comparative study

In the light of various studies carried out in various socio-economic areas, scientific and cultural development has been introduced as a prerequisite and fundamental factor for sustainable development of the societies. Obviously, universities, as a "scientific and intellectual command center of the society" have a fundamental and unique role and function. In order to achieve this, the most significant and fundamental problem or challenge of universities is the lack of a comprehensive and long-term plan that can clarify the prospects for university development, providing a reasonable and reliable framework for different types of activities such as educational, research, technology and support-staff activities. Since the strategic thinking in the management and planning of universities can be used as a solution to the challenges of the present age and to the strategic requirements of higher education institutions both inside and outside the country, so: The present study aims to "compare comparative strategic thinking in the management and planning of universities inside and outside the country "with the aim of identifying the main and subcomponents of management and strategic planning. This research is a comparative study in the field of university management.The research data have been analyzed to extract the main and subcomponents of strategic management using "factor analysis". The research findings showed that there are 6 main components and 6 sub-components in the comparative comparison of the strategic thinking in the strategic management and planning of universities inside and outside the country.

The main sources of all natural light are the sun, the moon and the stars. In other words, the principle source of illumination is the light as mediated by atmosphere. According to some philosophers, spiritual or holy light includes not only material and quantified aspect, but being non-physical properties it treats as a spiritual connector between god and man. The light is the main part of existence which not only contacts to the surface of objects, but also helps them form. In other words, light is the key of finding space fundamental in making holy places meaningful. The present paper tries to make a comparative analysis of lighting in some of the most famous sacred buildings around the world. As such, the methodology preferred in this piece of research is descriptive, analytic and comparative.

The increasing expansion of international trade, especially after World War II, on the one hand, and the interest of countries with free economic system to liberalize their commercial rules, on the other hand, have made law scholars to find ways to adapt with these changes. The result of this effort is called "International Trade Law." The necessity of economic and commercial cooperation between governments and the necessity of the cooperation of traders at the international arena as well as the uniformity of the laws and regulations governing documentary credits led the International Chamber of Commerce to for the first time introduce and approve this commercial customs and practice as a legal entity in 1933; these regulations were published under the title of Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credits (UCPDC) and were made available to traders. These regulations have been adapted to the changing commercial customs in line with the rapid changes in the world economy. The regulations are revised every ten years, and its latest revisions were published in 1993 under the title of the Publication 500. This paper will review the Iranian, US, and international law approaches bank documentary credits in order to explain the nature and legal implications of these international trade mechanisms in the light of the studies conducted, and, ultimately, make a comparison between the three legal sources mentioned.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare teacher’s empowerment systems based on in-service trainings. Methodology: The present study was practical in terms of purpose and qualitative research in terms of data collection using a four-stage approach introduced by George. Z. Brady and John Stuart Mill’s method of agreement .The statistical population included countries (Canada, South Korea, Japan, Finland, and Australia, due to the absence of African countries in the ranking, Malaysia due to its close cultural and political context) according to the ranking in Legatum Success Index (2019) and the characteristics of pre-service and in-service teacher training (Arthur Donald chaker and Richard Hines, 1997) that was selected based on purposive sampling .The information needed to answer the questions of this research has been collected through library documents, research reports, encyclopedias and university statutes, and site searches. Findings: Research findings show that teacher’s professional development should be considered as a process system and their professional development should be systematically designed, supported, budgeted and reviewed. This system should promote and make teachers effective. Conclusion: Each country’s principals and officials considering regional requirements along with upstream documents implement different measures and programs to improve the quality of teacher’s empowerment programs

As the use of paper-based portfolios and, more recently, ePortfolios began to attract unprecedent significance in many educational learning contexts, many researchers in the field of second and foreign language learning also begun to look more closely into their effects from diverse aspects. Nevertheless, a small number, if any, have addressed the issue from teachers and students' points of view in a comparative frame. This issue is even more noticeable in the Middle East, where portfolio learning has lately been incorporated in tertiary level studies. Hence, the present study compares students and teachers’ perception of the portfolio component of the English Foundation Program at Sultan Qaboos University in Oman. Seventy eight students and nine teachers participated in the study, where students expressed their ideas through a questionnaire, the teachers were interviewed to see how they perceive the portfolio element of the course. Using a mixed method for data collection and analysis, several chi-square tests were run to see if there is any significant difference between the perceptions of students and teachers. The results show that although the students generally agreed on the usefulness of the component, the teachers believe that it has lost its meaning.

The main purpose of this research is to explore various countries experiences about developing blended learning system in distance education universities. Blended learning, as a third wave in developing learning environment, has become commonplace after the resident and e-learning environments in universities. The goal of this movement is improving learning qualities, extending the boundaries of education and decreasing educational costs. In this study, a qualitative approach and a comparative method were used. The qualitative method was used to understand the social contexts of distance education universities and comparative approach was applied to compare universities in terms of observable categories. Among 17 distance mega universities in the world, four universities, including Indirah Gandhi National Open University in India, Anadulu Open University in Turkey, Open University of China ( OUC) , and Alberta Open University in Canada were selected using purposeful sampling. The data collecting tool consisted of a checklist that was prepared with emphasis on 10 categories of social and cultural features of the countries including general situation of public and higher education, distance education, policies related to blended learning, learning management system, content development and presenting method, learning activities and resources, support system, interaction systems, teaching and assessment method, and evaluation system of learning quality. The required data were also collected through note taking procedure from sites of universities and related articles and books. For data collection and analysis, George Brody's four-step method ( Description, Interpretation, Proximity, and Comparison) was used . At first, required data was gathered from articles, university web sites, and interaction with informed people through note taking. Next, data were interpreted after continuous review with regard to university social and cultural contexts. In the third stage, data was organized and categorized based on similarity and differences and then were compared. Results showed that each four universities uses British open university framework in organizational structure. Each university included blending learning in their system based on their polices. Along with self-learning textual content, the universities started providing electronic content and designing learning activates with using ICT possibilities, while the Athabasca University emphasizes on individual and group learning activities. In each four universities, using educational TV as a learning aid is common place. Support services system in each university is Commensurate with social and cultural conditions. Online synchronous and asynchronous teaching is part of teaching activities in each university, but its quality is different. Learning assessment in different in four universities, but formative and summative evaluations are emphasized in all universities. Quality assurance system in Athabasca and OUC is based on PLAR, in Anadolu University based on the Bologna scheme, and in Indirah Gandhi, based on Council of Higher Education. In this research, for developing blended learning in Payame Noor University, a framework is provided at the end.

To ensure the continuity of the training activity within the framework of the specific precau-tions for the Covid 19 health crisis , the regional centers for training and education profes-sions, such as universities and schools, have radically reversed their training strategy, from face-to-face training to alternating training mode known as `` hybrid training mode '', the training of which is provided remotely one week and face-to-face during the following week and vice versa. In this sense, digital platforms of social networks and videoconferencing soft-ware have been mobilized to succeed in the mission of trainers.  The objective of this article is to verify the contribution of videoconferencing software '' on training practices on the one hand and on the development of trainees' skills on the other hand, in order to trace a training methodology based on technological choices aimed at guar-anteeing maximum socio-professional performance. Finally, we confirm that despite the satisfaction of the majority of trainees 87% with respect to the advantages of videoconferencing tools in the process of assessing skills, technical, spa-tiotemporal and organizational disparities were noted among trainers compared to the use of digital tools in the evaluation (only 53% agree), or also in relation to the transition from one technological choice to another. 

Blockchain is one of the trending emerging technologies that enables immutable data storage over distributed ledgers. The fundamental features of blockchain technology, such as record and identity traceability and immutability makes it an attractive alternative for the state-of-the-art information systems. Thus, blockchain has found its way into various fields. In Iran, blockchain technology has been employed in different areas including: commercial mining platforms, secure exchange platforms, and innovative trustless projects. One of the main applications of blockchain is secure management of sensitive information, which makes it a suitable infrastructure for providing advanced control over data in police task forces. The motivation behind this research is to provide a conceptual framework for employing blockchain in law enforcement organizations by analysis and comparison of best practices in other countries and academic case-studies. We provide a systematic overview of case-studies by qualitative content analysis. Moreover, the reliability of our statistics is evaluated by Cohen's kappa coefficient roughly 0.64. Finally, the prioritized applications were evaluated by a 14 member experts panel through fuzzy Delphi method with a Kendall’s Coefficient of Concordance of W=0.711, indicating high rates of agreement among members. To this end, “trustless authentication systems”, “distributed data/resource/information management”, and “inter-department integrated information systems” were selected as most valuable applications of blockchain for police task forces and law enforcement agencies in Iran.