在线MBA教育时代来临
技术已改变了人们的生活和工作方式，但还没有从根本上改变MBA市场。尽管教学的许多方面实现了数字化——尤其是铺天盖地的学习方式自由的大型网络公开课(Massive Open Online Courses，简称Moocs)——大多数在一所名牌学校攻读MBA的人仍需要暂时离职，以便参加在校学习。
There are signs, however, that the online MBA could become the most popular option eventually. A growing number of teaching institutions and students are embracing qualifications that are delivered entirely or mainly over the internet. Online education is coming of age.
然而，有迹象表明，在线MBA最终可能成为最受欢迎的选择。越来越多的教育机构和学生开始接受完全或主要通过在线方式取得的文凭。在线教育已经成熟。
Last year there was a small but significant increase in the take-up of programmes covered by the annual Financial Times Online MBA Ranking. Enrolment numbers on these course rose on average 7 per cent for the 15 schools in the 2016 ranking. Five more schools were added to this year’s ranking, reflecting an increase in online offerings from notable institutions.
去年，每年一度的《金融时报》在线MBA项目排行榜(Financial Times Online MBA Ranking)上榜课程的招生人数出现小幅但不容忽视的增加。在2016年上榜的15所学校中，在线课程的入学人数平均增加了7%。今年的排行榜还增加了五所新上榜学校，反映出知名教育机构在线课程开设数量的增加。
Several factors have come together to drive this shift. They include the tightening of visa conditions in the UK and elsewhere, schools attempting to reach overseas markets, advances in teaching technology and the growing credibility of online degrees.
几个因素共同推动了这一转变，包括在英国和其他地方收紧签证条件、学校试图触及海外市场、教学技术的进步，以及在线学位的可信度不断提高。
Both the supply of online MBA courses and demand for them have been rising around the world, albeit for different reasons in different countries, says Matt Robb, managing director at Parthenon-EY, an education industry consultancy. Australia, for example, has long had a strong distance learning market because of people studying in remote areas. Being able to deliver courses online has allowed leading Australian schools to offer a more interactive experience for remote learners, he adds.
教育咨询机构巴特农-安永(Parthenon-EY)的董事总经理马特•罗布(Matt Robb)说，，在线MBA课程的供给和需求在世界各地都在上升，尽管不同国家产生这一现象的原因不同。例如，长期以来，澳大利亚一直有着强大的远程学习市场，因为偏远地区的人有学习需求。他接着说，能够在线授课，让澳大利亚的名牌学校得以为远程学习者提供互动性更强的体验。
In the UK, online courses have become a means for business schools to reach overseas students prevented from studying on campus by stricter student visa controls and cost.
在英国，有部分海外学生囿于更严格的学生签证控制和成本，无法参加在校课程，在线课程已成为商学院为这些海外学生提供服务的手段。
“Nearly everywhere you look, demand by students for online education has exceeded supply,” Mr Robb says. “The question has never been whether there is a market but whether there is sufficient supply.”
“在你目光所及的几乎每个地方，在线教育都供不应求，”罗布说， “问题从来都不是有没有市场，而是供给是否充足。”
Another important factor in the evolution of online MBAs is that schools are more sophisticated in the way they use technology. Many break down lessons into video segments and run interactive online lessons, in which students can ask a professor questions as they teach, says Mr Robb. “Nobody will sit through an hour-long lecture online, so you have got to ‘chunk things up’,” he says.
在线MBA的发展的另一个重要因素，是学校运用技术的方式更先进了。罗布说，许多学校将课程分解为一段段视频，并开设在线互动课程，学生可以在教授上课时提问。“没有人会耐着性子看完1个小时的在线讲座，所以你必须‘化整为零'，”他说。
Leading schools are waking up to the potential of online education to spread their brand more widely than campus-based learning. Warwick Business School in the UK, for instance, has more than 1,200 people on its online MBA, mostly overseas, compared with 75 on its full-time campus-based programme.
名牌学校开始意识到在线教育的潜力——在线教育能比校园学习更广泛地传播它们的品牌。例如，英国华威商学院(Warwick Business School)的在线MBA就读人数多于1200人(大部分在海外)，而其全日制在校课程的就读人数为75人。
The school has built two film studios on campus to create online content. A simulation of a bank trading floor is one example of how it has developed new ways of teaching. Its production team visits companies to film short documentaries that students can stream.
华威商学院在校内设立了两个摄影棚，以制作在线内容。模拟银行交易大厅是揭示该校如何开发新教学方法的一个例子。制片组造访各家公司拍摄纪录短片，供学生用流媒体播放。
“More and more people are used to being online and expect, in some ways, to be educated online,” says John Colley, Warwick’s associate dean in charge of the MBA.
“越来越多的人习惯上网并期待以某种方式在网上接受教育，” 华威商学院负责MBA的副院长约翰•科利(John Colley)表示。
“The flexibility an online MBA allows is very attractive for a generation where time is constantly being squeezed and the demands of work heightened — you can fit the distance-learning MBA around your life,” he adds.
“在线MBA提供的灵活性对于时间总是不够、工作辛苦的一代人非常具有吸引力——你可以根据自己的日程安排远程MBA学习，”他补充称。
Imperial College Business School launched its fully online global MBA (GMBA) in January 2015. Now, with 220 students enrolled, it is the London school’s biggest course. Most GMBA students would not consider a conventional MBA, says David Lefevre, director of Imperial’s Edtech Lab.
2015年1月，帝国理工商学院(Imperial College Business School)推出了完全在线的全球MBA(GMBA)课程。如今该课程有220名注册学生，是这家位于伦敦的商学院人数最多的课程。帝国理工商学院教育技术实验室(Edtech Lab)主任戴维•勒费夫尔(David Lefevre)表示，GMBA的多数学生不会考虑传统MBA。
“There is a growing proportion of MBA students who routinely work and collaborate online and across time zones,” he says. “To these students, the blended approach is completely natural and it is the value of the purely face-to-face traditional MBA format that needs explaining.”
“越来越多的MBA学生常常跨越时区、在网上学习和协作，”他称，“对于这些学生来说，这种混合式方法的好处是不言而喻的，需要解释一下的反而是纯面对面式传统MBA价值何在。“
For all the growth of the online market, at many schools there remains a dichotomy between teaching purely digitally and bringing students to campus. In Spain, IE Business School prides itself on the technology at its Madrid campus, such as the WOW Room (Window on the World), whose wall of 48 screens enables professors to hold interactive lectures with students watching online.
尽管在线市场迅速增长，但很多学校仍然把纯数字化教学和让学生亲自到校这两件事分得很清。在西班牙，IE商学院(IE Business School)以其马德里校区的技术为傲，比如世界之窗(Window on the World)教室。该教室的墙是48块屏幕，使教授可以向在线观看的学生授课并与他们互动。
The school has used online content for the past 15 years to teach MBA students and it is integral to the experience of coming to the school, says Jolanta Golanowska, IE’s director of learning innovation. But IE, which has a corporate learning alliance with the FT, has yet to offer a purely online MBA.
IE商学院学习创新主任约兰塔•戈拉诺夫斯卡(Jolanta Golanowska)表示，15年来该学院一直利用在线内容教授MBA学生，它也是学生在校学习体验的不可或缺的一部分。但是IE商学院——与英国《金融时报》建立了公司学习合作——目前尚未提供纯在线MBA课程。
“We believe very strongly that there is a need for connecting people in person,” Ms Golanowska says. “People don’t just do an MBA for knowledge, but for personal advancement, so they need to network. If you try to do that online, it doesn’t have the same depth as if you do it in the classroom.”
“我们坚信，人们面对面建立联系是有必要的，”戈拉诺夫斯卡称，“人们上MBA不只是为了获取知识，还是为了个人发展，因此他们需要培养同窗情谊。在网上试图培养感情，和在课堂里培养起来的感情深度是不一样的。
Also in Spain, Esade, which the FT ranks among the top 20 full-time MBAs, does not run an online MBA but does use technology to supplement teaching at its Barcelona campus. For example, a video may be pre-recorded by the tutor so that more lecture room time can be devoted to group learning and discussion.
同样位于西班牙的Esade商学院(在英国《金融时报》全日制MBA排行榜上跻身前二十)也没有开设在线MBA课程，但它在巴塞罗那校区利用技术来辅助教学。例如，讲师可能提前录下视频，这样课堂上可以用更多时间进行小组学习和讨论。
The school does offer purely online teaching, but it is aimed at the executive education market, reaching people who are in work and at a later stage in their career and who might struggle to justify coming to Barcelona to study full time.
该学院提供纯在线教学，但针对的是高管教育市场，面向的是这样的人：在职且处于职业生涯较晚阶段，可能找不到要去巴塞罗那接受全日制教育的充分理由。
Esade, too, emphasises the importance of the campus experience.
Esade商学院也强调了校园体验的重要性。
“We are fortunate to be in a city where people want to be,” says Jonathan Wareham, professor of information systems. “For the courses we run on the campus the question is not whether to do it online or offline but how to use technology to help the student learn while here.”
“我们有幸生活在这个人们向往的城市，”Esade信息系统学教授乔纳森•韦勒姆(Jonathan Wareham)称，“对于我们在校内开设的课程，问题不在于是在线上还是线下教学，而是如何利用技术帮助学生在这里学到东西。”
