The quality and effectiveness of online teaching-learning are increasingly important with online learning becoming the norm. This cross-sectional survey study aimed to determine the relationship between first-year polytechnic students' perception of chemistry asynchronous lectures and their learning performance. Their perception was determined using the community of inquiry survey instrument and learning performance was obtained based on their end-of-semester test results. Although students' perceptions of the asynchronous lectures were positive, results showed that the association of their perception to learning performance is positive but weak. Through the survey, students also shared features of asynchronous lectures that helped with their learning. The practical guidelines shared in this study will help educators develop asynchronous lectures leading to meaningful learning experiences for students.