As 2013 dawned, there remained a faint pro-MOOC glow following the “Year of the MOOC” in 2012 (as the New York Times described it). Times columnist Thomas Friedman, writing on Jan. 26, was still declaring that universities were in the midst of a “revolution” brought on by massive open online courses. A day later, Don Tapscott, writing for the Globe and Mail from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, gushed that this was “the week university (as we know it) ended.”
2012年曾被称为“大规模在线开放课程之年” （引用《纽约时报》的说法）。2013年伊始之际，对大规模在线开放课程的赞誉之声仍未停歇，《时代》周刊撰稿人托马斯·弗莱德曼在1月26日的期刊上称道，大型公开在线课程已经引发了一场教育革命，这场教育革命正在各大高校中展开。第二天，在瑞士达沃斯参加世界经济论坛的唐·塔普斯科特在为《环球邮报》撰写的稿件中称，“周一到周五的传统教育方式已经走向了终结。”

Taking these two as marking one bookend to the year, the other bookend would most certainly be Sebastian Thrun’s declaration in late November in Fast Company that the MOOC provider he founded, Udacity, doesn’t “educate people as others wished, or as I wished. We offer a lousy product.” Speaking about the quality of Udacity courses, he said, “We’re not doing anything as rich and powerful as what a traditional liberal-arts education would offer you.”
这两个人的观点标志着人们对大规模在线开放课程2013年发展的一种评价趋向，而塞巴斯蒂安·特龙的观点则代表着对大规模在线开放课程的另一种评价取向。他在11月下旬为《快速公司》杂志撰写的稿件中称，自己创建的大规模在线开放课程供应商品牌Udacity“没有如他人希望的，或我自己所期望的那样完成传道授业的使命。我们的产品是不尽人意的。” 谈到Udacity大规模在线开放课程平台上的网络课程质量，他说，“我们所提供的教育资源，远不及传统的大学文科教育所能提供的教育资源那样丰富多彩而影响深远。”

That, readers, was the sound of the MOOC bubble – as envisioned by Thrun and a coterie of venture capitalists – bursting. As 2012 was the year of the MOOC, 2013 was predictably the year of the MOOC backlash – or, at the very least, the end of the MOOC hype.
读者们，特龙一语道出了大规模在线开放课程泡沫的破碎，他和一小群风险投资家对此早有预感。如果说2012年是大规模在线开放课程之年，那么2013年可想而知应是大规模在线开放课程短暂退潮的一年——或者用最保守的说法说，是大规模在线开放课程效应减退的一年。

Having not just one year, but two years in a row, linked with MOOCs may seem a bit much to those of you in higher-ed whose daily working lives do not revolve around MOOCs – i.e., most of you. However, there is no denying how much oxygen the MOOC conversation has sucked up, not just in North America but globally, far beyond any other higher-ed topic. And while the MOOC hype was overblown, there remain dozens – likely hundreds – of examples of experimentation going on with open, online learning. Some of these projects, such as those funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation through its MOOC Research Initiative, aim to fill the research gap about the impact of MOOCs on teaching and learning and are leading to some very interesting conversations.
对于大多数高校教师和学生来说，他们的日常生活并不是以大规模在线开放课程为中心的，他们不大可能会花费一年、乃至连续整整两年的时间来使用大规模在线开放课程的服务。但不可否认的是，大规模在线开放课程的发展仍是学界的热门争论话题，不仅在北美，而且在世界范围内，这一话题的热度超过了任何其他相关话题。还有数十家，乃至数百家机构正在致力于大型网络公开课的相关实验项目。例如由比尔及梅林达·盖茨基金会资助的大规模在线开放课程研究创业公司进行的实验项目，他们旨在研究大规模在线开放课程对教学效果的影响、填补这方面的研究空缺，他们的研究成果引发了许多有意思的学术讨论。

That, or course, barely scratches the surface of all that happened in the past 12 months. What were some of the major trends in postsecondary education for you this past year?
当然，对于过去12个月里围绕大规模在线开放课程展开的讨论全局来说，上述概括仅仅是管中窥豹。你认为过去一年里高等教育发展有哪些重大趋势呢？