University education has historically occurred in face-to-face settings such as the traditional campus lecture hall. However, university teaching has increasingly been instructed online, especially since the recent lockdowns that took place during the COVID19 pandemic. During the pandemic period, many post-secondary institutions took to online teaching formats which often included asynchronous lessons provided by pre-recorded video or synchronous lessons conducted over video conferencing software. Unfortunately, online courses potentially limit the amount of communication possible between student and professor and therefore the engagement between the two may have been limited. Due to this, concerns have been expressed that students may feel more distanced from their professors and the educational environment, potentially lowering their satisfaction levels, hampering their course performance, and limiting their felt sense of presence in the learning environment. The current research aims to investigate means of addressing such concerns by comparing: 1) learning vs. satisfaction outcomes, 2) synchronous vs. asynchronous instruction, and 3) the use of virtual reality (VR) in online instruction, discussed in turn
