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This study investigates and fully identifies the challenges of the Iranian e-learning system. The approach was qualitative and the method was research synthesis. The statistical population consisted of studies from 2006 to 2019 in the field of challenges of the e-learning system of Iran collected with specific keywords from the country’s databases. A total of 48 studies were identified as relevant. They were screened in stages and evaluated based on their title, abstract, and content. The final 19 articles selected underwent content analysis, revealing that Iran’s e-learning system faces problems in eight dimensions: legal, human, educational, technological, sociocultural, support, economic, and managerial-organizational. The results of the analysis could serve as a model for countries with similar technology infrastructure and cultural features wishing to improve their e-learning systems.

The study was aimed at identifying the potentials of and barriers to the Smart School Project (SSP). Through the use of a mixed methods design, data were garnered from 746 school teachers, principals, and information technology experts, semi-structured interviews with 21 key informants and two researcher-designed questionnaires on the potentials of and barriers to SSP. The qualitative data were analyzed using three-stage coding and quantitative data were analyzed using exploratory factor analysis. The findings from the three data collection tools indicate 8 potentials and 9 barriers. SSP potentials include improving teachers’, principals’, and students’ knowledge, skills and attitudes toward using information and communication technology (ICT), access to quality e-content, increasing school facilities, potentials available in the social environment, developing curriculum beyond schools, student participation in the learning process, enhancing school and parent relationship, and social supports and enacted laws. Further, SSP development barriers are comprised of 9 themes including teachers’, principals’ and students’ lack of access to ICT and using it, vagueness in policies, missions, and goals of ICT integration into school curriculum, lack of support system and supervision, lack of specialized training for principals and teachers, barriers concerned with the nature of ICT, incompatibility of curriculum structure with ICT, structural and organizational barriers, cultural conditions and barriers, and lack of space and equipment.

Background: Assessment is one of the most important elements of any educational system, including the e-learning. Formative assessment is also a significant type of assessment, which plays a very important role in identifying students’ strengths and weaknesses and helping to improve learning in the e-learning system. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to identify weaknesses of formative assessment in the e-learning management system of Iran (case study: Shahid Beheshti University). Methods: The present study was qualitative research. The participants of the study consisted of the students of the e-learning Center of Shahid Beheshti University of Iran, 15 of whom were selected using a purposive sampling method. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data. Content analysis was also used to analyze the data. Results: Formative assessment in the e-learning management system of Shahid Beheshti University suffers from eleven substantial weaknesses: weakness in technology infrastructure resources, not using other formative assessment tools, weakness in giving and receiving feedback, inability to authenticate, weakness in class presentations, weakness in exercises and projects, weakness in online tests, weakness in discussions, inattention to formative assessment, restrictions on uploading assignments and activities, and observance of the ratio of teachers to students. Conclusions: The above weaknesses should be taken into consideration for the improvement of formative assessment, student learning, and the status quo.

The nature of silence in classroom is complex with different students possessing distinct beliefs, social norms, and cultural backgrounds. There are several factors that contribute to students’ reluctance to speak up and participate in classroom activities, such as linguistic, psychological, and sociocultural (Harumi, 2010) issues. Awareness of sources of silence on the part of EFL instructors may decrease misinterpretations regarding students’ level of engagement in language classrooms. Despite the available literature on Asian students’ silence (e.g., Littlewood, 2000), studies in the context of Iran are scarce and have mainly focused on exploring teachers’ perspectives in this regard. To help bridge this gap, we interviewed 28 university EFL students exploring their perceptions of the nature of reticence in classroom, its causes, and its consequences. Thematic analysis of the data yielded mixed results. Regarding its causes, silence might be because of students’ personality type and even a legitimate form of classroom participation. In some other cases, it seems to be the result of teachers’ emotionally negative feedback to questions and mistakes or, at a more general level, their authoritarian approach to students. In terms of its outcomes, student reticence was found to sometimes contribute to and sometimes hinder deeper mental engagement in classroom process. Based on the findings, some guidelines were proposed for instructors on how to deal with reticent learners.