**1. Introduction**

Even before the outbreak of the pandemic, Internet Distance Learning Platforms (DLS) were used in all universities of Montenegro. Learning materials on the platforms included various educational content—powerpoint presentations, work plans, documents, notes, etc. which students could explore at their own discretion and at their own pace. The platforms were intended primarily for students who, due to their employment, were not able to follow live lectures.

With the lockdown in the spring of 2020, all the universities were forced to switch to full online model, which ensured the continuity of most educational activities. Therefore, the DLS platforms completely revived and became available to all students.

However, as the lockdown continued, they were found insufficient to enable learning to take place, thus it became necessary for teachers to provide live lectures via video conferencing platforms. Thus the Montenegrin universities introduced synchronous, real-time online classes with teaching personnel and students working together in the same session [1] using virtual meeting platforms, such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams or Viber.

In Montenegro, there were two types of interaction in online education: Synchronous and Asynchronous.

Synchronous courses are live online courses that are conducted in a live learning environment creating a platform for students and teachers to interact in the same session together [2]. Students are required to log in and participate in class at a specific time each week. Live learning environments give students the chance to ask questions and get answers in real-time as if they were raising their hands in a lecture room. They can submit questions for teachers during their lecturing which increases the scope of learning because students can be exposed to different viewpoints. Real-time interaction may spark a debate or discussion, taking the level of depth of a topic further than the teacher's original presentation would. Maintaining a sense of community and personal connection with a teacher is a big motivational factor for students to attend class each day, which rarely happens in an asynchronous course format.

Asynchronous courses are made up of prebuilt course components (materials, presentations, lectures, notes, curriculum), posted on platforms allowing students to complete them at the time and pace of their choosing, and do not include a live video lecture component. While this style of learning is convenient and seems empowering, there are many risks to asynchronous courses. Students cannot contact their teachers very quickly—certainly not in real-time, and because of that they can feel very isolated. Teachers also typically simply do no more than assign readings and homework questions. Without the oversight and consistent encouragement of the teacher, students have to hold themselves accountable for their progress. In time their continued effort weakens and engagement stays low.

The universities of Montenegro used previously known university platforms for asynchronous online teaching (18.3% response rate), while for synchronous online teaching, they used external tools for video conference calls, the most common of which were Zoom (73.3% response rate), Microsoft Teams (18.3% response rate), Viber (1.7% response rate) and Google meet (0.8% response rate), while a total of 5.8% of the respondents used other tools to teach online classes.

Whether synchronous or asynchronous, new ways of teaching have expanded the boundaries of learning beyond physical lecture theaters [3].
