The Mediating Role of Medical Students’ Attitudes towards Distance Education in the Relationship between E-Learning Styles and Academic Achievements

The COVID-19 global outbreak is a growing concern for continuing medical education. The COVID-19 pandemic has led many medical education programs to be carried out online in the world. This research aims to examine the mediating effect of attitudes towards distance education in explaining the relationship between e-learning styles and academic achievements of students in medical education conducted online. The research was carried out on 148 students studying in a six-year medical program at a university. In the research, students completed the e-learning styles scale, attitude scale towards distance education, and online questionnaire include some demographic information via Moodle-based Learning Management System (LMS). In addition, end of year grade point averages of the students was also used within the scope of the research. In the research, the direct effect of e-learning styles on the grade point average and an indirect effect on attitude towards distance education were tested with the mediation model. It was determined that gender is not a significant variable on e-learning styles and attitudes towards distance education. It was observed that students with higher daily internet usage times had higher attitudes towards distance education. In the research, it was observed that the attitude towards distance education has a mediating effect on the relationship between e-learning style and academic success. It is important to consider e-learning styles and attitudes towards distance education to increase academic success in online medical courses and provide better learning outcomes.

Introduction
It is known that the global epidemic of COVID-19 negatively affects many sectors. These unprecedented adverse effects have interrupted the health system of many countries around the world (Hall et al., 2020). One of the reasons for these failures in the system is the lack of sufficient health personnel during the pandemic process. The fact that there are some problems in continuing education in the medical faculties that train health personnel in this process made this situation more complicated. Although the problems in higher education programs in the COVID-19 epidemic and even the interruption of education are considered reasonable, it is important to make health education sustainable. Due to the global epidemic, we are in the need to train future doctors have never been this much focus (Rose, 2020). In previous pandemics, such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), there was a temporary interruption in education and training services. During the SARS outbreak, there have been disruptions in education and training in China and Canada. China has decided to discontinue formal education (Ahmed, Allaf, & Elghazaly, 2020). The COVID-19 outbreak appears to have similar disruptions. However, in addition to hoping that these failures with COVID-19 are temporary, the possibility that the epidemic may occur again in the autumn period is obscuring the process (Sherbino & Atzema 2004). Due to the restrictions on maintaining physical distance all over the world, ways to adapt quickly to different education and training methods have been sought to eliminate the problems in education (Alvin et al., 2020;Nassar et al., 2020). Since medical education is practice-oriented, it has been tried to find solutions for how to do education in faculties (Rose, 2020;Ahmed, Allaf, & Elghazaly, 2020). Many medical students worldwide are trained in physical settings for problem-solving or discussions in small groups during the first 12 to 18 months of teaching. In the final stages of the teaching process, they have experience by participating in activities such as advanced clinical rotations and academic projects (Rose, 2020). In this regard, it can be said that the teaching activities to be conducted for medical faculties differ from other programs.
In Turkey, as in many countries in the world, it has been decided to provide education and training in medical schools by distance education (Dikmen & Bahçeci, 2020). Teaching activities to be carried out in this process can significantly change the way education and training of future doctors (Rose, 2020). For this reason, it is important to make some arrangements and improvements to increase the quality of education and training activities in online learning environments. Determining students' online learning styles can be seen as an important variable to provide rich and quality educational content to students who are alone in online environments (Gülbahar & Alper, 2014). In cases where the student is aware of his/her characteristics and understands his/her experiences, he/she will adapt more easily to the learning activities carried out with the teaching process (Gülbahar & Alper, 2014). Research in the literature (Felder & Henriques, 1995;John, Shahzadi, & Iqbal-Khan, 2016;Elban, 2018) highlights the positive relationship between learning styles and academic achievement. Also, Whiteley (2007) emphasizes that technology can enable the preparation of content suitable for different learning styles since it produces a wide variety of options day by day. Research in the literature (Fahy & Ally, 2005;Offir, Bezalel, & Barth, 2007) states that designing the electronic course contents produced for online environments according to the learning styles preferred by students will increase academic achievement. Similarly, Hamada, Rashad, and Darwesh (2011) states that personalized teaching approaches are important to students' motivation and academic achievement. Kia, Aliapour, and Ghaderi (2009) observed that students in social, auditory, verbal, and individual learning styles in e-learning environments are more successful than students with logical and physical styles. According to Beadles and Lowery (2007), the learning styles of students who prefer the traditional learning environment and e-learning environment are different from each other. It is stated that these differences may arise from many variables. For example, in online environments, students are expected to have some software and hardware skills and to be a little competent in using technology. In traditional environments, variables such as classroom communication, self-control, internal and external motivation are considered important in terms of learning. In terms of all these differences, it is stated that (Dikmen, 2020) learning styles can be seen as important in solving at least some of the questions about determining in which environment students can learn better.
The rapid transition to distance education in the course of the COVID-19 global epidemic brought along some problems. Distance education tools give students a different feeling of the learning experience. In this process, negative feelings or technical problems that may occur in students can make it difficult for the student to focus, participate, and motivate the learning activities. Apart from designing and configuring an online course appropriately, there are a variety of tools that can be used to promote student engagement and interaction in online learning environments. In addition to all these, one of the variables that facilitate the effectiveness of distance education is the attitude of students (Junior et al., 2018). The concept of attitude means "aptus" in Latin, meaning "ready for action" (Arkonaç, 2005). Tuncer and Bahadır (2017) regard the attitude as an important psychological variable for the individual to perform a behavior with its cognitive, affective, and behavioral dimensions. The positive attitudes of students towards distance education will make the content conveyed more meaningful. Attitudes make the behavior easier; therefore, increasing positive attitudes will increase the commitment of the student to academic development (Junior et al., 2018). While the positive attitudes of the individual increase the achievement in the learning process, it is stated that negative attitudes can cause failure (Kazazoğlu, 2013). According to Falowo (2007), the prejudices that occur due to technical problems, insufficiency of materials, and communication disruption in the online environment cause individuals to have a negative perspective towards distance education. It is reported that this situation negatively affects students' learning and academic achievement. Researchers conducted (Erdogan, Bayram, Deniz, 2008;Konting, 1990) show that the individual's attitude towards the course of learning is an important variable in terms of academic achievement.
In this study, it was aimed to test the structural equation model for the relationship between the e-learning styles of medical faculty students and grade point average (GPA) in the COVID-19 process. In addition, the mediating role of the attitude towards distance education in the relationship between e-learning styles and GPA will be examined. The model for the purpose of the research is presented in Figure 1. When the literature is analyzed, it is seen that there are more than seventy learning style models (Coffield, Moseley, Hall, & Ecclestone, 2004). It can be said that many of these models are taken into consideration in classroom environments where traditional education is carried out. With the COVID 19 epidemic, interruption of formal education worldwide has brought to mind the availability of learning styles online. Whiteley (2007) states that online teaching technologies can offer various possibilities for different learning styles. Chen (2019), Li, Yin, Zhang, and David (2019) emphasize that students' learning styles can be important for academic achievement in online learning environments. Besides all these situations, while Uzuntiryaki, Bilgin, and Geban (2003) stated that learning style has a strong effect on academic achievement, Atalay and Ay (2016) stated that learning style is not a significant variable on academic achievement. Due to the uncertainties and contradictory findings in the literature, the findings of this research can be seen as important in determining the relationship between e-learning styles and academic achievement. Also, in the literature, e-learning styles in terms of medical education will be discussed for the first time with this research. The e-learning styles scale to be used in the research was developed by Gülbahar and Alper (2014) by making use of the Kolb (1976), Felder and Soloman (1991), Felder and Silverman (1988) and Grasha-Reichmann learning style scales. The scale consists of seven different learning styles. These are called Audio-visual Learning, Verbal Learning, Active Learning, Social Learning, Independent Learning, Logical Learning, and Intuitive Learning. Students in the Audio-visual Learning style prefer learning materials such as images, paintings and cartoons, and vocalized electronic books in online environments. The students in the Verbal Learning style have a wide vocabulary. These students think that they learn best by reading. They enjoy working with learning materials consisting of written documents (Word, pdf, etc.) in online environments. Students in the Active Learning style prefer learning by playing games and simulations. These students enjoy exploring and researching as well as thinking that they learn by doing best by experiencing. Students in the Social Learning style like to participate in interactive group activities. They care about the interaction with the instructor and other students in online environments. These students prefer to participate in simultaneous activities such as chat, virtual classroom, and whiteboard application. Students in the Independent Learning style enjoy working on their own. These students prefer different time activities such as forums, blogs, and wikis in online environments. Students in the Logical Learning style learn best by thinking in detail. They enjoy solving puzzles and playing logic games, and also their problem-solving skills are high. They are realistic, and if they understand the parts, they also understand the whole. Students in the Intuitive Learning style think that they learn best by associating them with their feelings. They prefer random processes to hierarchical processes; therefore, it is important to offer different resources and options in online environments (Gülbahar & Alper, 2014).
In the literature, no studies investigating the relationship between the e-learning styles of students in online courses and GPA during the COVID-19 process. In this context, findings from the research may contribute to the literature in terms of medical education. In addition to these situations, it is thought that the research can make a unique contribution to the literature in terms of examining the mediating role of the attitude towards distance education in the relationship between e-learning styles and grade point average. In line with the general purpose of the research, the e-learning styles of medical faculty students and their attitudes towards distance education were compared in terms of some independent variables. One of these variables is the gender of the students. The perspective on gender and the value provisions in this subject differ from time to time and from society to society. Therefore, it is seen that the effect of the gender variable is constantly investigated when an action is evaluated in scientific studies (Dikmen & Çağlar, 2015). Accordingly, the question "Do the e-learning styles and attitudes towards distance education differ statistically among the medical students according to their gender?" was being examined as a sub-problem in the research. Another independent variable considered in the scope of the research is the daily internet usage times of medical students. Experience affects the individual's opinion on whether he/she can achieve any job at the desired level (Bandura, 1992). Therefore, the daily internet usage times of medical school students may affect their online experience, e-learning styles, and their attitudes towards distance education. Accordingly, the question "Do the e-learning styles and attitudes towards distance education of medical students differ statistically according to the daily internet usage times? was among the sub-problems of the research. In addition, in the research, it will be tried to determine for which purpose the medical students use the internet the most.

Method
The research was carried out according to the relational screening model, which is one of the quantitative research models. In this context, the mediation role of medical students' attitudes towards distance education in the relationship between e-learning styles and grade point average was examined. The research was carried out on 148 students studying in a six-year medical program at a university. During the COVID-19 outbreak period (for 12 weeks), all courses at the medical school were taught exclusively through distance education using the Moodle-based Learning Management System (LMS). The students with different learning styles were divided into different groups in the learning management system. Teaching materials were prepared according to the dominant e-learning styles of all students and uploaded to the LMS. Students were invited to fill out the measurement tools used in the research online via the LMS. The scales were left open for last five weeks of the academic year. Two reminders were sent to students via LMS to complete and send the scales only once.
End of year exams were conducted online through the LMS. The score that medical students obtained from the end of year exams constitute the grade average point. For this reason, the academic success of the students was based on the GPA of the period they were in.

Ethical Approval
This research received ethical approval from the University Research Ethics Board. All participants provided written informed consent, before participating in the research.

Measures
As the data collection tool, the e-Learning Styles Scale developed by Gülbahar and Alper (2014), the Distance Education Attitude Scale developed by Ağır, Gür, and Okçu (2007)  According to the responses of the participants, the dimension with the highest average score among 7 different e-learning styles is accepted as the dominant e-learning style. A five-point Likert-type grading, 'Almost always', 'Often', 'Occasionally', 'Rarely' and 'Almost never', was used to obtain responses to each item on the scale of e-Learning styles. Gülbahar and Alper (2014) stated that while developing the e-learning styles scale, they created the item pool by using Kolb (1976), Felder and Soloman (1991), Felder and Silverman (1988) and Grasha-Reichmann learning style scales. In the reliability research conducted by Gülbahar and Alper (2014) Another data collection tool used within the scope of the research is the Attitude Scale towards Distance Education. The scale consists of two dimensions and a total of 21 items. The dimensions of the scale are called "advantages of distance education" and "limitations of distance education". The items in the scale were developed from (1) (Strongly disagree) to (5) (Strongly agree) as a five-point Likert type. Ağır, Gür, and Okçu (2007) stated that the Cronbach alpha coefficient that they calculated to determine the reliability of the scale is .84. In this research, the Cronbach alpha coefficient on the attitude scale towards distance education was determined as .96 and it was deemed appropriate to be used in the research. ISSN 2377-2263 www.macrothink.org/jei 357 Another data collection tool used in the study is the grade point average (GPA) of medical students in the related semester. Students' GPA was the result of the exam held at the end of the year. The questions regarding the exam held at the end of the year were prepared by a commission of 6 faculty members. This exam, which makes up the GPA, was conducted online over the Learning Management System (LMS). The exam consists of a hundred questions. In terms of exam safety, the location and the options of the questions were presented to the student mixed. Also, it was not possible to return to a question that was passed, and one minute was given to the student to answer each question. The average scores of exam range from zero to one hundred. The average difficulty of the items used in the exam was at "medium level".

Participants
Research was conducted at a university in Turkey, Faculty of Medicine students. 148 first and second-year medical students participated in the research. The reason for the inclusion of the first and second-grade students in the research is that all the practical and theoretical courses are taught over LMS and exams are conducted online. 76 (51.4%) of the students are women and 72 (48.6%) are men. The ages of students vary between 18 and 24.

Statistical Analysis
SPSS 21 (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) for our basic statistical analyzes and AMOS 21 (trial version) programs for mediation analysis were used. Before starting data analysis, it was checked whether there is invalid or missing data. Then the data were evaluated for normal distribution and linearity. Tabachnick and Fidell (2007) stated that the skewness and kurtosis values between [-1.5 and 1.5] can be accepted as an indicator of the normality of the distribution. When the kurtosis and skewness values of the scales were examined, it was seen that the normality assumption coincided with each other. Besides, the correlation levels of the variables used in the research were examined and it was evaluated whether there were multiple connections. The multiple connections was examined with Variance inflation factor (VIF) and it was determined that there were no multiple connections between the variables (acceptable VIF < 5.0). Descriptive statistical methods (number, percentage, average, standard deviation) were used in the analysis of the data. A Chi-square test was used to compare categorical variables. Independent Sample t-test was used in binary comparisons (Levene p > .05) in terms of independent variables. In comparing independent variables containing more than two groups in terms of dependent variables, homogeneity was first tested by the Levene test. As a result of the determination of Levene (p < .05), Kruskall Wallis H analysis, one of the non-parametric tests, was used.
Some index values were calculated and interpreted for the structural equation modeling of the research. Moosbrugger and Müller (2003) RMSEA value of 0.05 and below is a good fit, values between 0.08 and 0.1 are an acceptable fit; If GFI, AGFI, CFI and IFI values are close to 1, it indicates a good fit. In the interpretation of the effect sizes in the structural equation modeling, Cohen's (1992) (.10 low, .30 medium, .50 and above strong) ranges were taken into account. ISSN 2377-2263

Results
When the most preferred e-learning styles of medical students are examined, it was determined in the order, logical learning (n = 48), independent learning (n = 42), audio-visual learning (n = 30), social learning (n = 15), active learning (n = 6), intuitive learning (n = 6) and verbal Learning (n = 1) ( Table 1). Another situation examined in the research was the distribution of e-learning styles of medical students according to their gender and whether their e-learning styles differed statistically significantly or not. It was determined that the e-learning styles of medical students did not differ significantly according to their gender (X 2 = 11.01, p = .088). Accordingly, it can be said that gender is not a significant variable in terms of e-learning styles (X 2 = 11.01; p = .088). When the distribution of e-learning styles according to the gender of medical students is examined, it is seen that male students prefer; 15 Audio-  (Figure 2). In the research, the distribution of e-learning styles according to daily internet usage times of students, which is another independent variable, was examined. It is seen that the learning styles of students with less than 1 hour of daily internet usage vary like 4 Audio-Visual Learning, 2 Social Learning, 2 Independent Learning, 8 Logical Learning and 3 Intuitive Learning. Students with 1-3 hours of daily internet usage vary like 11 Audio-visual Learning, 3 Active Learning, 3 Social Learning, 16 Independent Learning, 20 Logical Learning, and 1 Intuitive Learning. Students with 4-7 hours of daily internet usage vary like 9 Audio-Visual Learning, 3 Active Learning, 6 Social Learning, 18 Independent Learning, 15 Logical Learning, and 2 Intuitive Learning. It is seen that students whose daily internet usage time is more than 7 hours adopt 6 Audio-Visual Learning, 1 Verbal Learning, 4 Social Learning, 6 Independent Learning, and 5 Logical Learning. It was determined that the distribution of e-learning styles did not differ significantly according to students' daily internet usage time (X 2 = 24.02; p > .05). Accordingly, it can be said that daily internet usage time is not a significant variable in the e-learning style (Figure 3). Another situation examined within the scope of the research is the attitudes of medical students towards distance education according to their gender. Analysis results for this situation are given in Table 2. As seen in Table 2, it was determined that the attitude scale and sub-dimensions of medical students did not differ significantly according to their gender (p > .05). In this context, it can ISSN 2377-2263 be said that gender is not a significant variable in terms of attitude towards distance education.

Journal of Educational Issues
Another independent variable discussed in the research, the attitudes of students towards distance education in terms of daily internet usage times were investigated. Russell and Purcell (2009) state that parametric tests should not be used with groups under 30. When the distribution of the groups related to the daily internet usage of the students was examined, it was observed that the frequency numbers were below 30. For this reason, Kruskal Wallis H analysis, which is a nonparametric test, was used. The results of the KWH test are given in Table 3. Note. ASDE = Attitude Scale for Distance Education (Overall); ADE = Advantages of Distance Education Subscale; LDE = Limitations of Distance Education Subscale; 1 = Less than 1 hour, 2 = 1-3 hours, 3 = 4-7 hours, 4 = More than 7 hours.
As can be seen in Table 3, when the KWH results are examined, it has been determined that as the duration of daily internet use increases, the attitude towards distance education increases (p < .05).
Averages, standard deviations, and correlation levels for all variables used in the research are shown in Table 4. It was determined that there was a significant positive relationship between the independent variables (ASDE and ELS) and the dependent variable in the model (p < .01). In the research, a structural model was created for the relationship between e-learning styles and the grade point average. No modification has been made in the model presented for e-Learning styles and path analysis related to the grade point average. The goodness of fit indices of the model given in Figure 4 were examined.  Table 5.  Note. ELS = E-learning Styles; GPA = Grade Point Average.
As seen in Table 5, it is seen that the e-learning style is the predictor of the grade point average (B = .33, SE = 4.35, t = 3.30, p < .001). It was determined that the e-learning style explained 15% of the variance related to grade point average (R 2 = .15, p = .000).
The mediating role of the attitude towards distance education in the relationship between e-learning style and grade point average was examined. No modifications were made to the installed model ( Figure 5). When the fit index values of the established model regarding the attitude towards distance education in the relationship between e-learning styles and the grade point average were examined, it was determined that the model had acceptable fit indices (X 2 = 75.340, df = 33, X 2 /df = 2.283, AGFI = .85, GFI = .91, CFI = .86, RMSEA = .09). In the relationship between e-learning style and grade point average, the path analysis ISSN 2377-2263 www.macrothink.org/jei 364 coefficients regarding the attitude towards distance education were examined. The findings obtained are given in Table 6. Note. ASDE = Attitude Scale for Distance Education; ELS = E-learning Styles; GPA = Grade Point Average.

Journal of Educational Issues
As seen in Table 6, it was determined that e-learning style predicts significantly in a positive way attitude towards distance education (B = .41, SE = .351, t = 4.721, p < .05) and grade point average (B = .25, SE = 4.597, t = 2.358, p < . 05). In addition, it was determined that the attitude towards distance education predicted the grade point average significantly positively (B = .20, SE = .958, t = 2.229, p < .05). It is seen that the attitude towards distance education and the e-Learning Style predicted 22% of the variance of the grade point average (R 2 = .222, p < .05).
As can be seen, when Figure 4 and Figure 5 are compared, it was determined that the e-learning style (from .33 to .25) beta values decreased by including the attitude towards distance education to the model as a result of the path analyzes conducted to determine the mediating role of attitude towards distance education. Although beta values decreased, both variables did not lose their predictor. When the analyzes are evaluated together, It can be said that the e-learning style has a direct effect on the grade point average, but also an indirect effect through the attitude towards distance education. Accordingly, to examine the predictive effect of the variables in the model that examines the mediating role of the attitude towards distance education in the relationship between e-learning style and grade point average, the direct, indirect and total effects are reviewed and the findings obtained are given in Table 7.  Note. ASDE = Attitude Scale for Distance Education (Overall); ELS = E-learning Styles; GPA= Grade Point Average.
According to the impact values in Table 7, e-learning styles (d = .25) and attitude towards distance education (d = .20) were found directly and positively affect the grade point average. When the indirect effect on the grade point average was examined, it was seen that the e-learning styles (d = .08) had an indirect effect on the attitude towards distance education. When the total effects of the predictive variables on the grade point average were calculated, it was determined that the e-learning styles (d = .33) and the attitude towards distance education (d = .20) had an effect size. Cohen (1992) interpreted the effect sizes as .10 low, .30 medium, and .50 and above strong. In this respect, it can be said that e-learning styles and attitudes towards distance education have a low level of effect considering the effect sizes on the grade point average.
Finally, in the research, the internet usage purposes of medical students were examined. Findings obtained in this direction are given in Table 8. As seen in Table 8, when the internet usage goals of medical students are examined, social media (48.6%), watching video (16.9%), searching for information & studying (16.2%), ISSN 2377-2263 playing games (8.8%), listening to music (4.1%), voice or video conversation (4.1%) and purchasing products (1.4%).

Discussion
With this research, the mediating role of attitude towards distance education in the relationship between e-learning styles of medical school students and grade point average was examined through structural equation modeling. When the findings of the research are examined, e-learning styles positively predict the grade point average. Similar findings have been found in studies by Fahy and Ally (2005), Manochehri and Young, (2006), and Offir, Bezalel and Barth (2007). Kinshuk-Graf and Liu (2009) emphasize that there should be an approach in which learning styles are taken into account in Learning Management Systems (LMS) in terms of learners' academic performance. On the other hand, Topçu (2008) concluded that awareness of the students' learning styles in online learning environments helps to increase academic performance. Accordingly, with the epidemic of COVID-19, e-learning applications have become widespread in medical education, and it can be said that considering the individual characteristics of students' learning styles and preferences in online learning environments is important for academic achievement.
In the research, it was observed that the e-learning style is the predictor of the attitude towards distance education, and the attitude towards distance education is the predictor of the grade point average. The results of the model tested in the research shows that the e-learning styles and attitude towards distance education should be taken into account on academic achievement (Carter & Good, 1973), which is seen as the concrete output of learning in medical education conducted online. Also, it was determined in the research that e-learning styles have an indirect effect on the grade point average on attitude towards distance education. Therefore, it is considered important to consider these two variables together to increase academic achievement in online environments. Considering the e-learning styles in line with the findings of the research, taking into consideration the learning methods preferred by the students in online environments has been confirmed with the established model that it increases the attitude towards distance education and positively affects the academic achievement of the students. Similar to the findings of this research, it was found that there was a positive correlation between students' attitudes and academic achievements in e-learning environments in the research conducted by Etlioğlu and Tekin (2020). Kazazoğlu (2013) states that positive attitudes mediate students to be more successful in the learning process, while negative attitudes can cause failure, and it coincides with the findings of this research. Yenilmez, Balbağ, and Turgut (2017) stated that the attitude towards distance education and technologies is directly related to learning, and the academic achievement levels of students who do not have a positive attitude may decrease due to difficulties in getting used to the online environment. In this context, the attitudes of medical students towards distance education should be taken into account to realize effective and efficient learning in online teaching environments and to increase academic achievement. In line with the model established in this research, the importance of e-learning styles is seen in the attitude towards distance education. Therefore, it can be said that considering e-learning styles in online environments increases the attitude towards distance education and directly or indirectly has an effect on academic achievement.
Within the scope of the research, it is seen that the most preferred e-learning style of medical students is "logical learning". Students in the logical learning style learn best by thinking deeply. They like problem-solving activities and they want to do their work within the plan (Gülbahar & Alper, 2014). In this regard, educational materials that students can be confronted with a problematic and complex situation or event can be used in online teaching environments to be structured for medical students. As an example of the materials that can be prepared, students can be asked to show solutions through this interactive video by showing some problematic situations in the operating environment simulated through educational videos to be developed in Shareable Content Object Reference (SCORM) type. Students can develop their skills to take responsibility and produce solutions through these materials.
When the results of the research are examined, it is seen that female students have the most "independent learning" style, while men prefer the "logical learning" style. Students in the independent learning style achieve more successful results in the application, research, and discussion activities. They are confident about learning alone. Students in the logical learning style want to do their work within the plan and learn best, in detail, and by thinking deeply (Gülbahar & Alper, 2014). When the distribution of e-learning styles by gender is examined in the research, it is seen that gender is not a significant variable in terms of e-learning styles. Although students' dominant e-learning styles are different, it is stated that each student adopts other learning styles more or less (Dikmen, 2020). Accordingly, an online learning environment can be organized by taking into consideration the most preferred learning style in activities to be carried out according to e-learning styles in medical education. Felder and Henriques (1995) state that various combinations of different learning styles are important factors in academic achievement. As a result of this view, although learning environments are organized by considering the most preferred e-learning style of the student group in online learning environments, it shows the importance of considering other learning styles.
The finding that e-learning styles do not differ significantly according to the daily internet usage time of medical students has also been found in studies conducted by Kantoğlu (2012), Emrecik (2017), and Yetiş (2018). Kaplan and Kies (1995) state that individuals' learning styles are a feature such as congenital fingerprint or DNA (Deoxyiribo Nucleic Acid) structure and do not change easily throughout life. This can be seen as a reason why medical students' e-learning styles do not differ according to their daily internet usage time.
The results of the research are that the attitude towards distance education does not differ significantly according to gender. It is observed that similar findings have been reached in the studies conducted by Kışla (2005), Ateş and Altun (2008), Yenilmez and Ersoy (2009), Barış (2015). When the results of the research are examined, it is seen that as the duration of daily internet usage increases, attitude towards distance education also increases. Studies in the literature (Koustriava & Papadopoulos, 2014;Özen & Baran, 2017) support the findings of this research. Maio, Esses, Arnold, and Olson (2004) state that attitude is fed by sources such as motivation, experience, belief, and feelings. Accordingly, it is thought that as the daily internet usage time of medical students' increases, they have more experience in online environments and this causes to increase in their attitude towards distance education.
When the internet usage goals of medical students are examined in the research, it is seen that the most are social media, watching videos, searching for information & studying, playing games, listening to music, voice or video conversation, studying and purchasing products. This finding is consistent with the findings of the studies conducted by Yıldız and Demir (2016), Baker and White (2010), Cheung, Chiu, and Lee (2011), Dikmen and Tuncer (2018), Almarabeh, Majdalawi, and Mohammad (2016). In the research conducted by Oğuz, Zaim, Özel, and Saka (2008) on the cognitive status of medical students on the internet, it was determined that the students mostly used social media. Few students seem to be using the internet to purchase products. This is thought to be due to the lack of financial resources of the students on their own to shop online. The students' use of the internet mostly to search for information and study supports the findings of the research.

Limitations and Directions for Future Research
More research is needed to evaluate the relationship between e-learning style preferences of medical students and their attitudes towards distance education and grade point average in online environments. Besides, this research focused on the attitude towards distance education with e-learning styles that are thought to affect grade point average in online environments. Future research may focus on the impact of different variables in online environments on GPA.

Conclusions
The research shows that medical students' preferences of e-learning style and attitudes towards distance education can be an important variable in terms of academic achievement. Taking into consideration the teaching approaches, methods, or techniques that students adopt in online learning environments can help them improve their academic performance. In addition, instructors can contribute to the realization of effective and efficient teaching by using or adapting different teaching approaches suitable for online environments. In terms of medical education, the findings of future studies will be valuable to confirm the results of this research.


Scaling Invariance of Sports Sex Gap

The controversy over the evolution of sex gap in sports stems from the reported that women’s performance will 1 day overtake men’s in the journal Nature. After debate, the recent studies suggest that the sports sex gap has been stable for a long time, due to insurmountable physiological differences. To find a mathematical model that accurately describes this stable gap, we analyze the best annual records of men and women in 25 events from 1992 to 2017, and find that power-law relationship could be acted as the best choice, with an R-squares as high as 0.999 (p ≤ 0.001). Then, based on the power law model, we use the records of men in 2018 to predict the performance of women in that year and compare them with real records. The results show that the deviation rate of the predicted value is only about 2.08%. As a conclusion, it could be said that there is a constant sex gap in sports, and the records of men and women evolve in parallel. This finding could serve as another quantitative rule in biology.

INTRODUCTION
Sport competitions are conducted to test the ability of individual athletes or teams, with the aim of quantifying and ranking their abilities. Since the athletic capacity of athletes is influenced by biology (MacArthur and North, 2005;Tanaka and Seals, 2008), training methods (Berthelot et al., 2015), environment (Haïda et al., 2013) and ecological rules, plus a touch of change, the annual best results of a given discipline will fluctuate over time. Although the athletic records are continuously breaking and re-forming, is the sex-based difference in sports also changing accordingly? For this problem, there have been many studies that investigate the past world records of different sport events to analyze the change of sex gap. Over the past 2 decades, the conclusions related to this topic have aroused fierce controversy. Finally, the debate focuses on the changing trends of sports sex gap.
A number of studies considered that men may continue to improve on some events, and believed that the sex gap may slightly increase before reaching full stability (Holden, 2004;Seiler et al., 2007;Lepers, 2008). Several previous studies used a linear model to predict that the progress of physical performance for men and women (Dyer, 1986;Whipp, 1992;Tatem, 2004). One of such studies used the linear regression to fit human performance in sprint in the 20-second century, and extrapolated the fitted line to subsequent years (Tatem, 2004). And this study predicted that the women's 100 m race could be won in a time of 10.57 ± 0.232 s and the men's event in 9.73 ± 0.144 s in 2008 Olympiad, and that women will surpass men for the first time in 2056 Olympiad. However, other studies had cast doubt on the illogical predictions obtained by using simple linear regression analysis (Reinboud, 2004;Cheuvront et al., 2005;Chang and Baek, 2011). For example, Cheuvront et al. (2005) compared historical world record running performances for men and women to include sprinting events, and found that including world record-setting running performances for women before and after 1985 results in a non-linear data fit. After analyzing sex differences from the physiology perspective, they believed that men possess a larger aerobic capacity and greater muscle strength, and the sex gap in sports is unlikely to narrow naturally.
More recently, to measure the evolution of sports sex gap, Thibault et al. (2010) compared the improvement of male and female world records and 10 best performances between 1896 and 2007, and they result shown that the sex gap in Olympic sport performance had been stable since 1983. Since then, Thibault's views seem to have become the mainstream voice. In this paper, in addition to verify the correctness of Thibault's conclusion, another purpose is to find a mathematical model to describe the phenomenon of stable sex gap in sports.
The fractal model describes a self-similar pattern in different space or time scale, also known as scale invariance (West, 2010). Fractal physiology is widely used to study how fractal temporal structures in physiological fluctuations generated by complex physiological networks (Ivanov et al., 1996;Bernaola-Galván et al., 2001;Hausdorff et al., 2001;Wang et al., 2005;Tolkunov et al., 2010). Some groups studied the scale-invariant properties of heartbeat sequences. It had been found that the observed multifractality was related to nonlinear features of the healthy heartbeat dynamics (Peng et al., 1993;Thurner et al., 1998;Ivanov et al., 1999Ivanov et al., , 2001. One of such studies had shown a clear loss of multifractality for congestive heart failure (Ivanov et al., 1999). In addition, the observation of scaling behavior also extended to other physiological time series, such as gait rhythm (Hausdorff et al., 2001), respiratory rhythms (Peng et al., 2002), wrist activity (Hu et al., 2004), and foot pressure (Gilfriche et al., 2018). The scaling laws strongly depend upon the state of the underlying physiologic control system , so the abnormal scaling behavior of the above physiological signals can be used as an important diagnostic approach for related diseases.
Scale invariance describes phenomena that are not associated with a particular or characteristic scale of length, energy, or other variables, and is mathematically equivalent to power law behavior. Many studies have used power law to analyze the law of sport (Katz and Katz, 1994;Sylvan Katz and Katz, 1999;Vincenzo and Sandra, 2001;Yamamoto, 2009;Fernández-Revelles and García Mármol, 2019). Among them, Katz's research shown that the performance of male and female superior athletes exhibits a fractal relationship between world record running and swimming times and the distance of the even, and an exceptionally good linear fit (R 2 ≥ 0.999) was observed in the log-log plot (Katz and Katz, 1994). In the paper, we collect the annual best results of men and women in 25 events from 1992 to 2018, and will use power-law relationship to reveal the evolution law of sports sex gap.

Data Collection
The data collected in this study are the annual world's records for men and women from the racing and jumping sports, including running, marathon, swimming, high jump, long jump, triple jump, and hurdles for a total of 25 events. Considering the low participation of women before the 1980s (Dyer, 1986;Thibault et al., 2010) and the use of drugs to enhance performance in sports had certainly occurred during the 1970s and 1980s, we only collected the annual records after 1992 (Holden, 2004). All data were obtained from the "International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Championships Doha 2019 Statistics Handbook" (Butler, 2019), the websites of the IAAF 1 and Fédération Internationale de Natation Association (FINA; www.fina.org). A total of about 1,300 athletes were considered in the study.

Data Processing and Analysis
The data processing starts by organizing the downloaded data in a Microsoft Excel 2010 document (for data set, see Supplementary Table S1). To maintain consistency with the chronological records, such as running, swimming and hurdles, the records of high jump, long jump, and triple jump were rendered by the reciprocal transformation. In this study, it is used the power law equation (Harte, 1999;Sylvan Katz and Katz, 1999;Hu et al., 2004;Fernández-Revelles and García Mármol, 2019), namely y = ax l , to describe sex differences in sports. We define variables x and y to represent the male and female sports records of an event, respectively. The statistical software SPSS is used (Version 20, IBM) to organize the data in variables. Before visualizing the functional relationship between x and y, we first take log of them, then perform a linear fit, and finally draw a log-log plot. The effect of fitting is quantitatively described by the coefficient of determination. Each point in the plot corresponds to the male and female records of an event in a certain year. So, we will get a scatter plot with 650 points. Ideally, if the power law model is satisfied between x and y, all points will fall on a straight line, and the function of the line is log y = l log x + log a. The slope and intercept of the line will be determined by linear fitting, so that the parameters l and a in the power law equation can be calculated.
The above process is similar to the previous study in which the power law model is applied to athletic performance analysis (Sylvan Katz and Katz, 1999;Vincenzo and Sandra, 2001).

Evolution of Sports Sex Gap
Following the above procedure, we obtain the double-logarithmic coordinate plots describing the functional relationship between male and female records. To facilitate the identification of each sample point on the plot, firstly, we only analyze the male and female records of 25 events in 1992. As shown in Figure 1A, each circle in the figure represents an event (some have been marked). The results of linear regression analysis show that all circles fall on this fitting line, and exhibit an exceptionally good fitting degree (R 2 ≥ 0.999, p ≤ 0.001).
Frontiers in Physiology | www.frontiersin.org 3 December 2020 | Volume 11 | Article 606769 Then, to quantify the parameters of the regression line, we present the male and female records of all events from 1992 to 2017 in a coordinate plot with 650 circles. Since many circles are overlapped together, so we plot with overlapped points offset, and the centers of the circles are shown by crosses. The result of linear fitting is shown in Figure 1B. The slope and intercept of regression line are 0.995 and 0.059, respectively. The SDs of both parameters are in the order of 10e −4 . The coefficient of determination R 2 for linear regression is 0.9999 (p ≤ 0.001). This result shows that the fitness of the power law model is much higher than that of other reported mathematical models (Cheuvront et al., 2005;Thibault et al., 2010). In addition, according to the power law equation log y = l log x + log a, we can calculate the parameters l = 0.995 and a = 1.146.

Stable Ratio Between Male and Female Records
Beyond that, it is worth noting that the slope of regression line is approximately equal to 1, that is, the first-order form of the power-law relationship. The power law equation is rewritten as y = ax, which shows that a is the ratio of male and female records. So, maybe we can describe sports sex differences in a simpler form. Under first-order approximation, the ratio fluctuation of sex difference in 100 m racing is shown in Figure 2. Meanwhile, as a comparison, the difference fluctuation of the records is also given. We use the coefficient of variation (CV) to quantify the stability of the two different description methods. The calculated CV of the ratio and difference between male and female records are 0.922 and 9.466% respectively, and they have one order of magnitude difference. Therefore, compared to the difference, the ratio can correctly evaluate the law that sex differences tend to stabilize. This conclusion is consistent with research of Thibault et al. (2010) to describe the invariance of sex gap using relative differences. Difference and ratio are two forms to describe the difference of two certain values, and the former is more commonly used. In fact, the paper published in the journal of Nature extrapolated that women will soon outrun men based on the intersection of the fitting lines of their performances (Tatem, 2004), so they are essentially measuring sports sex gap in the form of difference.

Forecasting World Records by Scaling Laws
Prior to this, we find that there is a power-law relationship between men's and women's sports records. Based on the data from 1992 to 2017, the parameters l and a in the power law model are calculated. Here, we will forecast the women's performance in 2018 by using the men's performance of that year, on the basis of the two parameters. The true and forecasting world records for 25 events are shown in Table 1. The highest deviation between the predicted value and the real value is 3.92% for running events and 2.03% for swimming events. Among them, the deviation for the 800 m middle-distance running events is the lowest, only 0.02%. In addition, we notice that although the relative deviations are only about 3.24% (23 ms) and 2.19% (24 ms) for 60 and 100 m running, respectively, this variation might be considered as a significant in this type of events. Considering the characteristics of sprint events, environment, especially wind speed, is the key factor affecting the performance (Janjic et al., 2017). For example, a   typical trailing wind of 2 ms −1 will confer benefits (0.5-0.8%) on the three sprint events (Hollings et al., 2012). To this end, we review the wind speed information of men's and women's 100 m competition in 2018. It is found that the records of 100 m for men and women in 2018 are obtained at wind speeds of −0.3 and +1.5 m/s, respectively. Therefore, we believe that this is the main factor that leads to the actual record to be 24 ms less than the predicted value.

DISCUSSION
In this study, a power-law relationship is presented between the sports performance of men and women for the collected data. In fact, since the human body involves complex interaction among many feedback systems (Bartsch et al., 2015); fractal distributions are found in a wide variety of physical and biological systems. There have been many previous studies investigating the power-law relationship between other sports variables. In one study, no less than five different fractals related to sports are mentioned (Katz and Katz, 1994), for example, the distance of the event, the reciprocal of the total energy expended, and the ratio of aerobic and anaerobic energy consumption all have this relationship with the running or swimming time. The authors suggest that sports observers may regard fractal analysis as an important new instrument in their analytic tools. So, the findings of this article further support their view. It is worth noting that the results in Figure 2 show that the power law between men and women records, with an exponent close to one, which could also be interpreted as a simple linear proportionality between sex records. Therefore, we attempt to fit all collected the sports performance of men and women using a linear model with zero intercept (y = ax). As shown in Figure 3, each circle in the plot corresponds to the male and female records of an event in a certain year, with total of 650 circles. The fitting results show that a = 0.892 ± 0.0005 and R 2 = 0.9997 (p ≤ 0.001). We also zoom in on the local area of the figure (Area1, Area2, and Area3), and the three areas correspond to the data of 100 m running, 10,000 m running, and Marathon, respectively. As shown in the three sub-figures bellowed, it is easy to understand that the longer the running distance, the more circles deviate from the fitted line. Therefore, from the data collected so far, a linear model with zero intercept can be acted as a reasonable candidate for describing the evolution of sports sex gap. However, the predictive power of this approximate model will not be better than that of the power law model.

LIMITATION AND PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS
Limitation to the current research study is acknowledged. Physiological differences between men and women, such as maximal oxygen uptake and muscle fiber cross-sectional area, are the main reasons for sex gap in sports (Cheuvront et al., 2005). If there is no any technological improvement specifically dedicated to one sex or the other, the gap will persist and become more and more stable as they reach their biological limits. However, the stability is also challenged by non-physiological factors, such as environmental conditions, sports participation, and doping. So, the accuracy of forecasting sports performance by power law model will be affected by these factors. Due to this limitation, a perturbation term or piecewise fitting can be selectively taken into account in the model in future. As we know, the modern era of sport incorporates many technological elements, which promotes the steady improvements of athletes' sports performance. But at the same time, the use of doping has become more and more hidden and sophisticated, which brings a lot of trouble to doping testing. Therefore, in order to maintain the fairness of the competition, international doping testing agencies should develop diversified testing methods to improve the technical level. In this paper, we find that the power-law relationship could be act as the best model for describing the evolution of sports sex gap. It indicates that the male and female sport records have the characteristics of parallel evolution, and one serious deviation from this law may be the result of using illegal performance-enhancing agents. Therefore, this discovery could provide an alternative method for performance forecasting and doping detection.
Finally, this article should emphasize that we are not in favor of treating female athletes differently. The data analysis in this paper only shows that there is a constant sex gap in sports that rely on physiological limits ability such as racing and jumping, while in other aesthetic sports such as synchronized swimming and rhythmic gymnastics, female athletes usually perform better than men. Furthermore, the level of sports performance does not mean who is better in cultural roles and social behaviors.

CONCLUSION
Sex is one of the main determinants of sport performance, so the evolution of sex gap can be indirectly analyzed through the development of sports records over the years. In this letter, we collected the world records of men and women in speed and jumping events over the past 27 years and for the first time comprehensively analyzed the evolution of sports sex gap. The results show that the evolution of male and female records satisfies the power-law relationship with an exponent close to one. It implies that both from a physical and physiological point of view, the sport records of men and women have the characteristics of parallel evolution under the selection of training techniques, sport rules, and current socio-economic conditions.
Following the finding of various fractal distributions in sports statistics, this study observes that sports sex gap has the property of scale invariance. Perhaps, sports observers may regard fractal analysis as an important new instrument in their analytic tools. Frontiers in Physiology | www.frontiersin.org 6 December 2020 | Volume 11 | Article 606769

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT
The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/Supplementary Material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author/s.

AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS
LT and WD contributed to writing the original draft and data collection. WD contributed to the statistical analysis and visualizations, and revising and editing the manuscript. WD and CL conceived and supervised the project. CL supported the project. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.


The Level of Students of the Arabic-language Department in Oral Skills from the Students’ Perspective

The study aims to examine the degree to which students of the Arabic Language Department at the University of Jadara possess oral-skill expression from the students’ perspective. The subjects that the study has examined consists of (197) male and female students in the Arabic-Language Department at Jadara University in the first semester of the academic year 2019/2020. The researcher has comprised a questionnaire which has (46) paragraphs divided in ten fields. The study has concluded that the field of "courtesy-related skills" came first, followed by the field of "sound-related skills", then the field of "skills related to the speaker’ psychological features", then the field of "skills related to eye-movement and facial expressions." After that comes the “skills of speech fluency.” Then the “cognitive-related skills,” and the “skills of context (style).” Then, the “vocabulary-related skills.” Then the morphology-and-syntax-related skills.” At last has come the sub-context-related skills.” However, there has been no statistical significant differences based on the gender, the academic level, or the GPA factors. From the perspective of the Arabic Language-and-Literature Department at the Jadara University.

Introduction: "My Lord, expand for me my breast. And ease for me my task. And untie the knot from my tongue that they may understand my speech." (The Holy Qur'an.  Expression is stating and clarifying thoughts, ideas, and meanings in a fluent language and an eloquent style. It is the skill that humankind needs in all their life phases. It is also a method of comprehending and communicating with others. The purpose of language-teaching and all its linguistic fields are ways of oral and written expression. Therefore, we study the language syntax in order to attain fluency in speech and writing. Additionally, we learn dictation to master writing according to the correct dictation structure. We also study literary texts to enrich our linguistic repertoire and stylistics, which aid us with expressing. Thus, expression is the corner-stone of linguistic sciences.

Discussion:
Oral expression is considered the base of written one. Academics have collectively agreed on the fact that enhancing students' abilities of speech and good oral expression is probably the most important aspect of languagelearning. Furthermore, the most important factors of eloquence and cultural elitism are: learners' ability of expressing their needs and conversing about them, using prestigious phrases that lack inaccuracies, and is characterised by clarity, beauty, and intactness. (Al-Halaq, 2010, 69) It has been observed that a large number of students across different phrases suffer from a conspicuous weakness in expressing either orally or written-wise. For instance, if one speaks in a fluent language, the signs of irritation are easily noticed. In fact, one might stop out of a sudden before he completes his thought, might reside in, using a colloquial form by injecting it into his speech, or to complete what has failed to convey. (Souman, 2014, 182). Previous researches and studies in the field of oral-skill-teaching have hinted at a severe weakness and drop in the level of teaching the skills that they possess. (Al-Halaq, 2013), (Al-Khamaiseh, 2012), (Al-Swerki, 2011), (Al-Saffooh, 2007), (Al-Othman 1999), (Al-Kalbani, 1997), (Nasser, 1995), and the study of (Abd Al-Hameed, 1986). Moreover, through what has the researcher noticed during his teaching that there is a severe weakness and a drop in the skills of oral-expression that the students have, the amount of fear and confusion, reflected while orally expressing themselves. Also, the researcher has observed the scarcity of the studies, discussing the level of possessing oral-expression skills across Jordanian universities' students from their own perspective.
The Study's Enquiries: The Study aims at recognising the level of Arabic-Department Students' Possession of oral-skill expression by answering the following the following questions: 1. What is the possession level of the oral-skill expressions from the perspective of Arabic-Department Students' at Jadara University? 2. Are there any statistically significant differences in the judgement of the subject members in having oral-skill a fluent Arabic language." However, when it comes to Al-Rabai'ah and Al-Habashneh (2015, 631), they say, "it is the expression of thoughts, using correct morphology and syntax, adding the suitable body-language according to the situation. The researcher suggests that the oral-expression is one's ability to convey his ideas, feelings, beliefs, to the listener, utiliising an organised style, fluent language, correct speech, with body and facial expressions.
Oral-Expression-Teaching Objectives: Oral-expression seeks to achieve the following (Ata, 2006, 152): 1. Habitualising students to correct pronunciation, fluency, and vocabulary-employment. 2. Habitualising students to logical-thinking, idea-organising-and-linking. 3. Enriching self-confidence via confronting his peers in or out the school. 4. Empowering the students to express their surroundings, and experiences, in or outside the school in a correct manner. 5. Overcoming some psychological obstacles that might affect the child, such as: shyness, stammering while talking, or introversion. 6. Enhancing speech skills, such as: debating and showcasing opinions and ideas by speech-delivering. 7. Discovering the talented students in the fields of speech-delivering, improvising, fluency, and idea accuracy. 8. Improving the other side of expression: written expression, resulting in cultivating the student's linguistic repertoire.
Oral-Expression Skill: Specialists have gone over oral-skill expression in their researches and studies. (Ahmed, 2015, 137) and (Madkour, 2007, 185) suggest that the fundamental skills for oral expression in student-teaching are:  (2013), whose aim is to diagnose the teaching difficulties in oral-skill course from the studentand-teacher perspective amongst the elementary students in Al-Miqdadiyeh County Centre. The researcher has followed the descriptive method. The study has consisted of 24 Arabic teachers (both genders) in the governorate of Diyyali, and 1934 students (both genders) from the ones that attend elementary day-school. To achieve the purpose of the study, the researcher has developed two questionnaires: the first of which includes 89 paragraphs for the teachers, whereas the second has consisted of 92 paragraphs for the students. The study has concluded that the students' weakness is referred to the following: Arabic-language teachers have not viewed the purpose of teaching oral-expression, the time dedicated to oral-expression classes is not adequate to achieve these purposes, the lack of utilising the school's library in choosing the subjects, teachers goad the students to discuss one subject, the limitedness of subjects assigned to the elementary students, and most subjects do not take into consideration the intellectual level of the students. Al-Khamiseh's study (2012) which has aimed at knowing the range of oral-skill expression skills in the Education Faculty at Ha'el University from the students' perspective, and the struggles they face in the lecturehall. The study subject has consisted of all the students of the education faculty at Ha'el University, as follows: 305 male and female students, in order to achieve the study goals, the researcher has used a tool of 46 paragraphs, divided into five aspects, such as: cognitive, linguistic, phonic, the gestural, and the struggles that the educationfaculty students face at Ha'el university. The study has shown that the gestural aspect has come in first, followed by the phonic, cognitive, and at last the linguistic, whereas the major struggle is related to the extensive use of traditional lecturing, in addition to the overwhelming shyness that suppress students from talking in front of their peers. The total average of the study has come as follows: oral-expression has scored 2.9, equivalent to 58%, besides the gender-related factors leading to major distinctions in the favour of females.
Al-Swerki's study (2011) which aims to assess the performance in oral expression amongst elementary students in Jordan, to determine the necessary oral-expression skills for seventh graders, and to recognise the level of the study subject, which has consisted of elementary students in Jordan as follows: 54 male and female of seventh graders in the directorate of education in Irbid. Furthermore, the researcher has used the questionnaire tool, Journal of Education and Practice www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1735 (Paper) ISSN 2222-288X (Online) Vol.11, No.8, 2020 consisting of 20 statements divided into five major aspects: vocabulary, sub-context, phonics, morphology and the speaker's psychological features in order to achieve the study goals. Generally, the level of oral-expression was not satisfying, where the total performance is 54.3%, meaning that the overall performance was low as the study has indicated. Jawad's study (2009) which aims to pinpoint the reasons behind the oral-expression weakness in the elementary level from the teachers' perspective. In this study, the researcher has used the descriptive method, where the study subject has included 143 Arabic teachers from both genders, who work in day schools of Al-Karkh directory in Baghdad during the academic year of 2004/2005. To achieve the study goals the researcher has used a note card consisting of 27 paragraphs distributed into four fields as a triple-scale. The study has concluded that the main reason behind the weakness is that some students come from culturally shallow families, which has caused their linguistic weakness. In other words, some families do not concern themselves in incorporating their offspring in their social interactions, such as: conversing with them or others, not giving them the chance to listen, in addition to the scarcity of improvising, or out of disinterest in the selected subjects, discouraging students from extracurricular readings.
Al-Sfouh's study (2007) aiming at evaluating situational oral-expression skills of ninth graders in the light their linguistic repertoire and genders. The study subject has consisted of 102 students from both genders randomly selected. The researcher has used a note card to analyse the oral linguistic performance, resulting in statistically distinguished differences amongst the performance average of ninth graders. For instance, in terms of the oralskill expression, it is in the favour of females, whereas the linguistic accumulation are in the favour of those with a high level.
Al-Kalbani's Study (1997) aimed at showcasing oral-expression skills required by the female students in the elementary stage, and to distinguish the level of these skills upon them, and in order to achieve the earliermentioned goal, the researcher has prepared two lists, the first of which has included the following skills: pictureand-painting reading, story-telling, orally completing stories, conversation, oratory, discussion, courtesy, phonetalking, instructing, relation-building, apologising, and description. Whereas the second list has included the subskills for each field. The study has suggested that the female students suffer from a general weakness in oralexpression skills, where they lack the ability to express themselves fluently.
Abd-Alhameed's Study (1986) whose purpose is to discover the oral-expression skills and its fields that are suitable for the elementary-stage students. Additionally, it also points out the level to which students are able to master such skills, and constructs enrichment programmes, whose study subject has included 600 randomly selected students from both genders. Therefore, to achieve that, the researcher has comprised two questionnaires: the first of which includes oral-expression skills suitable for elementary-stage students. While the second of which has tackled the preferred oral-expression fields. The study has hinted at a plethora of results, namely: students' oral-expression weakness is attributed to a wide range of causes, such as: the inaccuracy of the study plan, the overall weakness in Arabic teachers, the lack of a curriculum that teaches students how to express each class on its own, and not bearing in mind the students' interests when it comes to select the oral-expression topics handed to them.
Comments on Related Studies: The researcher has used the previous studies to prepare the study tool, comparing results and explaining them. This study is distinguished by: A -It tackles the Arabic-department student's position level of oral-expression skills in the fields of: ideas, vocabulary, style, sub-context, morphology and syntax, phonics, fluency, courtesy, the speakers' appearance and psychology, eye-movement and facial expressions. B -It is the first study -as far as the researcher knows -to tackle Arabic-department students' level of the oralexpression skills at Jadara University within its ten aspects.

Method and Procedures: Study Methodology:
The researcher has followed the descriptive approach as it is the best approach for such a study, for it describes the phenomenon as is and explains it. Study community: the study community consists of the Arabic-department students at Jadara University during the first academic term 2019/2020 as a total number of (480) students from both genders. Study subject: after determining the study community, the researcher has randomly selected the study subject as he distributed 200 questionnaires and received back 197 questionnaires. Table 1 shows the distribution of the study subject according to the variables: Journal of Education and Practice www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1735 (Paper) ISSN 2222-288X (Online) Vol.11, No.8, 2020  To answer the study questions and achieve its goals, the researcher has developed a tool to measure oral-expression skills amongst the study subject. After the researcher has reviewed the research parameters in this field and benefiting from the earlier studies' scales: (Al-Khamayseh 2012) (Al-Swerki 2011). The study tool consists of two parts: 1-First part: consists of personal information related to: gender, academic level and GPA. 2-The second part: consists of 46 parts showing the level of oral-expression skills, divided into 10 aspects: idearelated skills, vocabulary-related skills, style-related skills, context-related skills, morphology-related skills, phonic-related skills, fluency-related skills, courtesy-related skills, physiology-related skills and eye-movementand-facial-expressions skill. A scale of five degrees has been used to answer each part. Each part has been given the following answer: (Very high, High, Average, Weak, Very weak) degrees as follows (1,2,3,4,5). The participant level is calculated by summing his degrees in each aspect and summing the degrees of all aspects to get the total sum of the questionnaire. The participant's degree averages between (46-230). Therefore, in order to comment on the arithmetic average, the researcher has set three levels as the following: Low level: (1 -less than 2.33) Average level: (2.33 -less than 3.67) High level: (3.67 -less than 5.00) Study-Tool Veracity: The study tool has been reviewed by a number of judges experienced in teaching methods and Arabic-Language and literature from Jadara and Al Yarmouk Universities, to assure the efficiency of the study tool paragraphs. The researcher has benefited from the judges' comments by adjusting the language and the paragraphs' structure, in addition to deleting and readjusting some of the paragraphs. The researcher has also used the paragraphs accepted by the judges, resulting in the final shape of the tool, divided into 46 paragraphs tackling the oral-expression areas.

Study-Tool Consistency:
The researcher has assured his tool consistency by applying Alpha Cronbach test, the internal consistency factor scored (0.93) which is suitable for the study purposes according to researcher's perspective. Table (2) shows the consistency rate for each aspect of the study and for the tool in total.
Journal of Education and Practice www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1735 (Paper) ISSN 2222-288X (Online) Vol.11, No.8, 2020  Study-Applying Procedures: 1-Conducting the study and ensuring its consistency. 2-Distributing the study tool to the study subject and teachers in Irbid's governorate asking them to answer the tool according to their perspective as the following: Very high with 5 degrees, High with 4 degrees, average with 3 degrees, low with 2 degrees or extremely low with 1 degree. 3-The questionnaires have been collected, examined, and processed their data through the computer to conduct the required analytic processes on the subject's questions, using SPPS program.
Statistical Processing: The following statistical processing have been applied: 1-Alpha Cronbach: to ensure the study-tool consistency and how constantly applicable it may remain. 2-Standard deviation and arithmetic has been applied to diagnose the level of oral-expression skills for Arabicdepartment students at Jadara University from their perspective, according to (gender, academic year, GPA) factors. 3-Applying (Independent Samples T-Test) on the study tool in its entirety according to the gender factor on the level of oral-expression skills for the Arabic-department students at Jadara University. 4. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA): to know if there is any difference in determining the level of the holistic quality standards that should be attributed to the academic year, qualification and how they interact.
Study Results: After analysing data, and in light of possessing the study questions and variables the results are as follows: Question-One Results tackle the levels of oral-expression skills in the Arabic department students at Jadara University from their perspective on the following aspects: ideas-related skills, vocabulary-related skills, stylerelated skills, sub-context related skills, morphology and syntax-related skills, phonic related skills, fluencyrelated skills, courtesy-related skills, physiological can appearance-related skills, eye movement and facial expressions-related skills.
To answer this question the researcher has extracted the standard deviation and arithmetic of the study subject answers on the study tool, as table 3 shows: Journal of Education and Practice www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1735 (Paper) ISSN 2222-288X (Online) Vol.11, No.8, 2020  This order indicates that courtesy-related skills have come in first according to the students' perspective, whereas the sub-context-related skills have come in last, which needs the most priority. Also, it is the sub-context that is the most essential factor in both written and oral forms. This conclusion matches with both results from Al-Khamaiseh's study in 2012, and Al-Swerki's in 2011. As for the speaker's psychological, phonic, and appearance factors have come in first. Whereas the sub-context has come in last. To have a better understanding of the result regarding the study-subject skills, the researcher has extracted the arithmetic and the standard deviation of the students' answers about each aspect in the study paragraphs individually.  (4) shows the average of the study-subject answers on the idea-related skills has ranged between (3.33-4.13). Paragraph 6 discusses highlighting the topics' main idea has come first with average of (4.13) with a high degree Whereas paragraph (4) goes over avoiding digressions in favour of idea-centrality has come last with an average of (3.33) having an average rating. The total average of idea-related skills is (3.74) with a high rating, indicating that the students' weakness in generating ideas. The researcher clarifies that the issue is caused by the fact that a large number of students are intellectually and culturally poor. Also, the researcher hints at many students do not enjoy uninterrupted, sustained reading. This finding agrees with the results of (Al-Khamayseh 2012) and (Al-Swerki 2011) studies.
Table ( Vol.11, No.8, 2020 As table (5) shows the average of the study-subject answers on the vocabulary-related skills has ranged between (34. 7-4.12). Paragraph 1 studies choosing vocabulary appropriate for the topic has come first with an average of (4.12) with a high rating. Whereas paragraph (3) whose concern revolves around choosing standard-Arabic phrases has come last with an average of (3.47) and an average rating. The total average of vocabularyrelated skills is (3.67) with a high rating. The researcher explains that the absence of encouraging students to use standard Arabic and that some teachers do not use standard Arabic during their teaching which agrees with the results of (Al-Jbori 2012), (Al-Swerki 2011), (Al-Kalbani 1997) studies.
Table ( (6) shows the average of the study-subject answers on the context-related skills has averaged between (3.53-3.82), where paragraph (1) that goes over choosing vocabulary suitable for different situations has come first with an average of (3.82) with a high rating. However, paragraph (5) which deals with mixing between simple and compound sentences has come last with an average of (3.53) and an average rating. The total average of contextrelated skills is (3.71) with a high rating. The researcher explains that the large number of courses discussing different linguistic subjects. This finding disagrees with the results of both (Jawad 2009), (Al-Kalbani 1997) studies.  (7) shows the average of the study-subject answers on the sub-context-related skills has averaged between (3.33-3.92). As paragraph (2) examines the Subject Clarity has come first with an average of (3.92) with a high rating. In addition, paragraph (8) studies conciseness has come last with an average of (3.33) and an average rating. The total average of sub-context-related skills is (3.63) with a high rating. The researcher refers this issue to the limitedness of culture and intellect of the students, not encouraging students to extracurricular readings, not habitualising them to focus on concise and precise expression. This conclusion attests to what has been already discussed in both Al-Halaq's (2013), Al-Khamayseh's (2012), and Al-Swerki's (2011) studies.  (8) shows the average of the study-subject answers on the Morphology-and-Syntax-related skills has averaged between (3.44-3.84). As paragraph (1) focuses on correctly pronouncing words has come first with an average of (3.84) with a high rating. Furthermore, paragraph (3) studies avoiding syntactic mistakes has come last with an average of (3.44) and an average rating. The total average of morphology and syntax-related skills is (3.63) with a high degree. The researcher comments that the students are weak in the fields of morphology and syntax across all academic levels. This finding agrees with results of, (Al-Khamayseh 2012), (Al-Swerki 2011), (Jawad 2011) and (Al-Kalbani 1997) studies.  (9) shows the average of the study-subject answers on the phonic-related skills has averaged between (3.97-3.99) where paragraph (1) that focuses on voice clarity by appropriately enunciating each letter has come first with an average of (3.99) with a high rating. Furthermore, paragraph (2) exploring pronouncing words without stammering has come last with an average of (3.97) and a high rating. The total average of phonic-related skills is (3.98) with a high degree. The researcher sees that the students tend to focus on intonation and voice to make up for the lack of familiarity rather than focusing on an attractive sub-context. This conclusion agrees with results of (Al-Khamayseh 2012), and (Al-Swerki 2011) studies.  (10) shows the average of the study-subject answers on the fluency-related skills has ranged between (3.74-3.83) where paragraph (1) focuses on avoiding misplacing letters as a result of talking quickly has come first with an average of (3.83) with a high rating. Moreover, paragraph (2) which focuses on using the suitable rhythm while talking in terms of slowness or fastness. Whereas Paragraph (3) which deals with the ability of using the intonation to suit the meaning has come last with an average of (.3.74) and a high rating, the total average of fluency-related skills is (3.77) with a high rating. The researcher refers this finding to the fact that some students have gained the ability to control speaking rhythm. This has been caused by the extensive use of social media and the widespread availability of audio and visual materials using the appropriate intonation. The finding agrees with results of (Al-Khamayseh 2012), and (Al-Swerki 2011) studies. www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1735(Paper) ISSN 2222-288X (Online) Vol.11, No.8, 2020 (11) shows the average of the study-subject answers on the courtesy-related skills has ranged between (3.92-4.23). As paragraph (2) examining appreciating others' ideas has come first with an average of (4.23) with a high rating. Moreover paragraph (4) that focuses on being aware of sociolinguistics has come last with an average of (3.92) and a high rating. It has been concluded that the total average of courtesy-related skills is (4.08) with a high rating. The researcher elaborates that courtesy-related skills represented by appreciating others' ideas and being courteous are probably one of the most significant aspects of communication, around which revolves the educational process in universities. In turn, this finding goes in-line with results of (Al-Khamayseh 2012), and (Al-Swerki 2011) studies.  (12) shows the average of the study-subject answers on the psychological-and-appearance-related skills has averaged between (3.80-4.03) as paragraph (1) which tackles quick wits has come first with an average of (4.03) with a high rating. Moreover, paragraph (4), which discusses having self-confidence and being literarily courageous while expressing, has come last with an average of (3.98) and a high rating. The total average of the psychological-and-appearance-related skills is (3.98) with a high rating. The researcher explains that courtesyrelated, and quick-wit-related, and literary-related skills, especially those that dictate paying attention to the speakers' characteristics are probably the most significant aspects of oral expression. This conclusion does agree with the results of both (Al-Khamayseh 2012), and (Al-Swerki 2011) studies.  (1) whose subject is, using the appropriate signals that denote meaning, has come in first with an average (3.94), with a high rating. Whereas paragraph (2) whose subject is using body language that denotes meaning has come in last with an average (3.97) with a high rating. The average for the skills related to the eye-movement and facial expressions as an entirety is (3.87) with a high rating. The researcher attributes this result to the fact that some students tend to support their speech by being meticulous with the appearance, facial expressions, and body-language because they may not have the best of memories, or they may not find the suitable ideas that go with the situation. This result does coincide with both Al-Khamyseh's study (2012) and Al-Swerki's (2011).
Question-Two Results: Are there statistically significant differences with the statistic level (α ≤ 0.05) reflected on the oral-expression skills of the Arabic-Department students at Jadara University according to (gender, academic level, GPA) variables? To answer this question the Arithmetic and standard deviations of the study have been extracted according to Journal of Education and Practice www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1735 (Paper) ISSN 2222-288X (Online) Vol.11, No.8, 2020 (gender, academic level, GPA) variables, and the (independent Samples T-Test) has been applied on the study in general according to the (gender) factor. Also, (ANOVA) analysis has been applied on the study in general according to the (GPA) and the (academic level) factors. The results are as the following  (14) shows there are no statically significant differences at the level of ) α≤0.05 ( in the study-subject perspective regarding the study. (T-Test) results have not been statically significant, due to the close community of Jadara University shared by the students as they undergo the same circumstances. Nonetheless, this disagrees with the results of (Al-Khamayseh 2012) and (Al-Sfouh 2007) which indicate a statically significant difference in favor of the females.  (15) shows there are statically significant differences between averages of the study subjects' answers to the study due to the academic level, and to know the statistic impact of the differences, (ANOVA) test has been applied on the study according to the academic level as table (16) shows:  (16) shows there are no statically significant differences at the level of (α ≤ 0.05) of the study-subject perspective regarding the study in general due to the academic level, as (F) value is (0.63) which is not statically significant results. This can be attributed to the close community of Jadara university which all of the students share and also because the students study the same materials with the same lecturer. This result disagrees with the result of (Al-Sfouh) study which has shown statically significant differences in the favor of students with high GPA.  Table (17) displays some apparent differences in the averages of the study-subject answers regarding the level of Oral-Expression Skill of the Arabic-Department Students at Jadara University from their Perspective, where ANOVA test has been applied on the study tool according to the GPA variable.
Journal of Education and Practice www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1735 (Paper) ISSN 2222-288X (Online) Vol.11, No.8, 2020 Table 18 shows that there are no statistically significant differences at the level (α ≤ 0.05) of the study-subject opinions, where (F) value is (0.63), which is a non-statistically-significant value. Thus, it can be traced back to the fact that the students share the same academic circumstances.