Ivy League school officials suggest that one of the biggest impacts of massive online open courses – MOOCs – could be a renewed focus on teaching over research at elite American universities.
在美國精英大學中，常春藤聯(lián)盟學校的官員認為，MOOC最大的影響之一是教學取代科研重新成為焦點。
“Coursera already is affecting our campus,” said Jeffrey Himpele, associate director of the McGraw Hill Center for Teaching and Learning at Princeton University, which aims to improve teaching at Princeton University. He’s also a documentary filmmaker, professor in media and anthropology and an author.
He says many faculty members have been more focused on research instead of teaching in the past. Open education classes are changing that. Because of MOOCs and Princeton’s upcoming participation in Coursera, “The conversations about teaching (at Princeton) have gone from 0 to 60 on our campus,” he says. Princeton faculty who used to brush off discussions geared toward improving their teaching are now eager to have such discussions, he says.
許多教工過去更加關(guān)注科研而不是教學，開放教育課程正在改變這一方向。正是由于MOOC和普林斯頓即將加入Coursera，普林斯頓大學的教工開始空前地討論如何改進教學。
The first Coursera course launches in a month at Princeton and already has 20,000 students signed up for it.
面對成千上萬的學生，確實是需要一種能力，這是教師在課堂中前所未有的角色。普林斯頓在Coursera上線的第一門課程在一個月時間已經(jīng)有20000名學生注冊。
Himpele says the MOOC courses are also forcing professors and universities to rethink the traditional 60 or 90 minute lecture structure for classes. Princeton’s upcoming Coursera course uses a 50 minute lecture format, broken into several 12-minute parts with quizzes in between.
MOOC課程還在讓教授和學校重新思考傳統(tǒng)60-90分鐘課堂講座的結(jié)構(gòu)，普林斯頓即將上線的Coursera課程采用了50分鐘的講座形式，但是劃分為多個12分鐘的內(nèi)容，每個內(nèi)容之間穿插小問答。
“After 12 minutes in a lecture hall, student attention falls off a cliff,” he says. He said professors at Princeton are now radically rethinking how they teach this coming fall. “They are thinking about it from the point of view of their students.”
在12分鐘聽講之后，學生的注意力會急劇下降，大學教授正在從學生的角度思考如何改進新學期的教學。
Some are considering ways to flip their lectures, having students go over some basic material at home and going with a more engaging, discussion-oriented setting in class. “A year ago, to flip a lecture would have required a lot of twisting of arms,” he said.
有些教授希望學生在家學習一些基礎(chǔ)資料，在課堂上可以進行更加引人并以討論為主的活動。
At the panel discussion on MOOC courses, other experts and faculty expressed more skepticism at the impact of MOOCs on top schools and the traditional college system.
在MOOC課程的討論面板，對于MOOC對精英學校和傳統(tǒng)學院系統(tǒng)的影響，其他專家和教工也表達了不同看法。
Dr. Peter Struck, an associate professor of classical studies at the University of Pennsylvania, is teaching a Coursera class on classics and mythology. He compares online teaching to hosting a TV show rather than a classroom, which functions more like a play. His upcoming Coursera class has 14,000 student signed up already and counting.
Dr. Peter Struck，賓州大學的助教，同時在Coursera授課，認為電視節(jié)目般的在線教學相比課堂教學，更像是一場演出，成為萬眾矚目的焦點，那種感覺令人如此激動。
Kevin Carey, policy director at Education Sector in Washington DC, said the fact that Harvard University – which was absent from open educational resources for some time – recently teamed up with MIT on edX is significant. “I can only assume that Harvard University decided to do this because they felt they were being left behind,” he said. Competition among MOOC providers is a driving factor right now, he says.Kevin Carey
認為哈佛大學最近加入edX，是因為之前在開放教育資源上落后了，需要急起直追，競爭MOOC供應(yīng)商現(xiàn)在是個驅(qū)動因素。他認為，美國東西海岸MOOC的競爭，西海岸是基于硅谷的技術(shù)派，而東海岸是基于常春藤聯(lián)盟和精英學院，但是學院無法壟斷專業(yè)知識。
Carey sees MOOCs setting up a power struggle between the two coasts of knowledge power – the West Coast, Silicon Valley-based tech sector and the DC to Boston
corridor of Ivy League and elite colleges. “I’m not sure who will end up running the place,” he says. “Colleges don’t have a monopoly on expertise.”
Joshua Kim對MOOC持懷疑看法，他認為這對于學院，尤其是精英學院，只是時髦的趨勢和方式，是在加強公關(guān)。關(guān)注MOOC，會消耗大學的資源和關(guān)注，偏離應(yīng)該做的事情。
University of Pennsylvania Professor Peter Struck shares his thoughts on what MOOCs will do, won’t do and might do:
賓州大學教授Peter Struck分享了MOOC能做到的、不能做到的和可能做到的事情：
What MOOCs Will do:
1) Will make the TV show class free to people.
2) It will allow professors and colleges to be better than the history channel at providing knowledge on history and other topics.
3) It will allow some real pedagogical advances, challenging the notion of a 50 minute lecture. While his Coursera segments range from 7 to 15 minutes in length, Struck notes, that “the long narrative arc is sometimes the critical component to convey in my class.”
MOOC能夠做到的：
1) 免費向人們提供電視節(jié)目一樣的課程教學
2) 讓教授和學院在提供歷史和其他主題的知識方面，比歷史頻道做得更出色
3) 促成真正的教學進步，挑戰(zhàn)50分鐘的傳統(tǒng)宣講教學。
MOOC不能做到的：
1) 不會像一些人所想的改變現(xiàn)有的高等教育
2) 不會完全扼殺講座
3) 不會像一些人所想的讓知識更加普及
What MOOCs Might Do:
1) Expand wisdom.
2) Broaden empathy – understanding of what other people are feeling.
3) I don’t know, if in the aggregate, it will make us smarter.
4) I’m not sure if it will make teaching a more important part of self definition.
5) It might add to the credentialing frenzy of high school students who want to go to a Princeton or University of Pennsylvania, who see MOOC badges as another way to demonstrate their achievement, similar to AP classes.
MOOC可能做到的：
1) 擴展學術(shù)
2) 拓寬換位思考 – 理解他人的感受
3) 總的來說，可能會讓我們更加聰明
4) 可能會讓教學成為自我定義中更加重要的部分
5) 對于希望進入普林斯頓或賓州大學的高中生，可能會掀起認證高潮，從MOOC獲得的榮譽是展示其成就的另一種方式。
