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In April 2012, the federal higher education system of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) embarked on the path to national adoption of the Apple iPad as the educational computing platform. The core objective of the adoption was improved learning and degree completion among students in academic programs in support of national development goals. From the National Higher Education development document, the goals are to- "Achieve individualized student learning consistent with “Post PC Era” trends;- Introduce of challenge-based learning or other progressive classroom pedagogy;- Increased student participation and motivation;- Enhance opportunities for cross-institutional collaboration between faculty members;- Increase faculty collaboration through cross-institutional repositories of learning objects; and- Facilitate the migration to e-books." The UAE has three institutions encompassing 20 campuses serving 50,000 students in its federal higher education: UAE University provides a research-intensive experience; Zayed University, a liberal arts, comprehensive environment; and HCT, professional programs. The HCT iPad program was envisioned by HCT’s Chancellor, His Excellency Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan, Minister for Higher Education and Scientific Research, and was led by the Vice Chancellor Dr Tayeb Kamali. This program builds on his history of entrepreneurship and e-learning initiatives, such as integrated wireless campus infrastructures, online learning and knowledge-management programmes, Dr Kamali has successfully built a cutting-edge institution that provides UAE youth with technological skills and the ability to innovate, while driving job creation in the region.

The purpose of this scholarship of teaching and learning was to define and assess the level of self-regulation skills undergraduate students possess. Participants completed the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ). Through the analysis of the MSLQ, students reported having high expectations for themselves. Yet, students were found to not use cognitive learning skills and self-regulation practices consistently, which suggests a low level of self-regulation. Subsequently, students exhibit maladaptive and counterproductive behaviors like procrastination and disengagement. From this exploratory study a number of future studies were identified that have the potential for increasing the level of self-regulation in higher education. KeywordsSelf-Regulation, Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire, Self-Efficacy, Procrastination, Student Engagement Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License. The purpose of this scholarship of teaching and learning was to define and assess the level of self-regulation skills undergraduate students possess. Participants completed the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ). Through the analysis of the MSLQ, students reported having high expectations for themselves. Yet, students were found to not use cognitive learning skills and self-regulation practices consistently, which suggests a low level of self-regulation. Subsequently, students exhibit maladaptive and counterproductive behaviors like procrastination and disengagement. From this exploratory study a number of future studies were identified that have the potential for increasing the level of self-regulation in higher education. Self-Regulated Learning as a Critical Attribute for Successful Teaching and Learning

Communicating through the internet has quickly evolved from email, listservs, discussion boards, instant messaging, blogging and now to podcasting. Many of these communication tools have been exploited by the educational community and the latter appears to be no exception. This paper will share background on blogs and podcasts as well as real-world samples, academic examples and a plan to use podcasts as a teaching and learning tool.

This study reflects on the development and implementation of mid-term oral examinations in large-scale lecture courses at a large, public research university; specifically, this work examines the implications of oral exams for fostering student engagement and concept-based comprehension in addition to institutional and course commitments to diversity. This research traces the development of an effective method for administering oral midterms and assesses the advantages and challenges of utilizing oral examinations for student assessment by detailing student feedback and TAs' reactions to administering this examination format. Findings reveal that oral examinations provided a chance for students to develop skills through a different means of engaging material and to foster a concept-based learning approach. In a discussion of student and TA reactions, this paper reports a predominantly positive assessment by both groups while noting the challenges and disadvantages of this format.