好英语网高校竞逐免费网络课程
A few months ago, free online courses from prestigious universities were a rarity. Now, they are the cause for announcements every few weeks, as a field suddenly studded with big-name colleges and competing software platforms evolves with astonishing speed.
仅仅在几个月前，知名大学的免费网络课程还寥寥无几。现在，每隔几周就会有新的网络课程项目问世，使这个领域突然间挤满了大牌院校和相互竞争的软件平台，以惊人的速度不断演变。
In a major development on Tuesday, a dozen highly ranked universities said they had signed on with Coursera, a new venture offering free classes online. They still must overcome some skepticism about the quality of online education and the prospects for having the courses cover the costs of producing them, but their enthusiasm is undimmed.
周二就有一个重大动态，12所知名高校宣布，他们已签约参与Coursera的项目，后者是一家提供免费网络课程的新公司。虽然他们仍须克服一些疑虑（网络教学的质量如何？这些课程将来能否收回制作成本？），但他们的热情不减。
But at universities that have not yet seized a piece of this action, the response ranges from curiosity to fear of losing a crucial competition. When University of Virginia trustees ousted their president last month — a decision they later reversed — one reason cited was concern about being left behind online. (Virginia was included in Tuesday’s announcement.)
但在那些还没有投入这波热潮的大学，人们的反应不一，有人好奇，也有人害怕输掉一场至关重要的竞争。上月，弗吉尼亚大学(University of Virginia)的理事会解聘了该校校长（后来他们撤销了这个决定），他们援引的原因之一就是担心该校在网络课程方面落在其他大学之后。（周二的宣布包括弗吉尼亚大学。）
“There’s panic,” said Kevin Carey, director of education policy at the New America Foundation, a nonpartisan research group. “Whether it’s senseless panic is unclear.”
“目前有一场恐慌，”无党派的研究团体“新美国基金会”(New America Foundation)教育政策主任凯文·凯里(Kevin Carey)说。“至于这种恐慌是不是无谓的，则尚不明朗。”
Massive open online courses, or MOOCs, let colleges reach vast audiences at relatively low cost, but they have not yet made money from them. And if it becomes possible in years to come to get a complete college education from an elite institution online, free or at relatively low cost, experts wonder whether some colleges will find it harder to attract students willing to pay $20,000, $40,000 or even $60,000 a year for the traditional on-campus experience.
大规模开放式网络课程(MOOC)让高校以相对较低的成本，接触到广大的受众，但这些课程尚未给学校带来利润。让专家们揣测的是，如果在未来几年中，人们有可能免费（或者花相对较少的钱）在网上得到名校的全套大学教育，那么会不会有些学校将发现，它们吸引学生花2万、4万甚至6万美元到校念书的难度加大了？
Online classes have been around for years, with technology evolving to include multimedia features and interaction among students and faculty. What is new is the way top colleges are jumping in with free courses — in effect, throwing open the doors digitally.
在线课程已经存在多年，随着技术发展，这些课程逐渐采用了多媒体手段和师生互动。目前的新现象是，顶尖高校竞相推出免费课程，实际上就是彻底打开了数字大门。
So far, most people signing up live in foreign countries. But MOOCs will become more appealing to domestic students when they give course credits toward a degree, something the elite universities have not yet done. The University of Washington says it plans to do so, and it may be just a matter of time before earning credits becomes standard.
到目前为止，多数注册课程的人都居住在国外。但如果可以通过MOOC累计学分拿学位（精英高校还没有开始这么做）的话，它将对国内学生更具吸引力。华盛顿大学表示，该校计划授予学分。网络课程学分制的普及也许只是时间问题。
“The people who should be worried about this are the large tier of American universities — especially the expensive private schools — that are not elite and don’t have the same reputation” as the big-name universities now creating MOOCs, said Anya Kamenetz, an author who writes on the future of higher education.
“应当对这种现象感到担心的，是大批算不上精英、（与那些开办MOOC的大牌院校相比）不具有同等声望的美国大学，尤其是那些学费昂贵的私校，”论述高等教育未来的作者阿尼亚·卡梅涅茨(Anya Kamenetz)表示。
Residential colleges already attract far less than half of the higher education market. Most enrollment and nearly all growth in higher education is in less costly options that let students balance classes with work and family: commuter colleges, night schools, online universities.
寄宿制院校在高等教育市场所占份额已经不到一半。在高等教育市场，注册人数最多、几乎贡献全部增幅的，是那些费用较低，而且让学生在学习、工作和家庭生活之间找到平衡的选择：社区大学、夜校和网上大学。
Most experts say there will always be students who want to live on campus, interacting with professors and fellow students, particularly at prestigious universities. But as a share of the college market, that is likely to be a shrinking niche.
多数专家表示，总会有学生想住在校园里，与教授和同学来往，尤其是在知名大学。但就大学市场的份额而言，这很可能是一个不断缩小的缝隙领域。
The elite universities will be best able to compete with low-cost alternatives because their large endowments make them less dependent on tuition income, and they can lower their effective prices through generous financial aid, said John Nelson, a managing director at Moody’s Investors Service who analyzes higher education finances.
穆迪投资者服务公司(Moody’s Investors Service)分析高等教育财务的董事总经理约翰·内尔森(John Nelson)表示，精英大学将最有能力与低价的学校竞争，因为它们有大笔的捐赠资金支撑，不那么依赖学费收入，而且它们还能通过向学生提供慷慨的资助来降低实际学费。
Analysts say that universities will inevitably try to make money from MOOCs, whether by charging tuition or not. Software companies working with colleges have looked into advertising, or selling information on students to prospective employers.
分析人士称，无论是否收取学费，各大学难免将试图从MOOC赚钱。那些和大学合作的软件公司，已经研究了用广告创收的构想，或者向潜在的雇主出售学员信息。
William E. Kirwan, chancellor of the University System of Maryland, noted that a few public colleges, including his system’s University College, already offer mostly online courses. In the future, he said, the standard class will be a hybrid of in-person and online elements, which Maryland is experimenting with.
马里兰大学系统(USM)校长威廉·E.·柯万(William E. Kirwan)表示，一些公立大学，包括他所在系统的马里兰大学大学学院(UMUC)，已经把多数课程放到网上。他说，未来的标准班级将是真人和网络元素的混合体。马里兰大学正在尝试这种模式。
“We think this approach can cut costs by about 25 percent,” he said, “enabling each professor to work with more students, while producing a clear improvement in learning outcomes.”
“我们认为这种方式可以削减大约25%的成本，”他说，“让每个教授能收更多学生，同时明显提高学习效果。”
For a decade, Carnegie Mellon University’s Open Learning Initiative has created free online courses. But for many educators, Stanford fired the starting gun last fall, with a free online course in artificial intelligence that drew 160,000 students.
卡内基梅隆大学(Carnegie Mellon University)的“开放学习项目”(OLI)开办免费网络课程已有10年。但对很多教育者来说，打响发令枪的是斯坦福大学(Stanford University)，该校在去年秋天推出人工智能免费网络课程，吸引了16万学生。
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology started a free class project, MITx, in December. The next month, a Stanford professor who helped teach the artificial intelligence class founded Udacity, a company offering free courses in partnership with colleges and professors.
去年12月，麻省理工学院(MIT)启动了免费授课项目MITx。次月，在人工智能课程授课的一名斯坦福大学教授创立了Udacity公司，与大学和教授合作提供免费课程。
In April, Stanford, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Michigan joined forces with Coursera to offer free classes. In May, Harvard teamed with M.I.T. to create a similar venture, edX.
4月，斯坦福大学、普林斯顿大学(Princeton University)、宾夕法尼亚大学(University of Pennsylvania)和密歇根大学(University of Michigan)宣布与Coursera合作提供免费课程。5月，哈佛大学(Harvard)与麻省理工学院联手推出类似的edX项目。
In the last week, more universities signed on with Coursera.
过去一周里，更多大学加盟Coursera。
“Our participation was finalized literally over the weekend,” said J. Milton Adams, vice provost at the University of Virginia, which listed five free courses. “I’m going to have some unhappy faculty members saying, ‘Why can’t my course be on there?’ ”
提供5个免费课程的弗吉尼亚大学的副教务长J·米尔顿·亚当斯(J. Milton Adams)表示，“我们的参与是在周末敲定的。肯定会有一些不满的教师向我抱怨，‘为什么不把我的课程放到网上？’”