Peer Review

The Asynchronous Cookbook

Material Detail page

Reviewed:: Nov 17, 2021 by Teacher Education

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Ratings

Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:

This "cookbook" of recipes for engaged and active online learning was created by the Middlebury College Office of Digital Learning & Inquiry. According to the authors: "We created some big picture theory and practice for creating engaging online courses, based on research and good practice. The activities in this cookbook provide concise and specific instructions for adding asynchronous activities to a course. Most of the activities in this cookbook can be used in any discipline; however, online learning provides unique challenges for teaching foreign languages, for performance based disciplines such as interpreting, the performing arts, and teacher education, and for lab disciplines.

Type of Material:

Open (Access) Textbook (a standalone PDF so appropriate for offline reading)

Each chapter has a specific focus, with wording, guidance, best practice and external links.

Recommended Uses:

Could be used for discussion / diagnostics in a classroom
Individual use by instruction designers when designing courses
Inclusion in an online course as a resource Use by teams of educators when designing curricula

Technical Requirements:

Single PDF file is accessible on multiple browsers/e-readers etc/

Identify Major Learning Goals:

Introduce learners to the concept of asynchronous learning
Introduce learners and course designers to a suite of asynchronous activities they can utilize to improve learning
Encourage learners and designers to consider the unique challenges faced in designing asynchronous courses
Improve the quality of online courses by utilising social learning techniques in design

Target Student Population:

Undergraduate or graduates students in an Education discipline
School or college educators
eLearning developers / instructional designers
Any professional working in an Education discipline

Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:

A basic understanding of education terminology would be advantageous.

The necessity to be computer literate; aware of course structure and pedagogy; confident/willing to have a go at moving to an async environment

Content Quality

Rating:

Strengths:

The resource contains a comprehensive range of tools that can be leveraged in an online learning environment.
It contains strong background information to support the overall topic.
The tools are identified in discrete categories making navigation simple.
It also links to several additional resources from high quality and reputable institutions.
Linked to academic theory (p4)Hyperlinked throughout e.g. the contents page takes you to relevant sections. Clear worked examples of how to embed Async teaching into work.
Easy to read chapters (bite size) with a clear focus
Highlighted as a Creative Commons resource from the outset.
Each chapter emphasises the need for pedagogy
The "Teaching and Learning Knowledge Base" is useful to see pedagogy in action

Concerns:

No concerns in terms of quality. Some of the links are specific to the Middlebury site.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:

Strengths:

The material is presented as ‘recipes’ making it an ideal resource to dip in and out of as and when the material is relevant.
At 86 pages it seems like a hefty resource, but it’s broken down very nicely.
Excellent foregrounding information explaining how and why the resource has been created and how asynchronous learning can be leveraged to benefit learners.
Easily transferrable into a different setting.
The step-by-step instructions are very clear, logical, and pedagogically correct.

Concerns:

No learning objectives/outcomes are explicitly stated
Very much aimed at designers, and perhaps something could be included about how learners can get the most benefit from these tools if they see them being used
Some areas aren't accessible to non-Middlebury College users

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:

Strengths:

A hyperlinked contents page makes it easy to navigate to appropriate sections
Each 'recipe' is laid out in an easy-to-understand format with consistent headings, limiting confusion when navigating between them

Concerns:

A 'home' hyperlink on each page would be advantageous rather than having to scroll back to the contents page each time
A more detailed contents page with hyperlinks to each named 'recipe' rather than just the sections would make usability even better
Some links are not accessible to non-Middlebury users

Other Issues and Comments:

Creative Commons licensing is clearly stated on page 2.

In the introduction, the authors do state that the resource will be regularly updated, so a downloaded copy of the PDF may become out of date very quickly.

Overall a very professional piece of work. It would be good to have 2 documents, 1 for internal facing and one for external facing, with different links depending on who uses it.

Creative Commons: