身在線上課堂上 每人都可以前排坐
這個月早些時候，我去了趟亞利桑那州，為的是一睹未來的大學會是什么樣子。我看到了一個振奮人心的高等教育新時代正逐步成型，屆時，更多的學生將獲得良好的，個性化的 教育，代價也是他們可接受的。
This future may not always include the lecture halls,dormitories, football teams and other features of thetraditional college experience. Instead, the colleges I visited are experimenting with ways forstudents to get their degrees online, allowing them to take courses anyplace and at any time.
在這個未來的教育世界中，或許不一定有講課禮堂、學生宿舍、足球隊以及傳統(tǒng)大學生活中的一些其他特色。在我訪問的大學里，恰恰是學校想方設法讓學生通過在線學習來獲得 學位，讓他們能夠隨時隨地地上課。
These “colleges without walls,” as they are sometimes called, are at the forefront of the effort tobroaden access to higher education, especially for low-income students juggling their studieswith full-time jobs and families. During my visit, I heard inspiring stories of students who aretaking advantage of these flexible learning models to pursue degrees that can put them onpaths to new careers.
這些大學，——有些人稱之為“沒有圍墻的大學”，是普及高等教育工作的前沿陣地，尤其對于那些要依靠全職工作來養(yǎng)家糊口的低收入學生來說，更是這樣。在我訪問期間，我 聽到了一些激動人心的故事，學生們利用這些彈性的學習模式來讀取學位，這樣他們便能踏上新的職業(yè)征途。
One of those students is Shawn Lee, a student at Rio Salado College in Tempe. He has acompelling story: After dropping out of college decades ago, he found himself in a series oflow-paying, often back-breaking jobs. He recently decided to get his degree—and I’ve foundthis is a pretty common refrain at community colleges—when he had his first child and wantedto start building a better life.
有一位名叫Shawn Lee的同學，他在滕比市的Rio Salado學院讀書，他的故事非常動人。十幾年前，他從大學輟學，之后做了好幾份低收入、重體力的工作。 前不久，他決定要讀一個大學學位，這時候的他已有了第一個子女，而且希望締造一份更好的生活——我發(fā)現這是一個在社區(qū)大學很常見的畏懼心態(tài)。
Tucked away in an industrial park in Tempe, Rio Salado doesn’t look much like a traditionalinstitute of higher education. There were no students running to class. No ivy-covered walls.Just a couple of glass-faced office buildings.
Rio Salado學院深藏在滕比市的工業(yè)園區(qū)中，她與傳統(tǒng)的高?？雌饋聿惶粯?。這里看不到學生匆忙趕課，沒有長滿常青藤的圍墻，只有幾棟玻璃外飾的辦公樓。
As we walked inside for a tour, there was an even bigger surprise.
當我們步入校園游覽后，還有更多想不到的事。
The college has just 22 full-time faculty serving 60,000 students, with more than half of themattending their classes online. (The full-time faculty depend on 1,400 part-time teachers whomanage individual class sections, review/grade assignments, and consult with students.)Students can start any of the school’s 1,000 courses almost any Monday of the year. Classescost $84 per credit hour, far less than what other colleges charge.
學院只有22位全職教師，卻有6萬名學生就讀，一半以上的人通過網上上課。(全職教師隊伍由1400位兼職教師組成，他們管理各自的課程組成，自主打分評定作業(yè)，并指 導學生。)學生可以從學校開設的1000門課中選課，幾乎全年中的任何一個周一都可以選。每學時只收取84美元，遠比其他大學便宜。
I also visited the University of Phoenix, a for-profit institution with more than 300,000students, where teachers and staff are working to make online learning even more flexible. Oneof the most popular innovations is a mobile app that gives students the freedom to studyvirtually anywhere. With the app they can keep track of their grades and assignments,participate in class discussions, and receive alerts from their teachers about their courses.
我也訪問了菲尼克斯大學，這是一所擁有30多萬學生的私立學校。這所大學的教職員工正努力使得在線學習更具彈性。其中一項最受歡迎的創(chuàng)新是一個基于移動端的app，這 個程序讓學生真正獲得了移動學習的自由。通過這個程序，學生們可以及時知曉他們的成績和作業(yè)，參與課堂討論，還可以收到老師的課程提醒。
If your idea of college is a professor lecturing in front of a classroom full of students, some ofthese innovations may be surprising, even a little unsettling. But this kind of out-of-the-boxthinking is needed to address the challenge facing higher education. College tuition is risingfaster than any other cost in the U.S.—pricing many students out of a degree. More than 40percent of college students drop out, depriving them of the chance to earn more money andleaving the U.S. without the highly-trained workers we need for economic growth. The fact is,we face a real dilemma. We need to educate people in a better way without increasing cost.
如果你對大學的認識還停留在一個教授面對滿堂學生講課的層面上，那么有些創(chuàng)新對你來說或許是很意外的，甚至讓你感到不安。但我們應對高等教育的挑戰(zhàn)時急需這種不落窠臼 的思維。在美國，大學的學費比任何其他費用都長得快，高學費讓學生對學位望洋興嘆。大學的輟學率高達40%多，這剝奪了他們掙更多錢的機會，也讓美國喪失了本可以促進 經濟增長的高素質工人。實際上，我們有一個很現實的難題——我們需要在不增加花費的基礎上，以一種更好的方式使人接受教育。
Most mornings I listen to online courses while walking on my treadmill. In my experience, whatseparates the great courses from the mediocre ones is the quality of the professors, whosepassion and expertise bring their subjects to life, as much online as in-person. That’s why it’scritical that during this time of transition we keep our focus on the instructors. They are theones who inspire and guide students. The best online learning technologies expand the reachof the most inspiring professors by allowing more students to be part of their classes.
很多個早晨，我在跑步機上聽在線課程。以我的經驗來說，好的課和一般的課之間的最大差別是教授的質量。好教授的激情和專業(yè)度會讓他們的講課題目充滿活力，即使在線的效 果也如同在對面一樣。這就是為何我們在這個轉型的時期高度關注授課老師。他們才是啟發(fā)和引導學生的人。最棒的在線學習技術便是幫助這些最能啟發(fā)學生的教授拓寬受眾的范 圍，讓更多學生能夠進入他們的課程。
The risk of this mass approach to education, of course, is that students might get lost in suchan impersonal setting. That’s why Rio Salado and other institutions are researching newapproaches to student advising. Using the growing body of data available about onlinestudents’ learning habits—for example, are they completing assignments and logging onto theircourses regularly?—the institution can intervene to help students at risk of falling behind ordropping out. “Students don’t get lost because no one can just sit in the back corner. Everyoneis in the front row,” a Rio Salado faculty member told me.
當然，這種大眾教育方式有一個風險，——在這樣一種非針對個體的環(huán)境中，學生可能會迷失方向。因此，RioSalado學院和其他機構開始研究有關指導學生的新方法 。利用不斷積累的學生在線學習數據——例如，他們是否有規(guī)律地完成作業(yè)，登陸自己的課程?——學?？梢栽趯W生有可能落伍或輟學時介入幫助他們。“學生不會迷失方向，因 為沒人可以坐在角落聽課。每個人都在前排。”Rio Salado學院對我這樣說。
Several students I met during my visit said they liked learning online better than in a classroom. “I’ve taken college classes in a big auditorium with herds of people. There was no personalconnection,” one University of Phoenix student said. “Now I can reach my teacher with the clickof a mouse.”
在我訪問期間，幾位學生告訴我，比起坐在教室里，他們更喜歡在線學習。“我在大學的大禮堂和一大幫人上過課，課上沒有個人的聯系。”一位菲尼克斯大學的學生說道，“現 在，我只需點擊一下鼠標便可以聯系到我的老師。”
Other students said they liked the fact that they can learn at their own pace and fit school intotheir busy schedules. What still needed improvement, however, was a connection with otherstudents. They said they struggled to complete team assignments online because it was toodifficult to coordinate schedules. Lab work for science classes and other hands-on learning canalso be problematic, although Rio Salado is addressing this issue by giving chemistry studentsa lab kit to use at home. Marine biology students get a frozen squid to dissect.
其他學生坦言，他們喜歡以自己的進度來學習，喜歡把學校學習排入自己繁忙的日程中。而還需要改善的地方是學生之間的聯系。學生們說他們一起完成在線的團隊作業(yè)很困難， 因為相互協(xié)調日程非常難。實驗室的任務和其他一些實操性的學習也會有不少問題，盡管針對這個問題，Rio Salado已經向學化學的同學提供實驗室工具套件，使得他們能在家里進行實驗。海洋生物學的學生可以得到一個冰凍的魷魚來做論文。
The biggest challenge facing all higher education institutions is how to ensure more studentsstay in college or university and complete their degrees. They are looking everywhere forsolutions. Arizona State University, for instance, discovered that the college catalogueoverwhelmed students with too many class choices and gave them too little guidance. So theuniversity redesigned the entire experience. The new, personalized online catalogue features“major maps,” which outline a major’s key requirements, optimal course sequence, and careeroptions to help keep students on the path to graduation.
擺在所有高等教育機構面前的一個最大挑戰(zhàn)是如何保證讓更多的學生留在學校里，并讀完他們的學位。他們四處尋找答案。例如，亞利桑那州立大學發(fā)現，大學課程目錄中的課程 讓人目不暇接，但卻沒有多少指導意見，這讓學生無所適從。所以，這所大學重新設計了學習體驗。新的個性化的在線課程目錄有這些特點：“學科地圖”列舉了一門學科的主要 要求，推薦的課程攻讀順序，以及職業(yè)選擇，幫助學生一路順利地走到畢業(yè)。
I left Arizona feeling quite optimistic about what the future holds for higher education. It alsoreminded me how much work still needs to be done. What’s most exciting is that theinstitutions I visited are not standing still. They are taking risks and using their creative andintellectual powers to reinvent themselves for the future. In doing so, they will give many morestudents the opportunity to do the same with their own lives.
我離開亞利桑那時，心中充滿了對高等教育未來的樂觀。同時，我也提醒自己還有很多工作要做。最讓人激動的是我訪問的那些學校并沒有安于現狀。他們繼續(xù)嘗試著風險，用創(chuàng) 意而智慧的力量為自己的未來投資。而這種做法將使得這些學校能為更多學生爭取到投資自身的機會。
