Bridging the gap: online materials to equip graduate entrants to a law degree with essential subject knowledge and skills

Graduate entrants to law degrees can be disadvantaged by being exempted from Level 4 modules. Many lack the law-specific knowledge and skills that they would have gained from their first-year studies, making it more difficult for them to achieve mastery of higher-level modules. This poses risks to their retention and progression. The Open University Law School sought to bridge this gap by providing optional online “catch-up” materials, including 12 sessions of knowledge-based learning. Each session was followed by a brief Moodle poll so that we could ascertain that session’s fitness for purpose, and which students had studied it. The sessions were highly rated by respondents, and most had been studied in the target time of around 15 minutes. Studying the sessions was statistically associated with academic success. This finding does not prove that the sessions contribute towards student's attaining higher grades, but it is encouraging. Only a small percentage of students studied any sessions, and most of those did not study all of them. Since the sessions met their intended purpose for those who studied them, the Law School has now decided on a range of initiatives designed to increase the number of LLB students who study most of them.     

高职院校的MOOC在线课程建设浅析

两千年前，孔子开启中国的第一个课堂教学模式。21世纪，国内大部分高校课堂依然如此，只不过多了个话筒和PPT演示。在信息技术不断日新月异的现在，学生和教师的需求并没有得到更好的满足。MOOC，又称慕课，是高职院校网络课程建设的新动态，高职教育改革的新起点。高职院校的MOOC课程建设应当立足高职教学实际，优化教学设计，丰富教学资源，充分利用学院教学资源平台，建设在线课程，逐步加大网络辅助教学，以适应网络技术发展对教学提出的新要求。     

Partisan Media and Engagement: A Field Experiment in a Newly Liberalized System

How does media exposure affect political engagement in newly liberalized systems? Some celebrate newly vibrant and diverse media, believing that they mobilize citizens. Others worry that these outlets, which are often partisan, dampen engagement. We theorize that exposure to political programming engenders interest in politics irrespective of program bias, but that interest does not necessarily beget action. Partisan media affect participation only when altering attitude strength, and thus motivations. To evaluate media effects on interest and participation, we conducted a field experiment in Ghana, in which subjects in tro-tros (commuter vans) were randomly exposed to different types of live talk radio. We find that partisan and nonpartisan media increased political interest, but not participation. Instead, exposure to alternate perspectives on cross-cutting media (i.e., those biased against subjects’ partisan preferences) heightened ambivalence and dampened participation, measured as signing a petition to parties. Partisan media simultaneously increased interest and decreased participation.     

基于电子产品消费的当代中国消费主义文化初探

随着经济全球化的深入和市场经济的建立,中国已经迈入消费主义时代。西方消费文化的扩张对中国社会传统的消费观念造成了强烈的影响和冲击,消费文化已经逐步取代传统文化而成为社会的主流意识形态。随着信息时代的到来,电子产品的消费在当前中国消费格局中占据越来越重要的地位。基于电子产品的特点,它从符号化过程、时尚制造和传媒互动等方面凝聚了消费主义文化的内涵。     

Shaping the online fat acceptance movement: talking about body image and beauty standards

Over the past decade, in Canada and the United States, blogs have become a popular and important space for fat women and their allies to create and further develop discursive strategies to contest the gendered anti-fat discourses perpetuated by the media, governments and the field of medicine and institutions of public health (e.g., Elliot, C. (2007). Journal of Canadian Studies, 41, 134–149. Gimlin, D. (2002). Body work: Beauty and self-image in American culture. Berkeley: University of California Press; Herdon, A. M. (2006). Social Semiotics, 15, 127–141. Rice, C. (2007). Women's Studies International Forum, 30, 158–174. Currently, popular discourses pertaining to fat people, particularly women, tend to range from larger bodies implicating a ‘moral deficit’ to a ‘risky behaviour’ to ‘political discrimination’ where elements from each discourse shape how fat women's bodies are read within the broader culture (Fikkan, J. L., & Rothblum, E. D. (2011). Sex Roles, 66, 575–592. Kwan, S. (2009). Sociological Inquiry, 79, 25–50. These messages in positioning the thin body as the ideal body are embedded in neoliberal discourses around citizenship that, in emphasizing personal responsibility, encourage (sometimes) punishing regimens of strict diets and exercise, and perpetuate an image of responsible citizenship as an extension of modern interpretations (Herdon, 2006). Using content and thematic analysis, we systematically analyze how four female self-identified fat acceptance (FA) bloggers discuss beauty standards and body image as a means to challenge these discourses. Findings suggest bloggers import elements from LBGTQ movements to extend dominant discursive strategies, model alternative forms of fat embodiment, and address the economic marginalization of fat women in industry. Moreover, through discussions on beauty and body image, bloggers use online spaces to contest anti-fat discourses and to develop discursive strategies that move beyond the binary of fat as a lifestyle choice, and body size as biologically or genetically determined that dominate the fat acceptance movement.     

论政府社会管理的理论依据与机制创新——基于新兴媒体时代的视角分析

马克思主义空间理论为我们理解新兴媒体所构成社会空间的本质，探索政府社会管理实践机制提供了理论依据。针对新兴媒体构建的新型文化空间，要求政府创新社会管理运作机制，提高政府的空间引导能力与空间传播能力。针对新兴媒体构筑的新型交往空间，要求政府创新社会管理调控机制，提高政府的空间执政能力与空间对话能力。针对新兴媒体构造的新型政治空间，要求政府创新社会管理动力机制，提升政府空间引导能力和空间驾驭能力。     

互联网金融快速发展对银行经营的影响探析

互联网金融以其便捷、高效、低成本等优势对银行传统金融业务不断进行渗透,对银行经营造成了一定的影响。一方面,迅速发展的互联网金融业务在我国金融市场上发挥了"鲶鱼效应",成为我国金融体系的有益补充,填补了银行等正规金融机构的服务盲区。另一方面,互联网金融业务的迅速发展也给银行经营带来了不小的竞争压力,造成了银行存款流失、资金成本上升、小微企业贷款客户流失、代理支付结算业务利润下降等一系列问题。     

新媒体环境下大学生爱国主义教育创新研究

新媒体技术的发展,为当代大学生提供各样文化知识便利的同时,也给新形势下大学生爱国主义教育的开展带来了巨大的挑战。客观审视与分析新媒体的主要特征和认真梳理新媒体环境对大学生爱国主义教育所产生的影响,扩大有利因素,剔除有害因素,充分运用新媒体创造性的开拓创新大学生爱国主义教育的新型阵地、不断深化对大学生爱国主义教育的认识和引导、建立健全媒体信息管控、加强当代大学生的爱国主义自我教育监督是当前新媒体形势下大学生爱国主义教育急需解决的问题。     

提升中俄经贸关系需要媒体助阵

从新闻传播的真实性与公正性原则出发,探讨媒体在中俄战略伙伴关系中发挥的三种作用:“尊重事实避免虚假新闻”、“摒弃炒作负面新闻”和“引导沟通充当经贸桥梁”。目的在于从大众传媒领域找到推进中俄战略伙伴关系的新动力。     

An Empirical Investigation of the Factors Affecting the Use of Social Networks in Human Resources Recruitment

ABSTRACT

The main objective of this study is to investigate the factors affecting the use of social networks towards recruiting human resources for organizations. Through an in-depth review of the relevant literature, a questionnaire was designed and distributed among the sample and collected data were analyzed using PLS-Software. Results revealed that 50?75% of organizations use social networks in their organizations and all the identified effective factors in the use of social networks for human resources recruitment were confirmed, except for “hope for performance”. “Facilitating conditions” have the highest impact on the usage of social networks in recruiting, “Social influence” identified as one of the most important factors in people’s behavioral intention for the usage of social networks in recruitment and “Effort expectancy” had the least impact on behavioral intention. In addition, Gender and the level of education have no impact on the behavioral intention and the behavior of usage of social networking.