Objective This study was conducted to investigate the possible relationship between students' use of technology and their achievements in physiology courses at five health colleges of the University of Dammam. Methods This study was conducted on 231 students studying physiology during their 2nd year at one of five health colleges (Medicine, Dental, Clinical Pharmacy, Applied Medical Sciences, and Nursing). An online survey was sent to the students regarding their use of technology and the devices they use. The Pearson correlation coefficient and descriptive statistics were implemented to study the frequency of, and relationship between, technology and learning achievement in physiology courses. Results This study observed a significant relationship between students' use of technology and their achievements in health colleges. The study also demonstrated that the most-used devices are laptops (50%) and phones (42%) followed by tablets (7%) and desktop computers (0.5%). This paper reports on the results of the survey, documenting what was revealed regarding how technology is used among students at the health colleges, as well as the important benefits on their achievements during physiology courses. Conclusions Technology usage might produce comparatively more significant increases in academic achievement than would non-usage. Further research is warranted to examine its effects.

This paper investigates the performance of holistic and analytic scoring rubrics in the context of EFL writing. Specifically, the paper compares EFL students' scores on a writing task using holistic and analytic scoring rubrics. The data for the study was collected from 30 participants attending an English undergraduate program in a Yemeni university. The authors used psychometric statistics (Inter-rater Agreement, Intra-Class Correlation, t-test and ANOVA) to compare the performance of the students on the two rubrics in accurately diagnosing students' strengths and weaknesses and placing them along a continuum of foreign language writing proficiency. The raters of the writing samples included three experienced instructors working at the same department. The results of correlating the students and raters' holistic and analytic scores and of examining the variations among the correlations provide evidence for the reliability and validity of both rubrics. Analytic scoring rubrics, however, placed the examinees along a more clearly defined scale of writing ability, and are, therefore, more reliable than holistic scoring rubric instruments for evaluating EFL writing for achievement purposes than holistic scoring rubric.

The purpose of this study was to determine what factors other than individual preferences affect undergraduate students’ learning style preferences, if learning style is influenced by gender, age, college affiliation and/or type of activities. A total of 185 students from the University of Bahrain, Bahrain, participated in an online VARK (Visual, Aural, Read/Write and Kinesthetic) for younger people questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of 16 items about learning style preferences and three about participants’ demographics. The results showed that participants generally preferred multi-modular learning style with both kinesthetic and visual learning styling being most preferred while Reading/Writing was the least preferred. Furthermore, there were statistically significant differences between students learning styles based on age and gender, but it was a moderate difference. What mostly affected the preferences, however, was the type of activities or tasks, something which in turn resulted in some difference among colleges. This suggests that VARK preferences need to be related to activity type rather than be observed at individual reference. Recommendations were provided at the end of the study.

One of the most effective ways for teachers to ensure that their students have obtained the specified learning outcomes is to provide them with constructive feedback. If students are not given the optimal feedback and are not asked to re-do the work, teachers will not know whether the educational goals have been met. This study aimed to investigate whether Bahrain Teachers College students receive constructive feedback from their teachers. It explored both teachers' and students' perceptions about the importance of giving and receiving constructive feedback and how feedback may improve academic achievements. The sample consisted of 200 students and 37 faculty members representing the different academic divisions of the Bahrain Teachers College, majors and year of study. The results showed that students and instructors agree on the importance of providing constructive feedback as a crucial tool to the process of teaching and learning. A significant difference was found between students and their instructors' perceptions on whether constructive feedback is provided in their classrooms. Some recommendations are provided for teachers on how to reinforce students' learning by giving constrictive feedback and close the gap by seeking students' satisfaction with their learning.