網(wǎng)絡(luò)課程異軍突起

1、網(wǎng)絡(luò)課程異軍突起An army of new online courses is scaring the wits out of traditional uni versities. But can they find a viable bus in ess model?浩浩蕩蕩的新型網(wǎng)絡(luò)課程對(duì)傳統(tǒng)大學(xué)造成了不小的威脅，它能發(fā)展出可行的商 業(yè)模式嗎?DOTCOM mania was slow in coming to higher education, but now it has the venerable industry firmly in its grip. Since the lau

2、nch early last year of Udacity and Coursera, two SiliconValley start-upsofferi ngfree educati onthrough MOOCs, massive ope n on li necourses, the ivory towers of academia have been shaken to their foundations.University brands built in some cases over centurieshave bee n forced to con templatethe po

3、ssibility that in formatio ntech no logy will rapidly make their existi ng bus in ess model obsolete.Mean while, the MOOCs have multiplied in nu mber , resources and stude nt recruitme nt without yet hav ing figured out a bus in ess model of their own.網(wǎng)絡(luò)狂熱在教育界一直波瀾不興，不過最近網(wǎng)絡(luò)已征服這一神圣的行業(yè)。隨著 去年上半年硅谷兩家新秀 U

4、dacity和Coursera通過MOOC （大規(guī)模網(wǎng)絡(luò)公 開課平臺(tái)）開通免費(fèi)在線課程，象牙塔內(nèi)學(xué)術(shù)權(quán)威的地位遭到了動(dòng)搖。幾個(gè)世 紀(jì)以來聲名遠(yuǎn)揚(yáng)的大學(xué)也開始心里打鼓，擔(dān)心信息技術(shù)會(huì)很快造成其現(xiàn)行商業(yè) 模式過時(shí)。另外，在沒有自身商業(yè)模式的情況下，MOOC在數(shù)量、資源和招生人數(shù)上已翻了好幾番。Besides providi ng on li ne courses to their own （ge nerally fee-pay ing） stude nts, uni versities have felt obliged to join the MOOC revoluti on to avoid

5、being guillotined by it. Coursera has formed partnerships with 83 universities and colleges around the world, including many of America s top-tier institutions.除了為本學(xué)校的學(xué)生提供在線課程外（通常情況下須付費(fèi)），各個(gè)大學(xué)覺得自己有義務(wù)加入MOOC變革的陣營，從而避免被逼上絕路。Coursera已經(jīng)與來 自世界各地的83所大學(xué)建立合作關(guān)系，其中包括美國的不少頂尖學(xué)府。EdX, a non -profit MOOC provider fo

6、u nded in May 2012 by HarvardUn iversityand the MassachusettsIn stituteof Tech no logyandbacked with $60m of their money,is now a consortium of 28institutions,the most recent joiner being the IndianInstitute ofTech no logy in Mumbai. Led by the Ope n Un iversity, which pion eered distance-learning i

7、n the 1970s, FutureLearn,a consortium of 21British, one Irish and one Australia nuni versity,plus othereducational bodies, will start offering MOOCs later this year. But Oxford and Cambridge remai n aloof, refus ing to join what a seniorOxford figure fears may be a“ lemming-like rush ” into MOOCs.Ed

8、X是一家非盈利性 MOOC供應(yīng)商，由哈佛大學(xué)和麻省理工學(xué)院出資 6000 美元于2012年5月成立。如今它已發(fā)展成包括28個(gè)學(xué)校在內(nèi)的聯(lián)合體，最新成 員是印度孟買的技術(shù)學(xué)院。開放式大學(xué)是上世紀(jì)90年代遠(yuǎn)程教育的先驅(qū)，在其 帶領(lǐng)下由21所英國大學(xué)、一所愛爾蘭大學(xué)和一所澳大利亞大學(xué)組成的 FutureLearn將于今年下半年開始提供開放式課程。但是牛津和劍橋仍然敬而遠(yuǎn)之，劍橋的一位權(quán)威人士稱，他們不想“趨之若鶩”。On July 10th Coursera said it had raised ano ther $43m in ven ture capital, on top of the $22

9、m it banked last year. Although itsenro Ime nts have soared, and now exceed 4m stude nts, this is a huge leap of faith by inv estors that the firm can develop a viable bus in ess model. The new money should allow Coursera to build on any advantage it has from being a first mover among a rapidly grow

10、ing nu mber of MOOC providers.“ It is somewhat en terta ining to watchthe number of people jumping on board, ” says Daphne Koller, a Stanford professor and co-founder of Coursera. She expects it to become one of a “very small number of dominant players” .7月10日Coursera發(fā)布消息，在去年2200萬美元存款的基礎(chǔ)上，它又通過風(fēng) 投募集到

11、4300萬美元。它的招生人數(shù)也突飛猛進(jìn)，如今已突破400萬，這也使 得投資者信心猛增，認(rèn)為該公司能夠發(fā)展出可行的商業(yè)模式。Coursera 可以借助這筆新款項(xiàng)，充分發(fā)揮任何一個(gè)有利條件，在迅速增加的MOOC供應(yīng)商中搶占先機(jī)。斯坦福大學(xué)教授、Coursera創(chuàng)始人之一的Daphne Koller 說， 看到越來越多的人參與進(jìn)來可謂樂在其中。她希望 Coursera成為鳳毛麟角的 主導(dǎo)型玩家。The in dustry has similar n etwork econo mics to Amaz on, eBay and Google, says Ms Koller , in that“ con

12、tent producers go to where mostcon sumers are, and con sumers go to where the most content is.”Simon Nels on, the chief executive of FutureLear n, disagrees.“Anyone who thinks the rules of engagement have already been written by the existing players is massively underestimating the pote ntial of the

13、 tech no logy,” he says.Daph ne Koller 稱這一行業(yè)與亞馬遜、易貝和谷歌等網(wǎng)購經(jīng)濟(jì)類似，共同點(diǎn)在 于“供應(yīng)商逐消費(fèi)者而居，消費(fèi)者逐產(chǎn)品而居”。不過 FutureLearn 的首席 執(zhí)行官Simon Nelson 不認(rèn)同這一觀點(diǎn)。他認(rèn)為“如果有人認(rèn)為網(wǎng)絡(luò)課程的游 戲規(guī)則已被現(xiàn)存行業(yè)總結(jié)出來，那他就大大低估了網(wǎng)絡(luò)技術(shù)的潛力”。Certai nly, there is ple nty of experime ntati on with bus in ess models taking place. The MOOCs themselves may be free,

14、 but those beh ind them think there will be ple nty of reve nue opport un ities. Coursera has started charg ing to provide certificates for those who complete its courses and want proof, perhaps for a future employer. It is alsostarting to license course materials to universities that want to beef u

15、p their existing offering. However , it has abandoned for now attempts to help firms recruit employees from among Coursera stude nts, because cateri ng to the differe nt n eeds of each employer was “not a scalable model ” , says Ms Koller .自然，適用的商業(yè)模式還需要大量實(shí)驗(yàn)。網(wǎng)絡(luò)課程是免費(fèi)的，不過幕后經(jīng)營者 認(rèn)為并不缺乏賺錢的機(jī)會(huì)。Coursera 已開始向

16、修完全部課程并需要證明材料 （日后找工作時(shí)或許用得上）的學(xué)員提供收費(fèi)證書。還有些大學(xué)想要充實(shí)現(xiàn)行 課程，Coursera就為其課程教材頒發(fā)許可證。不過Coursera暫時(shí)不與公司合作招聘網(wǎng)絡(luò)課程學(xué)員，Daph ne Koller解釋說，雇主對(duì)雇員的要求千差萬別， “沒有可縮放的模型”來滿足他們的不同要求。For Udacity, in contrast, working with companies to train existing andfuture employees is now the heart of its bus in ess model. It has tie-ups wit

17、h several firms, includingGoogle. It recently formed apartnership with AT&T, along with Georgia Tech, to offer a master sdegree in computerscienee.Course materials will be free, butstudents will pay around $7,000 for tuition. EdX is taking yet another tack, selli ng its MOOC tech no logy to uni vers

18、ities like Sta nford, both to create their own MOOC offeri ngs and to make physically atte nding uni versity more attractive, by augme nting exist ing teachi ng.與之相反，Udacity的核心商業(yè)模式就是與公司合作，培訓(xùn)現(xiàn)任和未來的職員。 它與若干公司建立了聯(lián)系，其中包括谷歌。最近它與AT&T和喬治亞理工大學(xué)建立了合作關(guān)系，提供計(jì)算機(jī)科學(xué)專業(yè)的碩士學(xué)位。課程教材是免費(fèi)的，不過 學(xué)員要支付約7000美元的學(xué)費(fèi)。EdX則采取另一種套路，它將

19、MOOC技術(shù)賣 給斯坦福等大學(xué)，這樣既能開設(shè)自己的 MOOC網(wǎng)絡(luò)課程，又能通過充實(shí)現(xiàn)行 教學(xué)增強(qiáng)實(shí)體大學(xué)的吸引力。This lecture is brought to you by這堂課來自Alison, an Irish provider of free, mostly vocational education founded in 2007, before MOOCs got their n ame, is gen erat ing ple nty of reve nue by selli ng advertis ing on its site.“ Ads propelled radio

20、andTV, why not education? There is a lot of misplaced snobbery in education about advertising,” says Mike Feerick, Alison s founder . 愛爾蘭網(wǎng)絡(luò)課程（多為職業(yè)教育）供應(yīng)商Alison成立于2007年，那時(shí)MOOC 尚未得名。Alison通過在網(wǎng)站上展播廣告賺得盆滿缽滿。 Alison創(chuàng)始人Mike Feerick稱，“廣告促進(jìn)了廣播和電視的發(fā)展，教育為何不能分一杯羹呢？教育不該對(duì)廣告擺臭架子”。Ano ther importa nt category of MO

21、OC providers are publishers, says Rob Lytle of the Parthenon Group, a consultancy. He says firms like Pears on（part-ow nerof The Econo mist）that run educati onalbus in esses such as textbook-publish ing may thrive by offeri ng free MOOCs as a way to get people to buy their related paid content.咨詢機(jī)構(gòu)P

22、arthenon 集團(tuán)的Rob Lytle說，MOOC供應(yīng)商的另一種重要類別 是出版商。他說經(jīng)營教育類業(yè)務(wù)（如出版教材）、類似Pears on （持有經(jīng)濟(jì) 學(xué)人部分股權(quán)）這樣的公司，通過提供網(wǎng)絡(luò)課程，促使消費(fèi)者購買相關(guān)教材， 一定會(huì)蓬勃發(fā)展。Besides the un certa intyover which bus in essmodel, if any, willproduce profits, there is disagreeme nt over how big the market willbe. Some see a zero- or n egative-sum game, in

23、 which cheap on li ne providers radically reduce the cost of higher educationand drivemany traditional institutions to the wall. Others believe this effectwill be dwarfed by the dramaticin creasein access to highereducation that the MOOCs will brin g.就算找到合適的商業(yè)模式順利盈利，這一市場的規(guī)模大小仍然存在爭議。有些 人認(rèn)為會(huì)出現(xiàn)零和甚至負(fù)和的局

24、面，廉價(jià)的網(wǎng)課造成高等教育成本跳樓，將很 多傳統(tǒng)大學(xué)逼到絕路。其他人則認(rèn)為MOOC會(huì)顯著拓展接受高等教育的途徑， 這樣一來負(fù)面影響就不值一提。Mr Feerick predicts that the market will be commoditised, spelli ng trouble for many in stituti ons. But Anant Agarwal, the boss of EdX, reckons the MOOC providers will be more like online airline-booking services, expa nding the

25、 market by impro ving the customer experienee.SebastianThrun, Udacity s co-founder , thinks theeffect will be similar in magnitude to what the creation of cinema did to dema nd for staged ficti on: he predicts a tenfold in crease in the market for higher educati on.Feerick預(yù)測這一市場將被商品化，使很多大學(xué)陷入被動(dòng)。不過EdX

26、的老板Anant Agarwal 認(rèn)為，MOOC的供應(yīng)商就像網(wǎng)絡(luò)機(jī)票預(yù)訂服務(wù)一樣，通過改 善用戶體驗(yàn)來拓展市場。Udacity的聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人Sebastian Thrun則認(rèn)為網(wǎng) 絡(luò)課程的作用就像電影院對(duì)舞臺(tái)劇的影響一樣，他預(yù)測高等教育市場的規(guī)模將 擴(kuò)大十倍Sceptics point to the MOOCshigh drop-out rates, which in somecases exceed 90%. But Coursera and Udacity both insist that this reflects the differentexpectationsof consumers

27、of free products,who can browse costlessly. Both firms have now studied drop-outrates forthosestude ntswho start with the statedinten ti onoffin ishi ng,and found that the vast majority of themcompletethecourses.懷疑派指出MOOC提高了輟學(xué)率，在一些案例中甚至超過90%。不過Coursera和Udacity都堅(jiān)持這種情況反映了消費(fèi)者對(duì)免費(fèi)產(chǎn)品的不同預(yù)期， 他們可以分文不花瀏覽相關(guān)課程。根據(jù)學(xué)員的修課意向，兩家公司在課程伊始 就跟蹤調(diào)查學(xué)員的退學(xué)率，結(jié)果他們發(fā)現(xiàn)絕大多數(shù)學(xué)員修滿了課程。Besides LearnCapital, a Silicon Valley venture firm, and the WorldBank s InternationalFinanceCorporation,the participants inCoursera s $43m fund-raising included Laureate, an operator of for-profituniversities.Doug