聯(lián)網(wǎng)教育興起 能否令商學(xué)院消亡

At 12:01 a.m. on August 1, 1981, MTV began itsfirst broadcast by playing a video for the hit Bugglessong, “Video Killed the Radio Star.” It was anopening salvo for a revolution in the music industry,which caused no small amount of anxiety for manywho foresaw a future of music via television. Ofcourse, MTV has since given way to YouTube, whichwill make musicians famous far quicker than a DJ will.But video has not killed radio—multiple surveysshow that more than 90% of Americans still listen toradio every week. That is hardly the sign of a deadindustry. A revolution may have happened, but it did not have the destructive effect a lot ofpeople thought it would.

1981年8月1日12點(diǎn)01分，MTV頻道開始第一次播放節(jié)目，播放的是巴吉斯樂隊(duì)(Buggles)的名曲《錄像帶殺死廣播歌星》(Video Killed the Radio Star)。音樂行業(yè)革命的大幕由此拉開，許多人通過電視預(yù)測(cè)到了音樂行業(yè)的未來，這引起了他們相當(dāng)大的擔(dān)憂。當(dāng)然，如今MTV已經(jīng)讓位于YouTube，因?yàn)楹虳J相比，YouTube可以讓音樂家更快成名。但錄像帶并未殺死廣播——多項(xiàng)調(diào)查顯示，超過90%的美國(guó)人仍會(huì)每周聽廣播。這可不是一個(gè)窮途末路的行業(yè)該有的跡象。革命或許確實(shí)發(fā)生了，但是并未產(chǎn)生許多人預(yù)想的那種破壞性后果。

 

 

There is now similar anxiety about a revolution in higher education, as massive open onlinecourses, or MOOCs, proliferate. Since the first such course appeared in 2008, people haveasked whether we still need traditional classrooms. Why attend expensive colleges anduniversities—where costs have far outpaced inflation—when you can receive an education fromworld-class professors for the cost of an Internet connection? Popular free MOOC providers, likeKhan Academy and EdX, have prompted many a headline of this variety.

如今，隨著大規(guī)模在線公開課程(MOOC)的激增，高等教育界也出現(xiàn)了類似的擔(dān)憂。從2008年第一節(jié)在線公開課程出現(xiàn)至今，人們一直在問，我們是否還需要傳統(tǒng)課堂?既然只需要連接互聯(lián)網(wǎng)就能聽到最優(yōu)秀的大學(xué)教授授課，我們?yōu)槭裁催€要上昂貴的大學(xué)?畢竟大學(xué)學(xué)費(fèi)的增速遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)超過了通脹速度。著名的免費(fèi)MOOC提供商可汗學(xué)院(Khan Academy)和EdX等，都曾多次引發(fā)媒體類似的發(fā)問。

To worry about the fate of universities, however, you have to overlook the unique advantagesof the traditional classroom—advantages that have allowed residential education to withstandnumerous innovations in the past, from correspondence courses to television academies. Afterall, it has long been the case that you could receive a free education from a world-classprofessor by borrowing his or her textbook from a library, but that free and easy access hasnot lessened the volume of university applications. Clearly, being physically in a classroom,interacting with a professor and other students, is an irreplaceable component of effectivelearning. Professors can better assess a student’s learning in person, and adapt their in-classstrategies based on immediate, non-verbal feedback. They can also create a comfortable butchallenging environment where students will make the leaps that lead to intellectualbreakthroughs.

然而，在擔(dān)心大學(xué)命運(yùn)的時(shí)候，我們不能忽視傳統(tǒng)課堂的獨(dú)特優(yōu)勢(shì)——正是這些優(yōu)勢(shì)，使得課堂教育抵擋住了歷史上的無數(shù)次創(chuàng)新，例如函授課程或電視大學(xué)等。畢竟，人們?cè)诤芫靡郧熬涂梢詮膱D書館里借閱知名教授的教科書，免費(fèi)汲取知識(shí)，但這種免費(fèi)的、易于獲得的教育，并未減少大學(xué)申請(qǐng)人數(shù)。很顯然，坐在課堂里與教授和其他學(xué)生互動(dòng)，是有效學(xué)習(xí)的一個(gè)不可替代的部分。在真實(shí)課堂教學(xué)中，教授也可以更有效地評(píng)估學(xué)生的學(xué)習(xí)，根據(jù)直接的、非語(yǔ)言反饋對(duì)課堂策略進(jìn)行調(diào)整。他們還可以創(chuàng)造一種很舒適但具有挑戰(zhàn)性的環(huán)境，讓學(xué)生實(shí)現(xiàn)知識(shí)上的突破。

Too much and too little is being made of disruptive forces from technology shaping highereducation.

高科技帶給高等教育的沖擊力既可以說太多，也可以說太少。

Business schools can serve as a case study. Online courses can meet a demand forcertification (i.e., do you know how to do a particular thing?), and even an online degree canbe a potentially lower-cost alternative to classroom experience—if that classroom experiencedoes not offer a rich exchange of knowledge, information, and perspectives with fellowstudents and faculty.

商學(xué)院本身可以作為一個(gè)研究案例。在線課程便可以滿足人們對(duì)證書的需求(例如，你知道如何做某件事情嗎?)，甚至成本更低的在線學(xué)位，有可能取代課堂體驗(yàn)——前提是這種課堂體驗(yàn)無法帶來學(xué)生之間、師生之間豐富的知識(shí)、信息與觀念交流。

That competition is much less for the best business schools, in which so much of theacademic benefit reflects physical connections among students, faculty, and the schools’practitioner networks. In that sense, the disruption from online education for top schools islikely smaller than many commentators think.

而商學(xué)院所面臨的在線課堂的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)，并沒有那么激烈，因?yàn)樵谏虒W(xué)院，學(xué)術(shù)效益主要取決于學(xué)生、教師和商學(xué)院從業(yè)者網(wǎng)絡(luò)之間的有形聯(lián)系。因此，在線教育對(duì)優(yōu)秀商學(xué)院造成的破壞，遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)低于評(píng)論家們的預(yù)測(cè)。

But in an important respect, disruptive forces are larger than many academic leaders imagine.If the Internet is causing a revolution in higher education, and in business schools inparticular, it’s in prompting a discussion about how we use classrooms, not whether we needclassrooms. Until recently, classroom time could be used to provide a lecture meant toelucidate the readings students would have done beforehand. With the ability to upload thatsame lecture to the Internet for pre-class viewing, the question of how to use classroom time isforcing faculty members to engage in a deep examination of pedagogy. The trend is towardallowing the classroom to be a space for collaboration, but as faculties engage more with thelearning sciences, I expect that a rich array of models for classroom learning will emerge. AtColumbia, the guiding principle is to use online capabilities to complement in-class teachingwith integrated case discussions, not replace it.

但在線教育在另外一個(gè)重要方面的破壞性，可能超過了許多學(xué)術(shù)領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者的想象。如果說互聯(lián)網(wǎng)正在引發(fā)一場(chǎng)高等教育革命尤其是商學(xué)院的革命，那就應(yīng)該是迫使人們思考如何使用課堂，而非是否需要課堂。到目前為止，課堂時(shí)間都被用于講座，對(duì)教學(xué)讀物進(jìn)行闡述說明，但學(xué)生本來可以提前完成這項(xiàng)工作。如今，同樣的講座可以提前上傳到互聯(lián)網(wǎng)上供學(xué)生課前觀看，而如何使用課堂時(shí)間的問題將迫使教師們深入研究教學(xué)法。未來的發(fā)展趨勢(shì)可能是將課堂變成一個(gè)師生協(xié)作的空間，而隨著教學(xué)人員對(duì)教學(xué)法的研究日益深入，未來將會(huì)出現(xiàn)豐富多彩的課堂學(xué)習(xí)模式。哥倫比亞商學(xué)院(Columbia Business School)的指導(dǎo)原則是，將在線技術(shù)作為課堂教學(xué)的補(bǔ)充，在課堂上進(jìn)行綜合案例討論，而不是取代課堂教學(xué)。

So the online revolution in higher education will be both bigger and smaller than people think:big as a driver of new teaching methodology; small as an existential crisis for the bestbusiness schools and universities. Just as people still listen to the radio in a YouTube age, thereis much value in obtaining an MBA in the classrooms of the best schools, even as informationbecomes more accessible outside of the ivory tower than at any time in history. And after allof the hype and anxiety, we will see that the Internet did not kill the B-school classroom.

因此，與許多人的預(yù)測(cè)不同，高等教育在線革命的影響力或許更大，但也可能更?。鹤鳛樾陆虒W(xué)法誕生的推動(dòng)力量，它將產(chǎn)生巨大的影響;而將它作為頂級(jí)商學(xué)院和大學(xué)的存在危機(jī)，它的破壞力又要小得多。正如在YouTube時(shí)代人們依舊在聽廣播一樣，通過頂級(jí)商學(xué)院的課堂獲得MBA仍有極高的價(jià)值，盡管人們?cè)谙笱浪猥@取信息的能力，要遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)超過史上任何時(shí)候。而在天花亂墜的宣傳與焦慮過后，我們會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)，互聯(lián)網(wǎng)并沒有殺死商學(xué)院課堂。

Glenn Hubbard is Dean of Columbia Business School. Previously, he was Chairman of theCouncil of Economic Advisers under President George W. Bush.

本文作者格倫o哈伯德是哥倫比亞商學(xué)院院長(zhǎng)。他之前曾任喬治oWo布什總統(tǒng)的經(jīng)濟(jì)顧問委員會(huì)(Council ofEconomic Advisers)主席。