Teaching Practices of EFL Teachers and the Enhancement of Creative Thinking Skills among Learners

Development of students' creativity has been a prerequisite for the survival in this fast-changing technological age. Enhancement of learners' higher-order thinking skills should be the main concern of education systems around the world. Therefore, the present study aims to survey EFL teachers' knowledge about creative thinking, the activities they practice to enhance creative thinking skills. It also aims to understand EFL teachers' perceptions about the importance of creative thinking activities in promoting EFL learners' creativity. Moreover, it aims to check if there are significant differences between participants' perceptions due to teaching experience and stage. A total of 56 teachers took part in the present study through responding to a questionnaire developed to achieve the aims. Results revealed EFL teachers' lack of knowledge of creative thinking skills. Nevertheless, they showed that they "Often" practice creative thinking activities in classroom. Results also indicated that these activities were perceived "Important" for the enhancement of EFL learners' creative thinking skills

Application of Using the Activity-Based Costing System on Product Development in Jordan’s Manufacturing Listed Manufacturing Firms

Purpose: The aim of this research was to examine how the Activity-Based Costing system (ABC) affected product development in Jordanian manufacturing public shareholding companies.   Design/methodology/approach: According to the monthly statistical bulletin of the Amman Stock Exchange and the Securities Depository Center, the study population for the year 2022 included (56) Jordanian industrial firms. The questionnaire was distributed to the financial manager, production manager, sales manager, and accountant. In comparison to the total number of circulated questionnaires, (132) were authorized for statistical analysis. Regression analysis and correlation were used to analyze the data and extract results related to the statistical methods used in the study, namely, descriptive statistics, Cronbach's alpha equation, Pearson's correlation coefficient, and linear regression analysis.   Findings: The study revealed that there is a connection between the ABC system and product development in Jordanian industrial companies, where this approach contributes to the improvement and development of products by tracking the stages of production since its inception and concentrating on activities that add value to the company and eliminating activities that do not add any value, naturally improving the competitive position of the company.   Research Practical implications: Hence, one of this study's main findings suggests developing strategies for methodically and practically gathering comprehensive data on the company's operations. The study advised that Jordan's industrial public shareholding companies stay up with recent advancements in the field of activity-based costing.   Originality/value: This study recommends that for the company to stay up with the acceleration in advancement in the areas of activity costs and the employment of latent capabilities for the company's advantage, the study also recommended that the company train its employees to develop their capabilities to serve its strategies. As the findings also reveal that most of the manufacturing firms in Jordan have the infrastructure to adopt and implement the ABC system

Study of NFT-secured Blockchain Technologies for High Security Metaverse Communication

After Covid-19, Metaverse grew in popularity as it encourages remote unique experiences and provides solutions for various businesses such as manufacturing, education, and social media. The Metaverse is a 3D augmented reality world, it is a hybrid of today\u27s social media expanded into three dimensions. Metaverse is a mix of several advanced technologies including Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality, Blockchain, Cryptocurrencies, NFTs (Non-Fungible Token) and Internet of Things (IoT) all based on a cloud infrastructure. However, Metaverse have various security challenges due to the multi-layer nature of it, such as identity verification, secure transactions, and privacy. We have analyzed the Metaverse architecture with layers and security solutions for each layer. The common architecture of Metaverse provides specific secure blockchain protocols, such that the blockchain transactions are monitored and kept in the blockchain for extra security. Therefore, the goals of this research are to (1) break down the architecture of Metaverse and provide security technologies for each layer, (2) to suggest blockchain based security solutions to solve issues related to identity verification, and (3) develop an identification solution using NFTs based on the blockchain protocol which gives each user a unique NFT as form of ID, backed up by smart contracts and Ethereum’s blockchain. In this research we aspire to make the Metaverse applications more accessible by enhancing the security features and making it a safe place for people to interact without the fear of cybercriminals

Writing in the Electronic Era within the frame of Jordanian Law

Writing is one of man’s ways of expression. Writing embraces ideas and thoughts able to be realized. Thus writing is used in contracts to express will of parties. In addition, writing is one of most important means of evidence. Besides, writing is required for some contracts to be contracted. Electronic writing is the one done on a computer. Both electronic and normal writing are similar to express thoughts and ideas and will. The law is equal regarding both normal and electronic writing. However, the condition of writing is achieved if it is performed electronically when it was required for contracting or proving purposes

Impact of Media Planning Application in Crisis Management: A Case Study of Jordanian Civil Defense General Directorate

This study aimed to analyze the impact of media planning application in crisis management: A case study of Jordanian Civil Defense General Directorate. To achieve study objectives the researcher was designed a questionnaire content (40) items, and (32) items were allocated on (4) dimensions of media planning and (8) were allocated to measure the crises management variables in addition to test the tool sincerity and its reliability. After that the study was applied to a sample of (89) chosen as random participants using stratified random sample method among the Jordanian Civil Defense General Directorate employees. The study had reached to the following results: a. The evaluation of Jordanian Civil Defense General Directorate employees for impact of media planning in crisis management dimensions represented by (role of media, media coordination, media plans, and the media) application was (positive) and this means that their evaluation of the impact of media planning in crisis management dimensions application was between (medium and high). b. There exist statistically significant impact at the significance level (α = 0.05) for application of media planning dimensions represented by (media role, media coordination, media plans, and the media) on the crisis management in the Civil Defense General Directorate. And it was the (media plans) dimension is the most influential on the crisis management in the Directorate General of Jordanian Civil Defense. Keywords: Media planning, Media coordination, Crisis management, Directorate General of Jordanian Civil Defense

Enhancing the performance of energy harvesting wireless communications using optimization and machine learning

The motivation behind this thesis is to provide efficient solutions for energy harvesting communications. Firstly, an energy harvesting underlay cognitive radio relaying network is investigated. In this context, the secondary network is an energy harvesting network. Closed-form expressions are derived for transmission power of secondary source and relay that maximizes the secondary network throughput. Secondly, a practical scenario in terms of information availability about the environment is investigated. We consider a communications system with a source capable of harvesting solar energy. Two cases are considered based on the knowledge availability about the underlying processes. When this knowledge is available, an algorithm using this knowledge is designed to maximize the expected throughput, while reducing the complexity of traditional methods. For the second case, when the knowledge about the underlying processes is unavailable, reinforcement learning is used. Thirdly, a number of learning architectures for reinforcement learning are introduced. They are called selector-actor-critic, tuner-actor-critic, and estimator-selector-actor-critic. The goal of the selector-actor-critic architecture is to increase the speed and the efficiency of learning an optimal policy by approximating the most promising action at the current state. The tuner-actor-critic aims at improving the learning process by providing the actor with a more accurate estimation about the value function. Estimator-selector-actor-critic is introduced to support intelligent agents. This architecture mimics rational humans in the way of analyzing available information, and making decisions. Then, a harvesting communications system working in an unknown environment is evaluated when it is supported by the proposed architectures. Fourthly, a realistic energy harvesting communications system is investigated. The state and action spaces of the underlying Markov decision process are continuous. Actor-critic is used to optimize the system performance. The critic uses a neural network to approximate the action-value function. The actor uses policy gradient to optimize the policy\u27s parameters to maximize the throughput

PREVALENCE OF NOMOPHOBIA AND CYBERLOAFING BEHAVIORS AMONG UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS

The main aim of this study was to investigate the levels of nomophobia and cyberloafing among undergraduate students. Participants were 65 undergraduates from the department of English at Najran University. Nomophobia questionnaire (NMP-Q) and the cyberloafing scale were used as main instruments for data collection. The descriptive, inferential and analytical approach was used. Results indicated that undergraduate students had moderate levels of nomophobia and their practice levels of cyberloafing behaviors were somehow high. The most prominent factors that were affecting their nomophobia levels were their inability to keep in touch with their families and friends, anxiety if their families could not contact them once their smartphones are not ready to use, desire to keep checking their smartphones if they could not check them for a while, and battery run out in their smartphones. In accordance with cyberloafing, results showed that posting status updates on social networks, chatting with friends, reading tweets, retweeting the tweets they like, downloading needed applications, and watching videos online were the behaviors that were mostly practiced by the majority of undergraduates. Article visualizations

The Consumer\u27s Right of Withdrawal in Doorstep Selling and Distance Contracts

This study deals with the right of withdrawal, which is one of the legal means to protect consumers in contracts. Due to the rapid developments of marketing techniques used by traders to promote the sales of their products, it has become important for legislators to intervene to protect consumers. Due to such marketing techniques, consumers may not have time to make sure they need the offered products in doorstep selling contracts. The same situation may apply in distance selling contracts where consumers usually do not have the chance to actually see the offered products and may find out late they do not satisfy their needs or are contrary to their expectations at the time of making the contract. As the consumer\u27s right of withdrawal has not been adopted yet under the Jordanian Law, this study examines the sufficiency of the general rules to protect the consumers in such kinds of contract and whether or not there is a need to adopt the consumer\u27s right of withdrawal under the Jordanian Law. To attain this aim, this study explains the significance, justifications, scope, and application of the right of withdrawal. It also distinguishes between this right and other similar rights provided for under the Jordanian Law. It also examines the means of avoiding consumer\u27s abuse of the right of withdrawal. At the end, the study recommends the adoption of the consumer\u27s right of withdrawal under the Jordanian Law