Synchronous and Asynchronous Communication
This page was originally authored by Byron Kask (2009)
Sarah Wood will revise for 2010!
All communication takes place either synchronously or asynchronously. Simply put, synchronous communication occurs in or near real-time. Examples of this include a spoken conversation that takes place face to face or over the phone, and a typed conversation using instant-messaging software. Conversely, asynchronous communication is not immediately received or responded to by those involved. Email, forum posts, mailed letters, and bulletin boards are examples of asynchronous communication. To confuse the issue, many technologies afford both types of communication. For instance, the talking on the phone would be considered synchronous communication, but if no one answers the phone, and a message is left, it would be asynchronous. Similarly, while email is a common asynchronous communication tool, some web-based email, such as Google's Gmail, include the ability to chat synchronously with another contact.
Historically, synchronous communication was only available either in person with spoken word or within line of sight using signals. The telegraph and later the telephone extended distant synchronous communication beyond line of sight, but then limited all parties to locations that had wires that were physically connected. Radio communication began to remove the restrictions of place by allowing people to communicate from wherever they had the appropriate equipment to send and receive the signal. Radio equipment quickly became small enough that it was portable by a single person. Newer developments in synchronous communication are built on satellite, cell phone, and internet technologies.
Asynchronous communication developed when people were able to scratch out small pictographs or otherwise leave marks for others to find and understand. This type of communication has been refined with the creation of written language, and the formation of parchment and other writing surfaces. Until recently, communicating across great distances was only possible asynchronously, as messages were written and then carried to their recipients. Response time for this communication was dependant on the distance that needed to be traveled, and the conditions faced by the couriers. Furthermore, the messages could easily be lost or intercepted. The creation of modern postal systems improved the reliability greatly. New developments in storage media, remote access, and email enable by internet technology, allow reliable, timely, and accessible asynchronous communication.
Much of formal learning that takes place in both the classroom and online environment is assisted by the interactions between the student and the teacher, between students, and between the student and the course content (Anderson, 2004. Pullen & Snow, 2007). While delivery of content in a traditional classroom has not changed much in recent times with regards how the class communicates, the experience is now much different for distance education users.
When looking at online distance education, in general, synchronous communication works well for collaboration in very small groups, but is difficult to implement as a whole class. On the other hand, asynchronous communication can allow huge numbers of people to collaborate, but not necessarily in a timely manner. If the goal of distance education is to allow people to participate across varying locations and schedules, then asynchronous tools need to be the foundation upon which the classes are built. We see this with the Blackboard content management system (CMS) that the MET program uses. These systems allow students to fully articulate their views before posting them, and to respond to each other in depth. These systems are also not limited to the extension of a single thread, allowing diverse ideas and opinions to be compiled and discussed. Vonderwell, Liang, & Alderman (2007) found that this allowed students to check each other's understanding, help express new ideas, and develop new directions and ideas. Students using CMSs have expressed that it is enough for most of the coursework to be completed without additional synchronous communication (Ellis & Romano, 2008). However, as Tegn and Taveras (2005) noted, this gives rise to a the sense of isolation and disconnect. Synchronous communication largely addresses this issue, but it does not guarantee that we'll like who we meet.
Synchronous communication tools are very effective for smaller group interactions, but they can be problematic with more than a few people. My first time using the Wimba chat tool was chaotic. There were too many people discussing too many topics all at once without anyone addressing each other, which made unclear who the message was written to. The chat read like a giant dichotomous key that kept branching out exponentially. The voice chat was also out of control. As Lucas (1976) fictionally demonstrated, they had this problem a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away too. Red Leader had to regulate communication to essential information only, telling Red Two to "cut the chatter." My experience using Elluminate was a little better with the audio, as only one person can talk at a time, but people (including me) would forget to end their turn. The point is that the tools that help build a sense of community can be painful to use with everyone present. Karabulut & Correia (2008) suggest that a good use for smaller-scale synchronous applications is for instructor's office hours, as there are only a few participants, and the feedback or answers can be received immediately.
Unfortunately, despite what some of the better CMSs offer, there seems to be no complete solution for both types of communication. Ghislandi, Mattei, Paolino, Pellegrini & Pisanu (2008) found that using a collection of different applications presented a problem with multiple logins and no synchronization between each component. This wiki, for example, requires a different login, and the content posted here is not reflected on our Blackboard site. However, it's the only tool for this course that allows asynchronous communication and collaboration between not only different sections of the course, but also those enrolled in different years.
Critique of Synchronous and Asynchronous Communication
- Instant communication - VOIP communication allows real conversation, and most chat apps show when the other users are typing.
- Immediate feedback - Questions can be answered immediately, and problems can be worked through step-by-step, a process that could take days asynchronously.
- In-person - There's a much more personable feel to using synchronous apps, especially if you can see and hear the other users.
- Requires guidelines - If more than two people are communicating at the same time, rules for successful dialog may be needed.
- Lacks precision - People can usually express specific goals or needs better in writing than through a conversation, if the people are using distant communications (Singleton, 2007).
- Exclusivity - Most voice-based synchronous tools accommodate only two or three people. Communication between individuals is difficult to share amongst a larger group (Singleton, 2007).
- Lacks documentation - While many chat-based apps keep a record of the conversation, most audio and video conversations are do not.
- Communication can take place anytime - A recipient is not required for a message to be conveyed. By not required, I mean that they neither need to be available, nor need to be specified. Most threads in the forums, for instance, are not written with a specific recipient in mind.
- Time to respond - Since no one is actively waiting, you can take time to craft and refine a good response.
- Responses may be elaborate - Without the pressures of someone waiting, a message can be quite large. Conversely, chat boxes are usually small, and therefore do not display large messages well (Yes, I'm talking to you Wimba).
- Manageable collaboration - It is helpful when working in groups to have the ability to post ideas, discuss, and edit over an extended period of time.
- Communication may be missed or ignored - This is noticeable in the forums where posts have no replies.
- Response time - Time between the message and response may be considerable, or not at all.
- Impersonal - While longer typed messages do have the ability to show a user's personality, it is not conveyed as clearly as it is in video or voice communication.
Current Online Technologies
There are several categories of communication technologies, and so they are broken down as follows:
- Chat - Typed real-time communication. Also know as instant messaging.
- CMS - Stands for Course Management System, is similar to a Learning Management System (LMS) and is not Content Management System, although it does that too.
- Email - Typed messages sent to other email accounts.
- Forum - Typed messages left on a website for others to read and respond to. A web-based development of Bulletin Board Service (BBS) and newsgroups/usenet.
- SNS - See Social Network Site.
- Video - This synchronous communication streams video over the internet. See Videoconferencing to Enhance the Learning Environment. Requires a webcam or other video source.
- VOIP - Stands for Voice Over Internet Protocol. Real-time audio communication.
- Wiki - See Wikis in Education,Wiki Affordances(sic), and Curriki Environment.
- Other - Specify under the Comments column.
|Name||Categories||Type of Communication||Comments|
|Blackboard, WebCT||CMS, Forum, Chat||Mainly asynchronous||Retail CMSs, cost prohibitive for most small institutions and individual instructors. See Course Management System and Common Elements and Limitations.|
|Elluminate||CMS, Chat, VOIP, Video||Synchronous and Asynchronous||Features allow voice and video communication, but only one person may speak at a time. This generally works well, but people tend to forget to end their turn.|
|Facebook, Myspace, Nexopia||SNS, Chat||Synchronous and Asynchronous||Web-based and platform independent. Often blocked or banned by school firewalls. See Social Network Site.|
|MediaWiki||Wiki||Asynchronous||Free open-source. Requires an existing web server to run on, and access to a SQL database.|
|Moodle||CMS, Forum, Chat||Mainly asynchronous||Free open-source. Requires an existing web server to run on, and access to a SQL database. See Course Management System and Common Elements and Limitations.|
|MSN/WLM, Yahoo Messenger||Chat, VOIP, Video||Synchronous||Can message to email for asynchronous communication.|
|Skype||VOIP, Video, Chat||Synchronous||See Using Skype to Increase Educational Communication. Free, but has paid features. Available across multiple platforms (Windows, MacOS, Linux, etc.), and can be run natively on several handheld devices.|
|Ventrillo, Teamspeak||VOIP||Synchronous||Not peer to peer as it relies on an external server, so no one person hosts the conference. Often used in competitive or exclusive team-based gaming.|
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