身在线上课堂上 每人都可以前排坐
这个月早些时候，我去了趟亚利桑那州，为的是一睹未来的大学会是什么样子。我看到了一个振奋人心的高等教育新时代正逐步成型，届时，更多的学生将获得良好的，个性化的 教育，代价也是他们可接受的。
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.
在这个未来的教育世界中，或许不一定有讲课礼堂、学生宿舍、足球队以及传统大学生活中的一些其他特色。在我访问的大学里，恰恰是学校想方设法让学生通过在线学习来获得 学位，让他们能够随时随地地上课。
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.
这些大学，——有些人称之为“没有围墙的大学”，是普及高等教育工作的前沿阵地，尤其对于那些要依靠全职工作来养家糊口的低收入学生来说，更是这样。在我访问期间，我 听到了一些激动人心的故事，学生们利用这些弹性的学习模式来读取学位，这样他们便能踏上新的职业征途。
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的同学，他在滕比市的Rio Salado学院读书，他的故事非常动人。十几年前，他从大学辍学，之后做了好几份低收入、重体力的工作。 前不久，他决定要读一个大学学位，这时候的他已有了第一个子女，而且希望缔造一份更好的生活——我发现这是一个在社区大学很常见的畏惧心态。
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学院深藏在滕比市的工业园区中，她与传统的高校看起来不太一样。这里看不到学生匆忙赶课，没有长满常青藤的围墙，只有几栋玻璃外饰的办公楼。
As we walked inside for a tour, there was an even bigger surprise.
当我们步入校园游览后，还有更多想不到的事。
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.
学院只有22位全职教师，却有6万名学生就读，一半以上的人通过网上上课。(全职教师队伍由1400位兼职教师组成，他们管理各自的课程组成，自主打分评定作业，并指 导学生。)学生可以从学校开设的1000门课中选课，几乎全年中的任何一个周一都可以选。每学时只收取84美元，远比其他大学便宜。
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.
我也访问了菲尼克斯大学，这是一所拥有30多万学生的私立学校。这所大学的教职员工正努力使得在线学习更具弹性。其中一项最受欢迎的创新是一个基于移动端的app，这 个程序让学生真正获得了移动学习的自由。通过这个程序，学生们可以及时知晓他们的成绩和作业，参与课堂讨论，还可以收到老师的课程提醒。
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.
如果你对大学的认识还停留在一个教授面对满堂学生讲课的层面上，那么有些创新对你来说或许是很意外的，甚至让你感到不安。但我们应对高等教育的挑战时急需这种不落窠臼 的思维。在美国，大学的学费比任何其他费用都长得快，高学费让学生对学位望洋兴叹。大学的辍学率高达40%多，这剥夺了他们挣更多钱的机会，也让美国丧失了本可以促进 经济增长的高素质工人。实际上，我们有一个很现实的难题——我们需要在不增加花费的基础上，以一种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.
很多个早晨，我在跑步机上听在线课程。以我的经验来说，好的课和一般的课之间的最大差别是教授的质量。好教授的激情和专业度会让他们的讲课题目充满活力，即使在线的效 果也如同在对面一样。这就是为何我们在这个转型的时期高度关注授课老师。他们才是启发和引导学生的人。最棒的在线学习技术便是帮助这些最能启发学生的教授拓宽受众的范 围，让更多学生能够进入他们的课程。
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.
当然，这种大众教育方式有一个风险，——在这样一种非针对个体的环境中，学生可能会迷失方向。因此，RioSalado学院和其他机构开始研究有关指导学生的新方法 。利用不断积累的学生在线学习数据——例如，他们是否有规律地完成作业，登陆自己的课程?——学校可以在学生有可能落伍或辍学时介入帮助他们。“学生不会迷失方向，因 为没人可以坐在角落听课。每个人都在前排。”Rio Salado学院对我这样说。
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.”
在我访问期间，几位学生告诉我，比起坐在教室里，他们更喜欢在线学习。“我在大学的大礼堂和一大帮人上过课，课上没有个人的联系。”一位菲尼克斯大学的学生说道，“现 在，我只需点击一下鼠标便可以联系到我的老师。”
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.
其他学生坦言，他们喜欢以自己的进度来学习，喜欢把学校学习排入自己繁忙的日程中。而还需要改善的地方是学生之间的联系。学生们说他们一起完成在线的团队作业很困难， 因为相互协调日程非常难。实验室的任务和其他一些实操性的学习也会有不少问题，尽管针对这个问题，Rio Salado已经向学化学的同学提供实验室工具套件，使得他们能在家里进行实验。海洋生物学的学生可以得到一个冰冻的鱿鱼来做论文。
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.
摆在所有高等教育机构面前的一个最大挑战是如何保证让更多的学生留在学校里，并读完他们的学位。他们四处寻找答案。例如，亚利桑那州立大学发现，大学课程目录中的课程 让人目不暇接，但却没有多少指导意见，这让学生无所适从。所以，这所大学重新设计了学习体验。新的个性化的在线课程目录有这些特点：“学科地图”列举了一门学科的主要 要求，推荐的课程攻读顺序，以及职业选择，帮助学生一路顺利地走到毕业。
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.
我离开亚利桑那时，心中充满了对高等教育未来的乐观。同时，我也提醒自己还有很多工作要做。最让人激动的是我访问的那些学校并没有安于现状。他们继续尝试着风险，用创 意而智慧的力量为自己的未来投资。而这种做法将使得这些学校能为更多学生争取到投资自身的机会。
