网络课程异军突起

1、网络课程异军突起I' *%?5CEK- < 就血购邈An army of new on li ne courses is scari ng the wits out of traditi onal uni versities. But can they find a viable bus in ess model?浩浩荡荡的新型网络课程对传统大学造成了不小的威胁，它能发展出可行的商 业模式吗？DOTCOM mania was slow in coming to higher educati on, but now itUdacity and Coursera, two Silic

2、 on Valley start- ups educati on through MOOCs, massive open on li nehas the ven erable in dustry firmly in its grip. Since the launch early last year of offeri ng freecourses, thefoun dati ons.ivory towers of academia have been shaken to their Universitybrands built in some cases over centurieshave

3、 been forced to contemplatethe possibility that information tech no logy will rap idly make their existi ng bus in ess model obsolete.Mean while, the MOOCs have mult ip lied in nu mber , resources and stude nt recruitme nt without yet hav ing figured out a bus in ess model of their own.网络狂热在教育界一直波澜不

4、兴，不过最近网络已征服这一神圣的行业。随着 去年上半年硅谷两家新秀Udacity和Coursera通过MOOC （大规模网络公 开课平台）开通免费在线课程，象牙塔内学术权威的地位遭到了动摇。几个世 纪以来声名远扬的大学也开始心里打鼓，担心信息技术会很快造成其现行商业 模式过时。另外，在没有自身商业模式的情况下，MOOC在数量、资源和招生人数上已翻了好几番。Besides p rovidi ng on li ne courses to their own (ge nerally fee-paying) stude nts, uni versities have felt obliged to j

5、oin the MOOC revoluti on to avoid being guillot ined by it. Coursera has formed partn ershi ps with 83 uni versities and colleges around the world, in clud ing many of America ' s top-tier institutions.除了为本学校的学生提供在线课程外（通常情况下须付费） ，各个大学觉得自 己有义务加入MOOC变革的阵营，从而避免被逼上绝路。Coursera已经与来 自世界各地的83所大学建立合作关系，其

6、中包括美国的不少顶尖学府。Un iversityand the Massachusettsbacked with $60m of their money, institutions,the most recent joinerEdX, a non-profit MOOC p rovider fou nded in May 2012 by Harvardand28ofIn stitute of Tech no logy is now a consortium of being the In dia nIn stitute21Tech no logy in Mumbai. Led by the O

7、pen Un iversity, which pion eered distance-learningin the 1970s,FutureLearn,a consortium ofBritish, 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 senior Oxford figure

8、fears may be a“ lemming-like rush ” into MOOCs.EdX是一家非盈利性 MOOC供应商，由哈佛大学和麻省理工学院出资 6000 美元于2012年5月成立。如今它已发展成包括28个学校在内的联合体，最新成 员是印度孟买的技术学院。开放式大学是上世纪90年代远程教育的先驱，在其 带领下由21所英国大学、一所爱尔兰大学和一所澳大利亚大学组成的 FutureLearn 将于今年下半年开始提供开放式课程。但是牛津和剑桥仍然敬而 远之，剑桥的一位权威人士称，他们不想“趋之若鹜”。On July 10th Coursera said it had raised a

9、no ther $43m in ven ture capital, on top of the $22m it bankedlast year. Although itsenro lme nts have soared, and now exceed 4m stude nts, this is a huge lea p of faith by inv estors that the firm can devel op a viable bus in ess model. The new money should allow Coursera to build on any adva ntage

10、 it has from being a first mover among a rap idly grow ing nu mber of MOOC pro viders.“ It is somewhat en terta ining to watchthe number of people jumping on board, ” says Daphne Koller, a Stanford professorand co-founderof Coursera. She expects it tobecome one of a “very small number of dominant pl

11、ayers” .7月10日Coursera发布消息，在去年2200万美元存款的基础上，它又通过风 投募集到4300万美元。它的招生人数也突飞猛进，如今已突破400万，这也使 得投资者信心猛增，认为该公司能够发展出可行的商业模式。Coursera 可以借助这笔新款项，充分发挥任何一个有利条件，在迅速增加的MOOC供应商中抢占先机。斯坦福大学教授、Coursera创始人之一的Daphne Koller 说， 看到越来越多的人参与进来可谓乐在其中。她希望 Coursera成为凤毛麟角的 主导型玩家。The in dustry has similar n etwork econo mics to Am

12、az on, eBay and Google, says Ms Koller , in that“ content p roducers go to where mostcon sumers are, and con sumers go to where the most content is.SimonNels on,the chief executive of FutureLear n,disagrees.“Anyone who thinks the rules of engagement have already been written by the existing players

13、is massively underestimating the poten tial of the tech no logy,” he says.Daphne Koller 称这一行业与亚马逊、易贝和谷歌等网购经济类似，共同点在 于“供应商逐消费者而居，消费者逐产品而居”。不过 FutureLearn 的首席 执行官Simon Nelson 不认同这一观点。他认为“如果有人认为网络课程的游 戏规则已被现存行业总结出来，那他就大大低估了网络技术的潜力”。Certai niy, there is p le nty of exp erime ntati on with bus in ess mod

14、els taking pl ace. The MOOCs themselves may be free, but those beh ind them think there will be plenty of reve nue opportun ities. Coursera has started charg ing to pro vide certificates for those who comp lete its courses and want proof, p erha ps for a future empio yer. It is alsostarti ng to lice

15、 nse course materials to uni versities that want to beef up their existing offering. However , it has abandoned for nowatte mp ts to he Ip firms recruit empio yees from among Coursera stude nts, because cateri ng to the differe nt n eeds of each empio yer was “not a scalable model ” , says Ms Koller

16、 .自然，适用的商业模式还需要大量实验。网络课程是免费的，不过幕后经营者 认为并不缺乏赚钱的机会。Coursera 已开始向修完全部课程并需要证明材料 （日后找工作时或许用得上）的学员提供收费证书。还有些大学想要充实现行 课程，Coursera就为其课程教材颁发许可证。不过 Coursera暂时不与公司 合作招聘网络课程学员，Daphne Koller解释说，雇主对雇员的要求千差万别， “没有可缩放的模型”来满足他们的不同要求。now the heart of its bus in ess model. It hasfirms, including Google. It recently fo

17、rmed a,along with Georgia Tech, to offer a master' sscienee. Course materials will be free, butFor Udacity, in con trast, worki ng with companies to train exist ing and future empio yees is tie-ups with several partn ershi p with AT&T degree in computer stude nts will pay around $7,000 for t

18、uiti on. EdX is tak ing yet ano ther tack, selli ng its MOOC tech no logy to uni versities like Sta nford, both to create their own MOOC offeri ngs and to make p hysically atte nding uni versity more attractive, by augme nting exist ing teachi ng.与之相反，Udacity的核心商业模式就是与公司合作，培训现任和未来的职员。 它与若干公司建立了联系，其中

19、包括谷歌。最近它与 AT&T和乔治亚理工大学 建立了合作关系，提供计算机科学专业的硕士学位。课程教材是免费的，不过 学员要支付约7000美元的学费。EdX则采取另一种套路，它将MOOC技术卖 给斯坦福等大学，这样既能开设自己的 MOOC网络课程，又能通过充实现行 教学增强实体大学的吸引力。This lecture is brought to you by这堂课来自Alis on, an Irish pro vider of free, mostly vocati onal educatio n foun dedin 2007,before MOOCs got their n ame,

20、is gen erat ing p le ntyofreve nue by selli ng advertis ing on its site.“ Ads prop elled radio andTV, why not educati on? There is a lot of misp laced sn obbery in education about advertising, ” says Mike Feerick, Alison' s founder .爱尔兰网络课程（多为职业教育）供应商Alison成立于2007年，那时MOOC 尚未得名。Alison通过在网站上展播广告赚得

21、盆满钵满。Alison创始人MikeFeerick称，“广告促进了广播和电视的发展，教育为何不能分一杯羹呢？教 育不该对广告摆臭架子”。Ano ther imp orta nt category of MOOC pro viders are p ublishers, saysRob Lytle of the P arthe non Group, a con sulta ncy. He says firms likeP ears on (p art-ow ner of The Econo mist) that run educati onal bus in esses such as textb

22、ook -p ublish ing may thrive by offeri ng freeMOOCs as a way to get people to buy their related p aid content.咨询机构Parthenon 集团的Rob Lytle说，MOOC供应商的另一种重要类别 是出版商。他说经营教育类业务（如出版教材）、类似Pearson （持有经济 学人部分股权）这样的公司，通过提供网络课程，促使消费者购买相关教材， 一定会蓬勃发展。Besides the un certa intyover which bus in ess model,p roduce p r

23、ofits, there is disagreeme nt over how big the market will be. Some see a zero- or n egative-sum game, in which chea p on li ne providersradically reduce the cost of higher educationmany traditi onal in stituti ons to the wall. Others believe this effect will be dwarfed by the dramatic in crease in

24、access education that the MOOCs will brin g.if any, willand driveto higher就算找到合适的商业模式顺利盈利，这一市场的规模大小仍然存在争议。有些 人认为会出现零和甚至负和的局面，廉价的网课造成高等教育成本跳楼，将很 多传统大学逼到绝路。其他人则认为MOOC会显著拓展接受高等教育的途径, 这样一来负面影响就不值一提。Mr Feerick p redicts that the market will be commoditised, sp elli ng trouble for many in stituti ons. But

25、 Anant Agarwal, the boss of EdX, reck ons the MOOC p roviders will be more like on li ne airli ne-book ing services, expanding the market by improving the customer experienee.SebastianThrun, Udacity ' s co-founder , thinkstheeffect will be similar in magn itude to what the creati on of cin ema d

26、id to dema nd for staged ficti on: he p redicts a tenfold in crease in the market for higher educati on.Feerick预测这一市场将被商品化，使很多大学陷入被动。不过EdX的老板Anant Agarwal 认为，MOOC的供应商就像网络机票预订服务一样，通过改 善用户体验来拓展市场。Udacity的联合创始人Sebastian Thrun则认为网 络课程的作用就像电影院对舞台剧的影响一样，他预测高等教育市场的规模将 扩大十倍Seep tics point to the MOOCs '

27、 high drop-out rates, which in some cases exceed 90%. But Coursera and Udacity both in sist that this reflects the differentexpectationsof consumersof free products,thosestude ntswho start with the statedinten ti onofwho can browse costlessly. Both firms have now studied drop-out rates forfin ishi n

28、g, courses.and found that the vast majority of themcomp lete theMOOC提高了辍学率，在一些案例中甚至超过90%。不过怀疑派指出Coursera和Udacity都坚持这种情况反映了消费者对免费产品的不同预期, 他们可以分文不花浏览相关课程。根据学员的修课意向，两家公司在课程伊始 就跟踪调查学员的退学率，结果他们发现绝大多数学员修满了课程。Besides Lear nCap ital, a Silic on Valley ven ture firm, and the WorldBank ' s InternationalFinance Corporation, the participantsinCoursera ' s $43m fund-raisingincluded Laureate, an operatoroffor-prof