Aims: The study was conducted to explore the factors that influence the acceptance of Moodle (VLE) among students and to study the behavioral intention of students to use VLE in Royal University of Bhutan (RUB) based on modified technology acceptance model (TAM). Study Design: This exploratory research incorporated a quantitative approach. Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted in nine constituent colleges under Royal University of Bhutan (RUB) in the period of one year (2019-2020). Sample: A total of 384 samples were drawn from population size of 9590 students under RUB colleges proportionately by using Yamane (1967) formula of sample determination.  Methodology: The research used the modified TAM model to study the factors that influence the acceptance of virtual learning environment (VLE) and the behavioral intention of students to use VLE. This study mainly used primary data collected through a self-report online questionnaire adopted from context-based literature. Results: The study observed that while the facilitating condition (FC) has a weak positive effect on perceived usefulness (PU) of VLE, the users’ experience (E) has a very strong positive influence over it. However, self-efficacy (SE) and subjective norms (SN) do not affect PU. Similarly, SE, E and SN have a positive effect on perceived ease of use (PEU), but the effect of SE is observed to be very strong. However, FC does not affect PEU. PEU has a very strong positive effect on PU, and both PEU and PU strongly affect the behavioral intention (BI) to use VLE. BI also has a strong positive affect on actual system use (SU). The study also observed that students in RUB demonstrate a high degree of behavioral intention to use VLE which appears to be a strong indicator of actual system use. Conclusion: The study concludes that the students’ experience in using VLE is comparatively more important determinant of perceived usefulness than the technical and infrastructural support that enables them to use VLE; the better the experience of using VLE the more useful it appears. Similarly, students’ ability and the perceive social pressure to use VLE do not influence the students’ perception about the usefulness of it. However, if students are confident in their ability to use VLE, it appears easy to them, and if they perceive VLE to be user friendly, they consider it very useful. Students intend to use VLE when they are convinced that the system is useful and easy to use.

Aim: The main purpose of this study was to determine college students’ attitude towards reading against the backdrop of perceived poor habit of reading among Bhutanese students and evidences showing decline in attitude towards reading observed among students as they matured. Study Design: Descriptive survey. Place and Duration of the Study: Gedu College of Business Studies (GCBS), a constituent college under the Royal University of Bhutan, during the 2019 academic session. Methodology: The authors administered Elementary Reading Attitude Survey (ERAS) questionnaire to 500 freshmen. Results: A descriptive statistical analysis of questionnaires returned revealed a positive attitude towards reading. Specifically, from the two types of reading, the respondents preferred recreational reading slightly more than the academic reading. In addition, an independent-samples t-test revealed a statistically significant attitudinal differences between genders towards reading. In both cases, female-respondents were found more positive towards both recreational and academic reading than their male counterparts. Conclusion: Analysis of the data revealed that the freshmen of GCBS held positive attitude towards reading with slight preference being given to recreational reading. Also, from the two genders, independent-samples t-test showed that females were more positive towards reading than males.

This paper reports a survey of Bhutanese teachers’ Perception and Practices of Teaching Grammar in Higher Secondary Schools in Bhutan. The teaching of grammar in Bhutanese school is predominately guided by curriculum, whereby context-based teaching is mostly encouraged. The descriptive analysis based on quantitative findings of the study indicated that Bhutanese teachers generally believed that the formal study of grammar is essential to the eventual mastery of a foreign or second language.  The study also showed that grammar is generally believed to be best taught explicitly, inductively or deductively, but not implicitly. Moreover, the teachers' remark on the importance of systematic practice of grammatical features and detailed error correction suggests that there is a preference for more extensive treatment of grammatical issues.  The findings of the present study also indicate that, like the teachers reported in the 2002 and 2008 studies, teachers in Bhutan appreciate the centrality of grammar in their language teaching. This descriptive analysis based on quantitative findings would be beneficial to the curriculum developers, teachers, and lecturers in developing students’ grammar skills and providing professional development to teachers for effective delivery of grammar lessons

Entrepreneurship plays an important role in generating employment opportunities, enhancing public income and promoting societal change, particularly in a budding economy like Bhutan. Given its importance to the country, this paper investigates the challenges faced by aspiring entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial ventures, and their future prospects in Bhutan. The paper adopts qualitative research methodology to study the perspective of business educators through a semi-structured interview with fifteen participants from Gedu College of Business Studies located at Gedu, Bhutan. The study reveals that, due to a range of challenges the aspiring entrepreneurs and the entrepreneurial ventures face today, the Bhutanese entrepreneurs have a long way to go before they can effectively drive changes in the economy. However, the findings suggest that there is a good prospect for the entrepreneurial ventures in the country, and the ventures will have an undue advantage if it can leverage on the technological support from other countries. To ease the way for entrepreneurs in the country, the study finds it important to encourage the consumption of indigenous products by discouraging the import of the goods and services that can be produced within the country, regulate the price of the home made product, explore market and marketing facilities beyond the country to encourage large scale production, initiate discussion about entrepreneurship and the associated benefits at school levels and also take adequate infrastructural facilities (water, electricity and transportation network) across all parts of the country.

Purpose Improving eye health awareness in the underserved population is a universal eye health priority. The ubiquity of cell phones and internet usage provides new and innovative opportunities for health promotion. This study evaluated the effect of mobile health intervention (text message link) to promote eye health literacy (EHL) of priority ocular morbidities. Methods This study was an intervention evaluation and employed a two-armed pre-test post-test approach. Baseline assessment on EHL was performed on 424 university students. Participants were categorised into intervention and control groups, using the 1:1 allocation ratio. The intervention and control group received a text message alone and text message with a link, respectively. EHL was assessed via a self-administered questionnaire. The primary outcome measures were changes in EHL scores between baseline and one month post-intervention. Descriptive analysis was performed to assess the cost-effectiveness of the intervention. Results With low attrition and a response rate of 95.6%, 409 responses were eligible for analysis. The mean age of the participants (49.4% males and 50.6% of females) was 19.9±1.68 years. Baseline EHL scores were low, and there was no correlation with a demographic profile (all p<0.05, CI 95%). The demographic characteristics were similar between the two groups (for all, P <0.05, CI 95%) at baseline. The EHL scores improved in both groups between the pre-and post-test assessment; however, improvements were statistically significant only in the control group. The one-month post-intervention EHL scores were also higher in the intervention group compared to the control (p≤0.001, CI 95% for all). The total cost incurred for the intervention used was 11.5 USD. Conclusion Text message link demonstrated effectiveness for improving the EHL scores; the low baseline EHL scores substantially improved with intervention. The text message link intervention is a cost-effective method and could be considered in advocating for eye health in developing countries, particularly during global emergencies.