Abstract:

Distance learning brings new opportunities, advantages and ways of learning. At the same time, it has been shown that distance learning, especially its asynchronous form, causes difficulties for educational participants. Many years of practical experience with asynchronous distance learning show that students in this form of education achieve significantly worse results than students in synchronous distance learning or full-time learning. This paper compares the learning outcomes of undergraduate students in asynchronous and synchronous distance learning and full-time computer science. It shows the need for conditions and tools to support asynchronous distance learning. The results of comparing the success rates of students in different forms of study show that more is needed to provide students with teaching materials, video recordings of lectures, practical examples, etc.. It seems appropriate to increase the number of synchronous tutorials to improve the success rate of asynchronous distance learners. Due to the nature of distance learning, this will naturally take the form of online tutorials and consultations. The results of the case study and the experiment show that students who participated in synchronous online tutorials performed better in completing independent work than students who did not participate in synchronous online tutorials. Unstructured interviews were also conducted with students, which showed that the students most valued the video recordings of the face-to-face lectures, the multimedia learning materials, the solved practical examples, and especially the synchronous communication with tutors and other students.

Keywords:

Asynchronous distance learning, teaching, computer science, online tutorial, synchronous distance learning.