Massive, open and online courses, also known as MOOC, have stirred discussions in China about how they can help improve education in the world’s most populous country.
大规模在线开放课程,又称“慕课”,在中国引发了激烈讨论。“慕课”能否帮助改善世界最大人口国——中国的教育呢?

The idea originated from the United States and is intended to break an educational resources imbalance to allow the less privileged free access to a good education. Of course, MOOC isn’t the only online learning tool, but what separates it from others is that it has content support from many leading universities like Harvard, MIT and Stanford. This attracts more people to sign up for courses, quizzes, discussions and lectures.
“慕课”起源于美国,最初目的在于打破教育资源不平衡、让较为贫苦的学生也能接触到优质教育。当然,“慕课”并不是唯一的在线学习工具,但它和其他在线教育不同的地方在于它拥有哈佛、麻省理工和斯坦福等世界领先学府的支持。这吸引了越来越多的人报名参与其课程、考试、讨论和讲座。

In the past two years, several top Chinese universities including Tsinghua, Peking and Fudan have begun offering content to MOOC websites such as Coursera, edX and Udacity in the US to promote their courses internationally. In June, Shanghai’s Fudan and Jiao Tong universities signed with United Kingdom-based open learning website , which is separate from MOOC, when Premier Li Keqiang visited the country.
在过去的两年里,清华、北大、复旦等国内顶尖大学也开始把自己的课程内容提供给Coursera、edX和Udacity等美国在线教育平台,借此提升课程的国际影响力。6月份李克强总理访问英国期间,位于上海的复旦大学和交通大学与英国在线教育网站签订了合作协议。

To some extent, Chinese educators and professors see MOOC more as an opportunity to change traditional teaching styles rather than a way to educate people.
在某些层面上来看,中国教育专家和学者教授认为,与其说“慕课”模式是一种新的教育方式,倒不如说它是一个改变中国传统教育方式的机会。

Peng Chongsheng, a professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s School of Pharmacy, was one of the first two local professors to launch a course on Coursera in December. The threemonth course, Traditional Chinese Medicine and Chinese Culture, attracted around 22,000 domestic and overseas learners.
上海交通大学药学院教授彭崇胜,是于12月份在Coursera率先开课的两位当地教授之一。他所开设的为期三个月的课程《中医药与中华传统文化》,吸引了国内外22000多名学习者。

“Overseas learners were far more active than Chinese learners, they really surprised me,” he said.
他说,“国外学习者比国内学生要活跃得多。”

A Malaysian student left numerous comments after every lesson and also helped others students solve questions.
其中有一位马来西亚学生,在每堂课结束后都会发表大量评论,同时还会帮助解答其他同学的问题。

“You can see students helping each other in translation and their desire to learn TCM, which is seldom seen in Chinese students,” Peng said.
彭教授说:“你可以看到,学生们非常渴望学习中医学、并热情地互相帮助彼此解决问题。而这一现象在中国学生中是很少见的。”

Peng added that he hasn’t regretted giving up weekends, holidays and scientific research to prepare videos for his online classes.
彭教授补充说,为准备在线课程的视频,他牺牲了大量的周末、假日时间和科研项目,而自己对此并不后悔。

“I feel like I’m an actor,” the professor said. “It’s so different from being a lecturer, but it’s all worth it when you see so many people who like your course so much.
“我感觉自己像是个演员,”彭教授说,“这和大学里的讲师非常不同,但看到有那么多的人喜欢你的课程,你就会感觉这一切都是值得的。”

Peng said it’s a shame that less than 10 percent of those who signed up for the course completed it. Only 3.6 percent passed the course and received a certificate. “Many online learners are not students and they give up easily due to busy work schedules or other reasons,” Peng said.
彭教授说,报名后、只有不到10%的学生完成了所有课程,对此他感到很可惜。只有3.6%的学员通过了考试并拿到了毕业证书。彭教授解释说:“许多在线学习者的身份并不是学生,由于工作繁忙及其他原因,他们很容易就会中途中断。”

He also said MOOC has some disadvantages. For example, participants who miss a class find it difficult to catch up as lecture videos are not online permanently.
他还说,“慕课”模式还是有些弊端的。比如说,由于讲座的视频不会永久存放在网络上,学生如果错过了一堂课、那么接下来就很难跟上后续课程了。

With the Internet being full of distractions like news, sports, movies, games and social networks, learning websites find they have a high dropout rate.
而互联网本身充满了资讯、体育、电影、游戏、社交网络等分散注意力的内容,学生在学习型网站的坚持性较差。

Xu Hua, vice president of online learning website hujiang.com, said online learning websites need to do more to motivate participants to complete the courses. He suggested quick quizzes and similar stuff to challenge learners.
在线教育网站沪江网副总裁徐华说,在线学习网站应该努力激发学员完成所学课程。他建议用类似快速测试的方式来增强对学生的学习挑战、进而刺激课程的完成率。

“Learning can be dull and lonely,” Xu said. If students don’t have anyone to interact with, they will give up easily when they encounter difficulties.”
“有时候,学习是无聊而孤独的。”徐华说,如果学生在学习的过程中没有和别人交流,那么在遇到问题的时候就很可能放弃。

He suggested making it easier for learners to get in touch with others in the class so they can share their enthusiasm for the subject and work out problems together.
他建议,让学生和同一课程中的其他学员交流更容易,这样他们就可以分享自己对这门课程的热情、并且一起解决难题了。

To promote interaction between learners, hujiang.com introduced a “virtual class” scheme. It imitates a real Chinese classroom in that it has class monitors, teaching assistants and classmates who help and encourage each other.
为刺激学习者之间的互动交流,沪江网实施了“虚拟教室”计划。虚拟教室模仿真实的中国课堂,不仅有班长、助教,同学们之间还可以相互帮助和鼓励。

“For example, if a learner misses a class, the class monitor will contact him to find out why and classmates will try to help others overcome difficulties so they all stay interested,” Xu said.
“举个例子,如果有一名学习者错过了一堂课,班长就会联系他,并且问清楚他为什么缺席了课堂、同时还会努力帮助他克服困难,这样就能保证学生的兴趣不减。”徐华说道。

Apart from keeping learners motivated, Xu said figuring out how to make money is important to sustain online learning platforms. The idea in MOOC’s case isn’t to turn a profit, but they do need a model that covers costs.
徐华说,除了让学员保持学习热情,探索在线教育平台的盈利模式也很重要。“慕课”模式的初衷并不是为了盈利,但他们需要一种经营模式来满足成本开销。

Xu said charging a small fee may work if there are enough people signing up for the classes.
徐华说,如果报名参加课程的人数足够多,小额收费或许可以起到帮助作用。

“As a company, it costs a lot to upload so many videos on the website,” Xu said. “We use flash and voice recordings now as most of our learners said they don’t need to see the teachers just as long as their voices are clear and easy to understand.”
“作为一家公司,上传众多的教学视频到互联网上是需要很大一笔开销的。”徐华说,“大部分学习者称,只要可以听见老师的声音、知识清晰易懂,他们其实是不需要看到老师的面孔的。所以,我们采用flash课件和音频结合的方式。”

now has more than 3 million paying users after it established an online school. However, about 90 percent of it’s educational resources on the website remain free.
沪江网自从创建在线课堂以来,已经积累了300多万用户。然而,沪江网近90%的教育资源仍然是免费的。

相关媒体报道:Shanghai Daily