Online Trends and Advanced Tools A community of practice reflection By Prof. Jonathan Acuña-Solano School of English Faculty of Social Sciences Universidad Latina de Costa Rica Sunday, February 21, 2016 Post 216
As one progresses in the exploration of asynchronous tools for online courses, it is very important to evaluate how these tools can eventually affect the learning environment one is trying to create for one’s learners. This exploration of potential challenges takes us to examine the process of creating wikis, blogs, or a simple video message for one’s learners. Nevertheless, in spite of the challenges one can face, there are potential benefits that one is to identify in the usage of any of these tools. Let us explore the challenges, benefits, and questions one may have concerning asynchronous tools for online courses. Here are reproduced three questions regarding tools that I intend to answer based on my current teaching. Nevertheless, it is also for you, my reader, to ask yourself the very same questions and reflect upon them, too.

What do you feel is the most challenging feature of asynchronous tools? When confronted with trying to give an answer to
this question, I can barely think of an appropriate answer. The point I am trying to make in terms of challenges can be directly connected to the instructor or to the learner. At the beginning the neophyte teacher can find him/herself in a dead-on street if help is not asked from some experienced users of the tool(s) s/he wants to use in his/her online or hybrid course. As soon as this shocking experience is over and expertise and confidence are gained, the instructor is even ready to help students use the desired tool. At this point, the teacher is to train learners on how to use a given tool, so they can also gain confidence in its use and become effective users of the tool. To put it simple, teachers can find it difficult at the beginning, but as soon as they get the knack of how something is made, they are on the go. As for students, who are more technologically oriented, the transition to start using a new tool can be just a matter of a short lapse but with proper and effective training. 
What do you feel is the greatest benefit of these tools? Asynchronous
tools
benefit
today’s
learners beyond what can be really measured. Firstly, tools like these provide a certain kind of freedom
that
working
students
cannot
experienced due to their tight schedules. With asynchronous tools, they can find some room in their busy agendas to do what is requested in the course chronogram. Secondly, it terms of m-Learning, these tools offer them the chance of working on their
assignments while commuting back and forth from home to work. With their mobile devices they are also aligned with the course content and with the teacher’s feedback and new materials. With tools like these, we need to stop being skeptical and understand that blended and mobile learning can be ideal ways of earning a degree, as it already happens around the globe and in which thousands of individuals are part of this way of learning. Asynchronous tools provided by the course instructor are the last ingredient needed to help all these students to get a university degree or additional training for their working life. 
What questions do you still have about using asynchronous tools in your online course? When asked the above question, I must admit that I have already overcome my initial skepticism of online, hybrid, and blended learning. I feel certain that education can be attained in different ways, and that our technological societies and citizens are looking
for extra alternatives that can allow them to work, have a family, enjoy their social life, and also get a degree in a higher education institution. The use of all these asynchronous tools connected to an LMS platform can be the long-awaited answer that many individual in our home countries have been waiting for. To conclude, as suggested above, ask yourself the same questions provided here. I am sure we can have either similar or different answers due to our personal teaching conditions and settings. Blended learning at Universidad Latina where I am currently working is still in a very developing stage. It is not a common practice in all courses where more traditional ways of teaching are still favored by many faculty
members. With the pass of time, it is bound to be a slow but forceful revelation in education at the higher level, and more and more professors will start joining those of us who already combine F2F instruction with lots of blended activities to have learner exposed to class content beyond the classroom boundaries.