混合式學習 數字時代的MBA模板

Blended learning, courses combining online and face-to-face tuition, are seen by many potential business education Students as the ideal marriage of Modern teaching methods.

混合式學習（結合在線與面對面授課）被許多潛在的商科教育學生視爲現代教學方法的完美結合。

Henley Business School’s latest annual survey of corporate learning found that half the organisations in its sample were already looking at doing some sort of blended learning during 2015.

亨利商學院(Henley Business School)針對企業培訓的最新年度調查發現，樣本中一半的組織已經考慮在2015年開展一些混合式培訓。

This is in contrast to pure online business teaching, typified by massive open online courses (Moocs), enthusiasm for which dipped compared with previous years, according to Henley’s research.

亨利商學院的研究表明，這種趨勢與純在線商科教學形成對比，後者的典型形式是“大規模開放在線課程”(Mooc)，但其受歡迎的程度與前幾年相比有所下降。

Such findings are music to the ears of David Lefevre, programme director of Imperial College Business School’s blended learning course, the Global MBA. This programme uses the web to enable people to learn wherever they are, but also encourages them to meet in person periodically at Imperial’s London campus.

對於帝國理工商學院(Imperial College Business School)混合式學習課程——全球MBA——項目主任戴維•勒費夫爾(David Lefevre)來說，這些發現十分中聽。這一項目利用萬維網，使人們無論在哪裏都能夠學習，但也鼓勵他們每隔一段時間回到帝國理工的倫敦校園開展面對面學習。

Its development began when Dr Lefevre, who describes himself as a “lecturer who got excited about technology”, created an online mathematics course. The pass rate of those who took maths immediately improved, something Dr Lefevre puts down to people being allowed to study at their own pace.

這一項目始於勒費夫爾博士（自稱爲“對科技感到興奮的講師”）創建的一個在線數學課程。選修數學課程的學員的及格率迅速提高，勒費夫爾將此歸功於他們被允許按照自己的進度學習。

From that single subject, Dr Lefevre started developing the Global MBA. Students attend online lectures, carry out projects and participate in peer-learning sessions, which, he says, are on a par with any classroom teaching on a business school campus.

從這個單一學科起步，勒費夫爾開始開發全球MBA項目。他說，學員們參加在線講座，完成課題並參與同行學習會議，這些可以媲美任何商學院的課堂教學。

Teaching on the Global MBA programme is via the Hub developed by Dr Lefevre’s team. There is a news feed and the platform plugs in to email and social media accounts such as Facebook and Twitter. The Hub analyses students’ performance, enabling them to track their progress and benchmark this against other people in their class.

全球MBA項目的教學通過勒費夫爾團隊研發的名爲Hub的系統實施。系統中有一個新聞源(news feed)以及鏈接電子郵件和社交媒體（如Facebook和Twitter）賬戶的平臺插件。該系統可以分析學員的表現，讓他們能夠跟蹤自己的進展，並與班裏的其他人進行基準比對。

Unlike purely online business education courses, Global MBA students are required to spend blocks of time together at Imperial’s central London campus. For example, at the beginning of this year a cohort of 70 students from 24 countries, began their studies with a week-long residential session at Imperial. The aim is to create strong relationships between the students to make later online interactions more dynamic, so there were team-building exercises and socialising.

不同於純在線商科教育課程，全球MBA的學員被要求在帝國理工位於倫敦市中心的校園裏一起度過大段時光。例如，今年初，來自24個國家的70名學員以一週的住校學習開始他們的學業。目的是培養學員之間良好的人際關係，使後面的在線互動更加活躍，所以，住校期間安排了團隊建設訓練和社交活動。

After the initial meeting, students do not meet again formally as a group for another year, although they may do so informally in different places and are encouraged to return to Imperial’s campus whenever they are in London.

初次見面之後，學員們在一年內不會再集體正式見面，儘管他們可以在其他地方非正式地會面，而且學校鼓勵他們，只要身在倫敦，無論何時都可以回到帝國理工的校園。

“The networking part of it is absolutely fundamental,” Dr Lefevre says. “Once you have built these bonds, students work together much better.”

“人脈部分絕對是根本的，”勒費夫爾說。“一旦你建立起這些紐帶，學員們可以更好地一起合作。”

Global MBA students pay £32,000. “Online teaching is expensive,” Dr Lefevre says. “We are still using the same faculty, the same career resources, all the costs are similar.”

全球MBA項目的學員需要支付3.2萬英鎊的學費。“在線教學是昂貴的，”勒費夫爾說。“我們仍使用同樣的師資和同樣的職業資源，所有的成本都很相似。”

Does he think that this puts the Global MBA at a disadvantage compared with largely free Moocs? No, Dr Lefevre says. “When you look at the detail of an MBA, you cannot have a free course. An MBA filters people, so if you have open qualifications where anyone can take it, then it is worthless. Computer-marked assessments are getting better, but to do it well you need a tutor. Then there is the cost of careers counselling.

在被問及他是否認爲這會使全球MBA項目與基本上免費的Mooc相比處於劣勢地位時，勒費夫爾的回答是否定的。“當你看看一個MBA的細節時，你不可能得到免費的課程。MBA的意義就在於過濾人，所以如果你提供開放的學歷，任何人都可以拿到，那麼它就一文不值。電腦打分的評估正在改進，但要做得出色，你需要一位導師。此外還有職業諮詢的成本。”

“We may well develop cheaper models, but if you go down the cheaper route with the MBA, then it loses something. It becomes something else.”

“我們也可以開發更便宜的模型，但如果你的MBA項目走廉價的路線，那麼它就會失去什麼。就不是原汁原味的MBA了。”

There are differences between the Global MBA intake of students and those that apply to Imperial’s traditional MBA. The Global MBA students come from a much wider range of industries, for one thing; have a wider age range; and have a more balanced gender split.

全球MBA項目招收的學員與申請帝國理工傳統MBA項目的學生有所差別。首先，全球MBA項目的學員來自更大範圍的不同產業；年齡分佈更廣；而性別比例更加平衡。

Students on the Global MBA course tend to have a broader range of motivations for studying than those on a campus MBA. They might be looking to re-enter the job market or acquire skills to run a business.

比起在校的MBA學生，全球MBA課程的學員往往有更廣泛的學習動機。他們可能希望重返職場，或是獲得經營企業的技能。

“When you put them together, their differences is what they are talking about,” Dr Lefevre says. “But we all have this common goal — they are all eager to learn skills — and they all want to progress through the course.”

“當你把他們聚在一起時，他們之間的差異是他們談論的話題，”勒費夫爾說。“但我們都有一個共同的目標——他們都渴望學到技能，都想順利完成這個課程。”

There is still a market for traditional classroom-taught MBA and executive MBA programmes, Dr Lefevre adds, but he is convinced that online teaching will become the dominant method.

勒費夫爾補充說，傳統的以課堂教學爲主的MBA和EMBA項目仍有市場，但他堅信，在線教學將成爲主導的方式。

“I am the digital guy, so I think this will be far more popular. It is the growth sector.”

“我是相信‘數字化’的人，所以我認爲它將越來越受歡迎。它是一個增長領域。”