MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) are the latest addition to the acronym-bound lexicon¹ of higher education, and quite possibly the most significant of them all. They represent a new generation of online education, freely accessible on the internet and geared towards very large student numbers.

 

MOOC（网络公开课）是高等教育相关缩写词汇中的新成员，也可能是所有词汇中最具影响力的一个。网络公开课代表网络教育的新一代，可以通过网络免费获取，接收到学生数目巨大。

 

The phenomenon has been likened by the president of Stanford University to "a digital tsunami²", threatening to sweep aside conventional university education. Whether or not the rise of MOOCs will prove to warrant such hyperbole, there is no doubt that something very important is happening in the global system, raising profound questions about the very nature and future of higher education.

 

这一现象被斯坦福大学的校长比作“一场数字海啸”，称有可能将传统大学教育全部“冲走”。不论网络公开课的崛起是否真的会达到如此夸张的阶段，有一点可以肯定的是全球体系内正在发生一些重要的事情，并引发了对高等教育本质和将来的一些疑问。

 

At this early stage of the MOOC revolution, it is premature³ to predict the impacts on conventional higher education providers. The universities and private venture funds investing in this area openly acknowledge the high level of experimentation⁴ and testing of waters involved. The current MOOC offerings are mostly digital versions of conventional pedagogies – what blogger Dan Butin has called "Learning 1.0 products in a Web 2.0 world".

 

在网络公开课发展的早期阶段，预言其对高等教育提供者的影响还为时尚早。投资该领域的高校和私人风险基金均空开表示其投资行为只是实验性质，纯属试水之举。目前网络公开课提供的课程大部分都是传统课堂教学过程的数字版本，博客作家丹•布汀将其称为“在web2.0的世界学习1.0的产品”。

 

This can and will change through the incorporation⁵ of the kinds of user interactivity⁶ already well-established in social media technologies. There is no inherent reason why MOOC-acquired learning cannot be accredited⁷ and recognized, especially as the market for degree-awarding powers opens up, subject perhaps to appropriate quality assurance arrangements.

 

这些状况都会随着社交媒体技术带来的用户互动行为而发生改变。通过网络公开课获取的知识没有理由不被认可，尤其是在确保质量的前提下，学位授予机构的市场已经开放。