Some countries have replaced face-to-face education with distance education in response to the coronavirus. This form of distance education differs from conventional distance education: being suddenly, unreadily and forcefully implemented, invading schooling and constituting a globally discussed phenomenon. This article builds a conceptual framework for this education, addressing the question: What are the ramifications of implementing distance education amid coronavirus? It targets Arab culture, although globalisation and the media may have harmonised any substantial cross-cultural variations. Various ramifications have emerged through analysing social-media posts, online classes and interviews. Concerning social and cultural ramifications, some may, for ideological considerations, tolerate, support, reject or subvert this education through campaigning, rumour and humour. Regarding pedagogical and psychological ramifications, unreadiness and incompetence may compromise education. Additionally, staying home may entail problems (pandemic-related stress, anxiety, depression, domestic violence, divorce and pregnancy), preventing students and teachers from learning and teaching. Concerning procedural and logistical ramifications, some Arab contexts may be digitally readier than non-Arab contexts. Additionally, stakeholders may intensify efforts to profit, ethically or unethically, from the over-demand for this education. Distance education is one of several social distancing initiatives, which Arabs have welcomed despite their well-rooted social closeness, bonding to debond, forming unorthodox ‘distanceship’.

No abstract

Despite a plethora of research on students’ experiences of electronic (e) learning amid COVID-19 in higher education institutions (HEI), limited research has recognized the differences between students based on their gender. This research aims to examine the differences between students regarding their e-learning experiences amid COVID-19, especially in a gender-segregated culture where female students do not have full access to conventional learning as their male counterparts do, albeit they often have more access to technology-based learning. A total of 1200 online questionnaires were analyzed from students (600 male and 600 female) in public universities in Saudi Arabia, which tend to use Blackboard to sustain their communication with students and e-learning amid COVID-19. The results of structural model and multi-group analysis using AMOS supported all the research hypotheses. The results showed that the path coefficients and significant values were higher among female students than among male students. Additionally, the explanatory power of the male structural model regarding the e-learning experience (0.58) was lower than that of the structural model of female students (0.85), reflecting a higher explanatory power to explain the e-learning experience. The research findings have numerous theoretical and practical implications, especially in gender-segregated cultures.

Although ambiguity in written, oral, and visual communication is inevitably present across all human societies and cultures, variation among these societies and cultures occurs in the sociocultural causes of its existence. This study helps formulate a conceptual framework that enables the enrichment of knowledge about this variation. It takes a first step by highlighting Arab-specific reasons behind ambiguity in academic writings in humanities and social sciences. The investigation entails thematically analysing the thoughts of 905 Arabs in academia. The findings point to a ‘doing-the-minimum’ mentality, whereby one may act hastily and impatiently and do just enough for one’s manuscript to be published in any journal, thereby rushing into publication while skimping on quality and diminishing attention to manuscript clarity. Another finding is the ambition for rewards that Arab institutions assign to publication, whereby one may boost their publication records to reap these rewards, resulting in high quantity while sacrificing quality (e.g., clarity). Another reason discovered is the conceptualisation of writing as a formulaic and ‘fill-in-the-blanks’ task (templates to be completed and, thus, manuscripts to be constructed), instilling a focus on technicality instead of cognitive depth and clarity. An additional reason found is the passive application of foreign theories and conceptual frameworks without subjecting them to critical reflection, reapplying foreign surveys and mimicking survey-based articles, thereby making their articles culturally shallow, suffer from cultural irrelevance, and thus, ambiguity. This is along with the integration of poetry (wherein ambiguity is culturally viewed as desirable and showing poets to be sophisticated) into Arabs’ daily social and educational lives and mindsets, encouraging the acceptability of ambiguity as a possible linguistic quality in scholarly writing as well. The social context lacks direct, explicit, and free articulation, encouraging one to resort to roundabout ways of composing their manuscripts, thus, making the manuscripts fall into ambiguity.

Universities can make significant gains in two very important areas: food security and environmental sustainability. However, the results will not come by themselves, as policies and educational and learning activities can contribute to these gains. The current study aimed to explore the role of universities in enhancing the sustainability of food security, which is necessary to lay the scientific foundations for the universities’ approaches in the service of development. The current study was based on the opinions of 272 faculty members from Saudi public universities. The data were collected using a developed questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive statistics. The results of the study showed that the level of a university’s role was high in promoting the sustainability of food security in the fields of education and learning and policies and regulations. It also showed that there were no differences in the study sample’s estimations of this role according to gender. In addition, there were differences in the levels of the role of universities in achieving sustainable food security between faculties, with the humanities in favor of this role. The authors of this study recommend that universities adopt an educational policy that includes specific measures that support the sustainability of food security and are linked to the state’s general plans in this field, as well as being reflected in the courses and activities they provide to students.