PurposeThis study aimed to investigate the learning strategies adopted by Saudi university students and explore the differences in the use of learning strategies due to gender and academic achievement.Design/methodology/approachThe study utilized a cross-sectional descriptive analytic approach and adopted the brief “ACRA-C” learning strategies scale. The study sample consisted of 365 students enrolled at a Saudi university selected using the random clustering technique.FindingsThe study revealed that microstrategies and study habits are the most preferred strategies by Saudi university students. Statistically significant differences in the use of learning strategies were found between male and female students in favor of the female students. The study also found that learning strategies are a significant predictor of students' academic achievement.Research limitations/implicationsThe study was limited to one college in one Saudi university. Future studies should use larger samples from different colleges and universities in Saudi Arabia and incorporate a variety of measures of academic achievement, such as students' grades in specific courses rather than the overall grade average.Originality/valueWhile there are a number of studies that investigated the use of learning strategies by students, there is a lack of such research in the higher education context of Saudi Arabia. Hence, the current study contributes to closing this gap in the literature by looking at the use of learning strategies by university students in Saudi Arabia and the relationship between strategy use, gender and academic achievement.

The purpose of this quantitative study is to investigate middle school students" experiences with gaming in Makkah City in Saudi Arabia. This study described the current condition of video game usage and compared that depth of usage to current academic grade point average (GPA). Also, it showed the difference between gender, and students" age and described the types of video games and elements that attract students to play video games. There were 201 middle schools students from Makkah who participated in this study. The study found there was a significant relationship between hours spent playing video games and students" GPAs. They also showed a significant difference between gender in hours spent playing video games and that there was no significant statistical difference between the middle schools students" ages in hours spent playing video games. Additionally, male students were perceived to have higher positive attitudes toward video games than females. Finally, the results suggested that there are three underlying factors (competition, discover, and knowledge) that attract students to play video games.

The study aimed to enrich the national online learning context and settle the skeptical arguments regarding the student's attitude toward online examination and misconduct among them. A cross-sectional approach is used, and an online survey distributed over the sample of the study consists of 762 higher education learners in Saudi universities. The results of the study showed those positive students' attitudes toward online examination, reveals no significant differences exist on the dependent variables between the different genders and degrees, and significant differences were evident on the dependent variables related to study year and college.

As the online learning environment continues to proliferate and dominate higher education learning systems, more investigation is required to explicate the adoption rate of these systems and the factors influencing students’ adoption. Previous research has demonstrated the learning environment role in self-regulation learning and the association between self-regulation learning and the dropout rate (Kim et al., 2017). But yet there is rare research addressing whether self-regulation learning skills are associated with online learning adoption. This study explicates how self-regulation learning skills associate with the online learning adoption level of university students. A sample of 688 students enrolled in Saudi Electronic University answered a self-administrated questionnaire distributed via their students’ emails. The questionnaire consists of two parts: self-regulation skills and online learning adoption. Chi-square analysis reveals statistically significant positive associations between the overall score of self-regulation skills, goal setting, environment structuring, time management, help-seeking, use of self-regulation strategies, self-evolution and online learning adoption. The results accommodate with the literature that a higher level of self-regulation skills fosters openness to experience. The study recommends fostering students’ self-regulation skills to increase their readiness for online learning environments.   Keywords: Learning environment, online learning adoption, self-regulation learning, time management.