网络公开课提供免费教育

网络公开课提供免费教育
This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

A class with tens or even hundreds of thousands of students might sound like a
teacher's bad dream. But a big idea in higher education these days is the
massive open online course, or MOOC.

Some universities offer free, non- credit MOOCs available to anyone in the
world. Others charge for courses and provide credits. The idea is still
developing.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology recently started its first MOOC. The
school plans to offer many free, non-credit courses through a project called
MITx.

So far, most massive open online courses are in computer science, technology,
mechanics and engineering. For example, students around the world are
taking a free course called
scientists, Sebastian Thrun and David Evans, are offering this course through
.

Mr. Evans is on leave from the University of Virginia. Mr. Thrun is a Stanford
research professor and a Google Fellow best known for his work on a driverless
car.

There are no education requirements for the course. The students watch short
videos. Then, says Mr. Evans, they take informal, ungraded quizzes after the
videos each week for six weeks.

DAVID EVANS: engaged and
keep them thinking, for students to be able to check that they understood what
we covered. Those are not graded and students try those as often as they wish.

They can repeatedly watch the videos and take the quizzes whenever they
want.

Students receive homework. They join online groups to exchange questions
and answers about the course.

The teachers hold virtual office hours to answer questions that the students
have voted to send them. They also present their own questions and
observations.

The students take a final examination to show where they rate in the class
Everyone who finishes the course receives a grade and proof of completion.
Top students get letters documenting their work.

Mr. Thrun started Udacity, which supports free MOOCs. Udacity hopes to make
a profit in the future by connecting possible employers with interested students.
On his Stanford homepage he says he wants to
Education, he says, should be free, accessible for all, everywhere and any
time.

So how does David Evans compare the education in MOOCs to traditional
teaching?

DAVID EVANS:
can certainly deliver high-quality education to so much more students at much
lower cost .

But he recognizes the limits.

DAVID EVANS: the best
traditional universities will be able to focus on the things they can do really
well that can't be done better through an online university.

And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Jerilyn Watson.
I'm Bob Doughty.
这里是美国之音慢速英语教育报道。
一个教室坐满几十、几百或数千学生的话，实在是老师的恶梦。但最近有人提出了一种高等
教育 理念，那就是大规模开放的网络课程，简称MOOC。
有的大学为全世界提供免费、不提供学分的在线 课程。也有的大学提供收费、提供学费的课
程。这种理念仍在探索中。
麻省理工学院最近推出 了首个网络开放课程，学校计划通过一项名为MITx的项目提供许多
免费、不提供学分的课程。 到目前为止，大量网络公开课都是关于电脑科学、技术、机械和工程的。比如，全世界的学
生都在上 一门名为“建立计算机引擎”的免费课。电脑科学家Sebastian Thrun和Evans
借助网络推出了这门课程。

Evans来自维吉尼亚 大学，目前正在休假。Thrun是斯坦福大学一名研究教授兼谷歌研究
院，因研究一辆无人驾驶汽车而 知名。
这门课程不需要学生有什么教育背景，学生们观看视频短片。然后每周进行非正式、不分级的测试，一共是六周时间。
DAVID EVANS: “测试是课程的一部分，使学生参与进来 并思考问题，让他们检查自己理
解了多少，这些测试不分级，学生们可以自愿参加。”
学生们可以反复观看视频，任何时候都可以进行测试。
他们还会有家庭作业，加入在线小组，交流课程的问题和答案。
老师们有虚拟的办公时间，来回答学生发来的问题。老师们还会提出自己的问题和意见。
学生 们要进行期末考试，看自己在班级里的名次。完成课程的学生都会收到评分等级和结业
证明，最优秀的学 生会收到成绩单信件。
Thrun创办了支持免费在线课程的Udacit网站，希望将来把潜在雇主 与有意向的学生联系
起来，从而从中获利。他在自己的斯坦福大学主页上说，希望使教育“民主化”。他 说，教育
应该是免费的，全世界的每个人任何时候都可以获得。
那么，David Evans如何看待网络公开课与传统授课的呢？
David Evans：“在网络框架下，我们可 以通过这个方式做得更好。我们当然可以以很低的
成本向更多学生提供高水平的教育。”
但同时他也承认其中的局限性。

David Evans：“我还希望，最好的传统大学能够集中精力做那些网络大学无法做得更好的
事情。”