Synchronous interaction is the online equivalent of a conference call, except you use a chat room. Everyone in the class gets online at the same time and then logs on to a chat room for discussion. Instead of speaking to one another with voices, you type all of your interaction. This, of course, works best if you are a fast typist. The benefit of such online chats is that there are no long distance fees or other high-costs associated with them.
Asynchronous discussions don t require that everyone is online at the same time.
Rather, you post your message at a time convenient to you and then others read it when they are online and post their response. Sometimes this takes place using electronic mail, where each student e-mails everyone their message, while others use electronic message boards. A message board is the electronic equivalent of a bulletin board where each participant posts their message for others to read. Over time, students can read each of the postings and compose their responses. Besides the time benefits, the asynchronous approach provides an archive of all discussions throughout the course.