As the Medium and Sub-culture:Rethink the MOOC’s Explorations in the Liberal Arts in a University From the Perspectives of Social Epistemology

In this paper,the researcher examines lessons from massive open online courses(MOOCs)in the liberal art in a university.It intends to define a research agenda into the social epistemology impact of MOOCs,in order to reflect on changes in academic sub-culture and on learning measurement among students in university.For this reason the researcher suggests focusing attention on three features of MOOC phenomenology:MOOCs as a social epistemology—an active policy initiative to promote greater democratization of education;MOOCs as a medium and an academic sub-cultural artifact(mediated texts,videos,interface,platform functionalities)able to convey learning to distant learners;and,lastly,MOOCs as a measurement—in other words as instrumentation(i.e.,learning statements,analytics,algorithms,visualizion tools,dashboards etc.)that allows students to monitor,analyze,and optimize the effectiveness of online teaching and learning.The paper also highlights their limits in these regards based on the perspectives of social epistemology.

Tissue Culture System for Different Hybrid of Indica Rice

The effect of varieties and media compositions on callus induction from rice anther and subsequent plant regeneration was studied. The results showed that the callus induction was not significantly different in different media, but mostly depended on genotypes; mean frequency of callus induction on F1 hybrid varieties showed that the medium supplemented with 100 mg·L^-1 concentration of the proline was useful for callus induction; when the anther derived callus sub-cultured on MS medium supplemented with BAP （0.5 mg·L^-1）, KT （1.0 mg·L^-1）, IAA （0.25mg·L^-1） and NAA （0.5 mg·L^-1） for plant regeneration, the frequency of regeneration ranged from 0 to 54.17%, and the highest differentiation index reached 30.5 after sub-cultured for three times; the plants were rooted after transferred to 1/2MS medium with NAA （0.5 mg·L^-1） and IAA （0.5mg·L^-1）.

The Otaku Culture and Its Cultural Ramifications

Just like there are fanatics in sports,music and in all spheres of life,there are individuals obsessed with animation,Japanese comics,video games and the fantasy world.These people,known as the“otaku”or literally translated as“nerds”in English,are the subject of this paper.The article describes the characteristics unique to the“otaku”individuals as well as how they interact inside and outside of their“otaku”world.In the beginning,there seemed nothing wrong with the“otaku”world;it was just a social trend.But during the early 1990’s,when Japan faced its first otaku serial killer,“Otaku”has become a subject of social concern in Japan.College students and young adults are strongly hit by this socio-psychological obsession with the imaginary world,causing real,not imaginary,social problems(Pustz,1999).This paper hopes to find answers to the following questions.What is“otaku”in relation to manga and animation?What are the characteristics of the“otaku”sub-culture?What is the psychological behavior of“otaku”individuals?By tracing the spread of internet cafes,manga and anime,and otaku conventions in Asia and Europe this paper aims to trace the cultural ramifications of Japanese animation overseas.