Compatible with global sustainable development report, 2016 edition, and vision 2030, Saudi Arabia recognized the importance of technology in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This paper aims to measure the self-perception of digital skills among students in Saudi Arabia’s higher education system to understand how they were influenced before and amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic, we started a project to study the self-perception of digital skills among Saudi Arabia university students (group A). A total of 469 students participated in this research. The validity and reliability of the employed scale were tested with first-order confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The differences between the two groups (before and amid the pandemic) were tested through the Mann–Whitney U test. The results for group A (N = 232 students) showed a higher self-perception of their digital skills. In March 2020, amid the pandemic, Saudi Arabia closed and shifted to technology-based teaching like many other countries worldwide. After students’ return to universities in 2021, an evaluation of how the students perceived their own digital skills was again conducted (group B). The results for group B (N = 237 students) demonstrated a lower level of confidence in their own digital abilities. Comparing two groups (A and B), after the educational course was administered, group A (prior to COVID-19) had greater self-perceptions of digital skills than group B (amid COVID-19). Students’ perceptions of their own digital skills have been negatively impacted as a result of the pandemic situation caused by COVID-19. The collected evidence suggests that there is a difference, and that this difference is statistically significant. As a result of the substantial relationship between self-perception of digital skills and how students deal with reality based on their own self-perception, Saudi Arabia higher education ministry shifted teaching methods to be based on technology. Other significant findings and their implications for practice and theory were reported in this study. Finally, limitations and prospects for future research were also elaborated.

In July 2022, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the rapidly spreading monkeypox outbreak a global health emergency; in the future, this may cause the closure of higher education institutions and a shift toward digital learning. As before, specifically in March 2020, the WHO expressed that COVID-19 is a worldwide pandemic. This transformation was accompanied by the widespread adoption of mobiles and their applications in learning with organised or non-organised forms. Although many articles have recorded the importance and effectiveness of mobile learning in higher education, other articles have indicated the weak utilisation of mobile learning amid the COVID-19 pandemic, especially by university educators (UEs). In addition, these articles often focus on the opportunities, challenges, and weaknesses of mobile learning amid COVID-19, but few studies have handled the acceptance of the UEs to adopt a mobile learning approach amid COVID-19 by the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT). This article’s main contribution is extending the (UTAUT) model in context and reviewing the acceptance of the adoption of mobiles and their applications in education as an approach amid global health emergencies, i.e., COVID-19 and monkeypox. The data were gathered from university educators (N = 392) in Saudi Arabia. The hypotheses were evaluated with data that were analysed using structural equation modelling (SEM). The results demonstrated that six of the eight hypotheses had high and significant effects on behaviour intention (performance expectancy (PE), effort expectancy (EF), social influence (SI), facilitating conditions (FC), self-efficacy (SE), and users’ awareness (UA)). Two of the eight factors have insignificant or negative impacts on behaviour intention (users’ perceptions (UP) and technology challenges (TC)), which need an additional review by policymakers, practitioners, mobile learning providers, and investigators looking to develop efficient strategies concerning mobile learning.

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SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) has disrupted university education and turned it into distance learning for at least one semester in many countries, including the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). However, there was an issue with university students’ cognitive load at this critical time, because education totally stopped for about a month and then resumed remotely. This research draws on the cognitive load theory, particularly the extraneous load, to develop an instructional design model called ADIDAS. The model includes six stages, namely: analyse (A), design (D), improve (I), do (D), Assess (A), and Share (S). Thirty-four experts in instructional technology models have reviewed the ADIDAS model in Arab university contexts, producing a consensus about its suitability for use in distance learning amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Following the consensus of the experts, the model was applied to a sample of 527 students at King Faisal University, KSA. The results confirmed significant statistical differences with a very large effect size in relation to the attitude towards synchronous digital learning (SDL) and cognitive load pre and post ADIDAS. Students had a positive attitude towards SDL and a low cognitive load during the educational process pre adoption of the ADIDAS model, compared to post ADIDAS. The current research results have numerous implications for post the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in Arab countries and similar contexts.

The spread of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) has made online learning more common worldwide than ever before. However, recent research showed that higher-education students in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) were exposed to cyber threats and attacks during online learning that affected their attitudes toward online learning, despite a high level of cybersecurity infrastructure and digital capabilities in KSA universities. There were several calls for enhancing higher-education students’ cyber-hygiene awareness to improve their cybersecurity behaviours, develop healthy cyber-hygiene habits, and ensure positive attitudes toward online learning amid COVID-19. The current research developed an integrated cyber-hygiene model for improving this behaviour entitled the quadruple “E” approach (QEA), which includes four stages: educate (E1), explore (E2), execute (E3), and evaluate (E4). The research compares students’ cyber-hygiene behaviour and attitude toward online learning pre- and post-implementation of QEA. A sample of 446 bachelor students distributed between females and males in four public KSA universities was adopted during the academic year 2021. The results showed statistically significant differences in students’ cyber-hygiene behaviour and attitude toward online learning pre- and post-adoption of the QEA. Students showed more positive cyber-hygiene behaviour and attitudes toward online learning post-QEA adoption than pre-QEA implementation. In addition, female students have more positive behaviour and attitudes than their male counterparts post the adoption of QEA. The current research stimulates positive cyber-hygiene behaviour and enhances attitudes toward online learning in universities, which have implications for the sustainability of KSA higher education, particularly in relation to SDGs 4 and 10.