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Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to create a "go-to-guide" of best practices in the creation of asynchronous courses. Due to the global pandemic, millions of students around the world transitioned from in-class instruction to online programs, which ranged from completely synchronous classrooms to completely asynchronous classrooms. Students were forced to learn how to engage within an online classroom environment with minimal notice and instructors were abruptly thrusted into a different operational environment, with many required to construct educational ecosystems in an unfamiliar and digitized interface. This led to several actions and the utilization of a multitude of different teaching techniques, many of which were poorly implemented. Design/methodology/approach: Key words, "Asynchronous learning", "Learning", "Feedback", "Online Instruction", and "Classroom Design" were searched in online data bases (Google Scholar, PubMed, EBSCO and Data Base of Open Access Journals). These then were read by the authorial team and authoritative papers were selected by the team based on the frequency of utilization by other papers in the field and the utility of these papers for the design of asynchronous courses. Findings: This paper explores asynchronous learning from the perspective of how instructional science and learning science can be applied to create the best classroom for both pupil and instructor. Originality/value: It looks to provide a go-to-guide for best practices in asynchronous learning and the development of K-12 classrooms, graduate and medical school classrooms and finally continuous medical education classrooms. Finally, this guide looks to facilitate the development of master instructors through statements on how to properly provide feedback to students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of suitable three-dimensional matrices for the maintenance of cellular viability and differentiation is critical for applications in tissue engineering and cell biology. To this end, gel matrices of different proportions of alginate/elastin/polythylene glycol (Alg/Ela/PEG) were prepared and examined. The composite matrix membranes were evaluated for their porous scaffold using SEM, enzymatic degradation and water content. An equal blend of Alg/Ela with a ratio of Alg/Ela: PEG (7: 3) was selected for fabricating Alg/Ela/PEG scaffolds for this study. The Alg/Ela/PEG membranes fabricated at 20°C and -20°C had a mean surface pore size of 35-45 μm. However, their ultrastructures had shown bigger pore structures (60-75 μm) compared to their surface. It is interesting to note that the membranes of Alg/Ela/PEG prepared at 20°C had larger ultrastructural pores than that of membranes prepared at -20°C. Further, the SEM studies revealed that in the absence of PEG the composite membranes of Alg/Ela formed with less porous structures. The water content of membranes prepared at 20°C was higher with Alg/Ela/PEG (61.6 ± 4.8%), compared to Alg/Ela (49.9 ± 0.3%). The enzymatic degradation and water content studies also revealed that the membranes fabricated at -20°C had high water uptake and low enzymatic degradation, as that of the membranes prepared at 20°C. In other words the larger pore structured membranes had less water content and high degradation profile. This study proposes that this novel composite matrix produces a hierarchical structure that is useful for generating tissue scaffolds for repairing the failing cardiac muscles. However, more detailed investigations with cytocompatibility studies are needed to find applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]