educational institutions, asynchronous activities are given to students to reduce their screen time and to give them more flexibility to complete different task at their own comfort zone. With an intention to make the students feel comfortable and to give them a personal space to self-learn and reflect on certain topics, asynchronous activities are planned by the teachers. On the other hand, there are few important topics that are handled by teachers with a personal touch. From the students; viewpoint, learning during the initial lockdowns was a dual task, that is, managing synchronous and asynchronous activities. Asynchronous activities gave space for the students to search, analyze, explore new knowledge. Synchronous learning gave them opportunity to acquire knowledge from their teachers during the virtual classes. However, the outcome of sync and async was based on exploration and exploitation. Hence, for the theoretical underpinning, the researchers have considered the individual ambidexterity theory. Perhaps it is important to know the underlying theme of the theory, which states that “The ability to simultaneously pursue both incremental and discontinuous innovation from hosting multiple contradictory structures, processes, and cultures within the same firm”. When students are given activities, they involve themselves to transcend the boundaries of exploration and acquire knowledge, which becomes more meaningful. Sometimes, they lose focus and do not achieve the final goal; however, they exploit resources. Knowledge that they have acquired on exploiting and exploring resources will help them capitalize in future. This has been stated by Papachroni and Heracleous (2020) that there are three major elements in individual ambidexterity, that is, exceeding the boundaries of exploration and exploitation, accomplishment of dual task and benefitting by balancing between exploitation and exploration. As per the demands of the pandemic, there was a structural change in the way educational institutions functioned. However, balancing between exploration and exploitation depends on individuals' capacity and capabilities. Balancing between synchronous and asynchronous activities depends on individuals' capacity. The same has been mentioned by Gibson and Birkinshaw (2004) that it is left up to the individuals to balance between exploitation and exploration. This is more suitable for this research article because if a student knows the art of balance between synchronous and asynchronous learning, he/she may not find it to be a burden and can be very productive. On the other hand, if the art of balancing between synchronous and asynchronous is not known by the students, then the outcome may be negative.

5. Review of literature on synchronous and asynchronous learning

For online learning to become successful, educational institutions and organizations can adopt two systems: synchronous or asynchronous approaches. Synchronous learning occurs when all the participants interact at the same time. In contrast, asynchronous learning allows participants to exchange ideas and information without the dependency of other participants interacting simultaneously (Chauhan, 2017). There is a difference between synchronous and asynchronous online conversations (Malik et al., 2017). Teachers and students can establish a better connect and enhance communication effectively with the help of synchronous methods. Different spaces can be utilized to facilitate synchronous learning, say Moallem (2015), Barron et al. (2005). Synchronous learning has many advantages for the students, which include: motivation and participation, establishment of social relations, KT, KA. These added values are not experienced through asynchronous learning approach (Murphy et al., 2011). However, synchronous learning can be successful only when certain arrangements are done beforehand. The facilitators have to prepare the teaching materials, schedule the class time, take attendance, maintain the decorum and so on (Shukri et al., 2020). The efficacy of synchronous learning needs to be explored to know how well this model impacts online learning, what strategies are best suited for different students and what tools can provide better support for those particular strategies (Park and Bonk, 2007). On the other hand, the most flexible learning approach is asynchronous learning because there is no requirement for a face-to-face interaction in a real time. Teachers and the students are not present virtually or in any physical environment, but learning still happens in a successful manner. The teacher assigns activities and different tasks to the student and the same is done and submitted within a given time frame. Based on the work that has been submitted by the students, the teachers assess them (Carroll, 2011). Asynchronous learning develops the cognitive capacity and capabilities of the student as they take efforts to study by their own without depending on the teachers. In this process, they invest time and energy to search, research, learn and acquire knowledge. Hence, asynchronous learning makes the students more disciplined and exposed to vast knowledge (Shahabadi and Uplane, 2015; Plesec Gasparic and Pecar, 2016; Chauhan, 2017; Craig et al., 2016).

6. Statement of the problem

Indian educational institutions have suddenly adopted synchronous and asynchronous learning approach in the light of pandemic. Students and teachers had an increased screen time and could not hold face-to-face discussions more than a certain time span. Hence, teachers conduct activities and provide assignments, which are aligned to the subjects they teach. However, students have to strike a balance between synchronous and asynchronous activities, which is quite difficult. Most importantly, the demographics of the students play a very important role and have a significant impact on their education. Indian students differ from each other in terms of income capacity, family background, educational qualification, exposure to technology and digital tools, culture and so on. Thus, during the pandemic, few students who did not have the basic facilities such as the Internet connection and a personal computer found it highly challenging to complete the activities, which has increased stress. Few situations where students' family members or students themselves are affected with the COVID-19 virus had real-time challenge. For few, balanced learning approach was very flexible and has been much appreciated as they could finish the activities and assignments as per their comfort and also had time for their personal life. However, it is important to understand the perceptions of the students because their experiences will help the educational institutions frame better strategies for the future. Asynchronous activities assigned to the students are monitored by the faculty members and grades are also assigned; however, the completion of the task on-time, as per the instructions given by the teachers, is still questionable. There are also few students who did not consider asynchronous activities to be important. Self-study always gives an opportunity for students to learn something new as they have the space to research and find new knowledge. Asynchronous activities and assignments have a scope to explore and also exploit resources. If the resources are used in the right manner, students benefit out of it, and if they do not make use of it, they may not gain benefits. Hence, this ambidextrous approach has its own pros and cons, which are to be explored in this research.

7. Research questions

The research questions provide an orientation for investigation (Bryman, 2007). Framing a research question helps to investigate and seek answers to the questions. This research tries to investigate a few questions:

8. Research materials and methods

This research collected data from the students undergoing synchronous and asynchronous learning amidst the pandemic. The data were collected (N = 655) from students during the pandemic time. A questionnaire survey was distributed to the students through online platforms to collect the data. The questionnaire had students' general perception of synchronous and asynchronous learning. Key variables have been hand-picked after an in-depth literature review, and the same has been converted into question statements for construct the questionnaire. The response is received with a good spread of Likert's three-point scale: (1) agree, (2) neutral and (3) disagree. This scaling option helps the researchers to obtain an adequate spread of responses. If the scaling options are extended beyond 5 or 7, there are possibilities where the respondents can be biased. Henceforth, a Likert's three-point scale has been used. Data have been collected using a simple random sampling, and the same has been used for data analysis using SPSS version 26. The collected data were exposed to a reliability test using Cronbach's alpha method. The reliability value is more than 0.7, which is considerably good and accepted to proceed further. Moreover, the collected data are a reflection from the experiences of students during the lockdown, which had a good spread of responses. Thus, the data are normally distributed and project the transparency in data collection and the population from which the samples are drawn.

9. Questionnaire development process

The development of a questionnaire in social research is very crucial. Therefore, the following steps were taken to develop questions on these themes.

• Step 1: Going through literature reviews to explore more about synchronous and asynchronous learning.

• Step 2: Understanding the importance of synchronous and asynchronous learning from a different perspective through previous researchers' operational definitions and research knowledge.

• Step 3: Screen and select a few relevant articles to help us seek answers for different research problems.

• Step 4: Pick up the most appropriate statements from the selected article to construct question statements to collect data from respondents.

10. Factor analysis

Synchronous and asynchronous learning approaches adopted by educational institutions have positive and negative outcomes. The survey instrument is designed with positive and negative outcomes of asynchronous and synchronous learning. Every question statement used is a reflection of a synchronous or asynchronous learning approach. Since the number of dimensions was large, factor analysis has been used to reduce the same (Rummel, 1970). All the positive and negative statements were separately exposed to factor analysis using the principal component analysis technique. Before extracting components, the KMO and Bartlett's tests and their results were analyzed. KMO measures the sample adequacy, ranging from 0 to 1, where more than 0.5 is considered suitable, and Bartlett's test of sphericity indicates the significance of the data, which should be less than 0.05. In this study, the negative and positive statements show KMO of 0.911 and 0.912, respectively, which states that the factor variables are suitable, which suits the factor analysis (see Tables 1 and 2).

After extracting the components, it is necessary to interpret the factors with their factor loading, so the varimax rotation technique is applied. It minimizes the high loading variables to each factor and retains all the factors loading having more than 0.5. Based on the factor analysis output for negative statements (Table 3), the fundamental factors are grouped under five iterations, and a suitable name has been given.

The name of component 1 is “Online classes are stressful.”

The name of component 2 is “Insecurities and frustration.”

The name of component 3 is “Places more responsibilities.”

Based on the factor analysis output for positive statements (Table 4), the entire factors have been grouped under two iterations, and a suitable name is given. Two statements factor loading showed below 0.5, so that statement was excluded.

The name of component 1 is “Student-centered and effective.”

The name of component 2 is “Flexible and collaborative.”

11. Discussion

Our study analyzes the students' perception of synchronous and asynchronous learning approaches represented in the form of positive and negative outcomes during the COVID-19 crisis. The data were collected from students taking up online classes. We received N = 655 responses, out of which 59.7% were female, and 39.5% were male, where most of them were undergraduate students. Majority of the students range between the age of 17 and 21 doing their undergraduate programs in different educational institutions in India. From the analysis the researchers have understood that most of the students study in private institutions and are exposed to technology. This is because only few reputed educational institutions have introduced synchronous and asynchronous approach as a part of teaching and learning. Government institutions and few private institutions that have no technological exposure have not given importance to the balanced learning approach. Screening the gender status of the respondents, majority of the respondents were male (65%) and remaining (35%) were female respondents. Male gender dominates the female gender, and this may be because of the society and Indian demographic spread. Many males get an opportunity to pursue their higher education when compared to the females. Apart from these basic demographic questions, researchers have also captured information pertaining to respondent's experience during the pandemic. From the percentage analysis, researchers understood that almost 69.8% of the students never experienced online classes before the COVID-19 crisis, which helped to come to the opinion that the COVID-19 pandemic made students take up online classes. According to the students’ most commonly used technology to take up, online classes were through mobile phones, where they opined network connectivity was quite good to attend classes. Almost 78% of parents also supported them to take up online classes. There were quite a few responses such as financial issues, technical problems, health issues and prioritizing family commitments that restrained parents from supporting their wards in taking online classes. Our study also raised open-ended questions to know more about synchronous and asynchronous learning approach. From the analysis and from the open-ended questions, researchers have received mixed responses. Few responses are highly supportive to the online education as they say online education is flexible, saves times and effective. On the other hand, few respondents say that online education is not flexible as it places responsibilities, creates stress and is causes insecurities among students. Few students observed that teachers failed to give attention to slow learners, who fall under the visually impaired, speech impaired and hearing-impaired category. In addition, they also said that teachers need to plan activities and need to undergo special training to break work into smaller chunks and deliver the same to the students with more clarity. Thus, teachers need to prepare themselves to balance learning activities. Our study also has questions related to MOOC courses, which have become very popular in the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers asked questions related to MOOCs to know the opinion of the student communities. From their responses, researchers understood that the five most commonly used e-learning platforms in India were Coursera, Udemy, Khan Academy, Edx and Byju, where 51.1% chose Coursera over other platforms to take up MOOC courses. They also chose e-learning platforms such as MyCaptain, FutureLearn, Internshala, Upgrade and so on to learn courses online. MOOCs are also a part of the asynchronous approach where students self-explore and self-learn without depending on the tutor. Since few questions were multiple response questions, researchers analyzed it by defining the multiple response sets and running a frequency to know the percentage of student's responses. The majority of the students prefer asynchronous learning over synchronous learning due to several reasons. According to students, asynchronous learning helped them to self-motivate themselves where they used research skills to explore and understand a concept in a disciplined manner.

12. Conclusion

The impact of COVID-19 has created a massive imbalance in all sectors. The worldwide closure of educational institutions has an impact on student's academic life. The outburst of COVID-19 has taught everyone that change is necessary and forced educational institutions to adapt to the new technology, which was not used frequently before the pandemic (Jena Kumar, 2020). Online learning now serves as a new panacea during this crisis (Dhawan, 2020). The findings from the study stated that the outcome of online classes (synchronous and asynchronous) is quite stressful, which placed more responsibilities and created a kind of frustration and insecurities among students. Simultaneously, online classes are student-centric, which provides more flexibility for students to work collaboratively to increase class effectiveness. Thus, researchers have received mixed opinions and feedbacks from the students. Researchers have to conclude saying that all educational institutions are taking their maximum and best efforts for the benefit of the students. Students have to understand these efforts and should equally work hard to achieve success. Both synchronous and asynchronous approaches have their own pros and cons. However, students have to strike a balance between sync and async classes. India being a developing economy has not fully witnessed technological development, where few rural areas do not have any access to basic online education. The concept of synchronous and asynchronous learning approach is very new and needs more clarity. Henceforth, in the upcoming days, there should be a balance between both approaches. Future researchers have many opportunities and scope; however, synchronous learning is progressing smoothly, it is also important to motivate students to get involved with asynchronous activities and tasks. In addition, future research can be done on teachers' perspectives on online education because it is equally important to study teachers' mentality during the pandemic. These aspects need to be explored to make online classes more effective and productive during this pandemic. Suggestions such as free Internet and better connectivity are concerns raised by students that the government can look into and provide solutions for the same. Researchers can construct new policies and regulatory models that will help the government frame strategic policies for the educational institutions.