For example, an asynchronous netcourse might consist of 20 students who each week are required to post to a threaded discussion about the week's assignment. Students might also have to review each other's work or complete asynchronous group projects. Students would never have to be present at the very same time, but they'd all have to work on the same assignment within the same time frame. IRC stands for Internet Relay Chat. IRC is a network of Internet servers which can be accessed from users' client programs.
Many discussions can take place at once, each in a separate channel.
For a more thorough definition and related Web links, see the PC Webopaedia . Synchronous communications and courses require that participants be physically present and in correspondence at the very same time. Synchronous communication is achieved with equipment and software that allow for live two-way audio, video, or text. See, for instance CU-SeeMe live video conferencing over the Internet. Synchronous technologies are still limited by expense and practicality, but this is changing quite rapidly.