Jeppe Teglskov Jacobsen

Abstract

Teacher involvement in asynchronous online learning

Asynchronous online teaching has become popular in higher education – especially after the Covid19 pandemic. This study conducts an experiment in order to assess how teacher involvement in asynchronous online teaching periods affects student experience and performance. During the elective course, Cyber Operations and Cyber War (COCW), at the professional Master in Military Studies at the Royal Danish Defence College, I have added – based on the academic literature on asynchronous online teaching – an introductory face-to-face lecture and a more elaborate feedback design. When comparing the 2020 and 2021 versions of COCW, the study finds that the new additions improve student satisfaction, the final exam grades and the retention rate. Interestingly, it appears that adding a more elaborate (and time consuming) feedback design also increases student expectation for more (and more extensive) feedback and teacher accessibility. Despite this finding, the study concludes that successful asynchronous online teaching is not simply about what happens during asynchronous periods; it is just as much about what happens synchronously.