Commodified science and social wellbeing

This paper explores the increasing trend towards the commodification of public research and development (R&D) and the impact of this on social wellbeing. In many developed countries, the changes introduced by governments to funding mechanisms for universities and public research institutions has led to a fundamental shift in the focus of public R&D. The focus has shifted from creating useful public, codifiable knowledge to creating a knowledge commodity driven by commercial imperatives. Although there may be an economic argument to be made for the virtues of such change, we argue here that the potential costs to social wellbeing have been largely, and dangerously, ignored.

Computer mediated communication for social and academic purposes: Profiles of use and University students’ gratifications

The present study approaches the Internet as a social space, where university students make use of computer mediated communication (CMC) applications, i.e. e-mail, instant messaging and social network sites, in order to satisfy social and academic needs. We focus on university students, because they represent one of the most avid groups of CMC users and additionally, because they are expected to carry their perceptions of media with them into the work place and their social life. In order to investigate this issue, we conducted an empirical research using, as a target group, a sample of students from a specific Greek University. Grounded in the “uses and gratifications” perspective, we investigated the various profiles of CMC use by students along with (a) the students’ perceptions about social and academic usefulness of CMC applications, (b) the extent up to which these perceptions are correlated with students’ prior experience with the use of CMC applications, and (c) how both of these factors can predict the frequency of present use of CMC for social or academic purposes respectively. The results reveal that although these three CMC applications constitute “functional alternatives” (media that satisfy similar needs) they are different to the degree of their “functionality” for the gratification of social and academic needs. Furthermore, the degree of CMC use by students is not correlated with the years of CMC experience, but with the profile of use that students dynamically adopt according to their daily needs and preferences. The results provide evidence for the current CMC use by university students and can be useful for the implementation of further academic policies regarding CMC use in Higher Education settings.     

The effects of personality traits,self-esteem,loneliness, and narcissism on Facebook use among university students

This study examined the relationship between three of the “Big Five” traits (neuroticism, extraversion, and openness), self-esteem, loneliness and narcissism, and Facebook use. Participants were 393 first year undergraduate psychology students from a medium-sized Australian university who completed an online questionnaire. Negative binomial regression models showed that students with higher openness levels reported spending more time on Facebook and having more friends on Facebook. Interestingly, students with higher levels of loneliness reported having more Facebook friends. Extraversion, neuroticism, self-esteem and narcissism did not have significant associations with Facebook use. It was concluded that students who are high in openness use Facebook to connect with others in order to discuss a wide range of interests, whereas students who are high in loneliness use the site to compensate for their lack of offline relationships.     

udpSkeduler: A Web architecture based decision support system for course and classroom scheduling

A key process for post-secondary educational institutions is the definition of course timetables and classroom assignments. Manual scheduling methods require enormous amounts of time and resources to deliver results of questionable quality, and multiple course and classroom conflicts usually occur. This article presents a scheduling system implemented in a Web environment. This system generates optimal schedules via an integer-programming model. Among its functionalities, this system enables direct interaction with instructors in order to gather data on their time availability for teaching courses. The results demonstrate that significant improvements over the typical fully manual process were obtained.     

网络环境下高校图书馆文献传递发展现状研究——以武汉纺织大学图书馆为例

通过对武汉纺织大学图书馆文献传递的服务方式、传递途径、数据统计分析等方面进行探讨,提出一些对策及建议,以促进文献传递更好的为高校教学科研服务。     

浅谈民族院校哲学社会科学的社会责任

民族院校哲学社会科学应在承担社会责任、为社会谋福祉中寻求发展。民族院校哲学社会科学应追求履行社会责任能力与其他普通综合性大学的同质化,这包括教学育人、科学研究、服务社会、引领时代精神四个方面。民族院校哲学社会科学应区分民族文化研究和应用研究,在应用研究应追求与普通综合性大学的同质化。     

大学生生活方式二重性研究——基于网络二重属性的影响

网络自然属性与社会属性既相互联系又相互区别;大学生生活方式自然属性与社会属性也相互联系并相互区别;网络二重性对大学生生活方式二重性产生直接的影响。网络的自然属性重塑大学生的社会结构,二重地改变着大学生生活的时空结构。网络的社会属性削弱大学生现实社会关系的不平等性;改变大学生生活的社交范围,并为其提供更新的社交方式;二重地影响着大学生的思想与心理。     

高校教师职业倦怠与幸福感相关研究

目的：探讨高校教师职业倦怠与幸福感的关系。方法：使用《教师职业倦怠问卷》和《综合幸福问卷》对219名高校教师进行问卷调查。结果：高校教师幸福指数得分为5.36±1.66分;高校教师职业倦怠程度较轻;职业倦怠中情感衰竭、非人性化、低成就感与幸福感各维度存在显著相关关系;多元逐步回归表明情感枯竭和低成就感对高校教师幸福感有显著影响。结论：高校教师职业倦怠与幸福感密切相关。     

中外大学生创业教育培养体系的对比研究

英美国家开展大学生创业教育的历史较早,有许多成功经验。文章探讨了英美高校创业教育在专业设置、培养方案、师资队伍建设、实践环节等方面的实践,比较了中外大学生创业教育中的差距,指出了中国高校创业教育存在的问题,希望能为国内开展创业教育提供思路。     

信息化时代高校档案管理人员的职业素质

随着人类社会信息化的到来,档案学研究领域的开阔与多学科化,研究内容的丰富与深化,档案工作实践中层出不穷的新事物、新问题要求高校档案工作人员具有较高的综合素质。当今社会信息技术的发展速度已经超过了档案行业队伍建设的速度,因此对档案管理人员的培训和培养迫在眉睫。