Discussion
doubts, anxiety, reduction of social anxiety
This study evaluated the effectiveness of asynchronous and synchronous classes aimed at teaching to speech therapy students how to write a CR during the placement. Moreover, this study explored the students’ experiences of attending those courses. From what was retrieved from this study, it is possible to bring to the forefront that asynchronous lecture is as effective as synchronous one in teaching how to write CRs, as it was already seen for other skills [In the synchronous group, the students asked a question in real time and received immediate feedback from the lecturer. In the asynchronous mode, the answer could only be posed in a second moment through different media outlets (e.g., email, forum etc.) as there is no immediate exchange. However, the possibility of pushing back the question time seemed to allow the students to reflect deeper on what they had learned, making the questions more targeted and well-reasoned. Reflection is a valuable tool that helps students to get the most from their education and other activities [Another aspect highlighted by the interviews was the different time management between synchronous and asynchronous groups. In the synchronous group, students felt obligated to attend sessions at specific times. In contrast, in the asynchronous group, students appreciated the flexibility to manage their learning based on their commitments. It is worth noting that students’ perceived control over their time was found to correlate significantly with their cumulative grade point average [Then, students in the asynchronous group found this modality much more comfortable, not for being at home per se, but because they did not have to participate in a social performance in front of their lecturer and peers. As a result, the interviewees felt a reduction of social anxiety. Asynchronous computer-mediated communication is often less stressful than real-life interaction because the participants do not need to respond immediately. Social anxiety is lower during online than face-to-face interaction [As far as the contact with the lecturer is concerned, two different views emerged during the analysis of the interviews. Those who participated in the synchronous group stated that the course tutor’s presence made them feel more guided, safer and less alone. However, despite the lack of contact in the asynchronous group, the students who attended this course reported feeling relaxed in not having anyone in front of them. The students reported that they are now becoming accustomed to this type of teaching and no longer suffer from this type of lesson as they did at the beginning of the pandemic. Therefore, in this case, the blended method can be the best solution to exploit the benefits of both approaches. According to its teaching objectives, the lecturer can select which content to deliver in synchronous and which in asynchronous mode [In our study, interviewees complained about not feeling comfortable enough to express their doubts to the tutors of the course, but they preferred to ask general questions in the group. This attitude can be a disadvantage as there could be a transmission of biassed information and misunderstanding. So, it is the lecturer’s responsibility to find strategies to engage students in the discussion, whether synchronous or asynchronous (i.e., trust, positive and unconditional consideration, respect, acknowledgement, empathy etc.) [The present study has several limitations. First, the participants and the lecturers involved knew to which groups the students belonged. However, the evaluators and the statistician were blinded. Second, our sample comprises speech therapy students; therefore, we are not sure about the transferability/generalisability of our results. Third, the tool used for performance evaluation was explicitly developed by the research team for this study. Despite promising results for the form and content validity processes, further studies are recommended to create a checklist with robust psychometric properties. Fourth, the study was conducted following the signing of an informed consent inviting students not to exchange materials and information between the two groups (synchronous and asynchronous). However, it is not possible to exclude that the students did so. To reduce this possibility, the students were informed that they would change their group at the end of the first placement: the asynchronous intervention group carried out the course synchronously and vice versa. In this way, the students would have obtained all the materials provided by the tutors to each group. The students could revise their CRs after completing the other course. The revised CR was considered for the final grade registered for their university career. Fifth, the students interviewed were in different years of the degree course, and their experience may change during the other years. Finally, standardisation was not possible regarding the CR cases since each student was assigned a different individual during their placement. However, to ensure consistency, we implemented a standardised checklist that focused on evaluating the quality of the reported information rather than the complexity of each analysed case. This approach can be also seen as a strength of the study as it reflects the real-world scenario of a typical placement, where each student is responsible for managing a different patient.Both synchronous and asynchronous teaching methods have their strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, a blended learning system has been proposed in other teaching areas since it allows students to learn under the best condition [