Participation-Sensitive Convergence and the Fragment First, Converge Later Pattern in Asynchronous Online Learning: A Topological Analysis Across 22 OULAD Courses

Asynchronous online learning offers temporal flexibility at a structural cost: learning communities tend to fragment rather than cohere. $β_0$, the number of disconnected behavioral clusters from Zigzag Persistent Homology, serves as a cohort-level indicator of this structure. Two questions remained