商學院加緊開拓線上教育市場

There was a time when Heraldo Sales-Cavalcante, the director of strategic analysis and head of learning at Ericsson, was sceptical that a pure online course would provide as rich a learning experience as the classroom.

愛立信(Ericsson)戰略分析總監和員工學習主管埃拉爾多•薩萊斯-卡瓦爾坎特(Heraldo Sales-Cavalcante)一度懷疑，單純的在線課程無法提供與課堂學習一樣豐富的學習體驗。

“There is magic when you meet face-to-face,” he says. “You form great networks.”

“面對面的交流會產生一種魔力，”他說，“你會結成強大的人脈關係網。”

However, Mr Sales-Cavalcante was eager to experiment. Online classes are “a fraction of the cost” of campus executive education courses, and mean less time away from families and jobs. Since January 2014, 120 employees have taken an open-enrolment online class from Columbia Business School. He rates the course highly and more staff will follow.

然而，薩萊斯-卡瓦爾坎特很想嘗試一下。就成本而言，在線課程只是在校高管教育課程的“一個零頭”，而且學員離開家庭和工作崗位的時間更短。自2014年1月以來，有120名員工參加了哥倫比亞商學院(Columbia Business School)的開放式在線課程班。薩萊斯-卡瓦爾坎特對課程評價很高，將安排更多員工學習這一課程。

He adds that, in future, sending employees to residential courses “will be questionable” unless there is a clearly defined “experiential learning” component. “Business schools need to think about how they reinvent themselves and how they leverage technology,” he says.

他補充道，未來，送員工參加在校課程“將是有問題的”——除非相關課程有明確界定的“體驗式學習”環節。“商學院需要考慮一下如何再造自身，如何運用技術，”薩萊斯-卡瓦爾坎特說。

It is a message top schools, including Columbia, Harvard and Wharton, are heeding. As technology improves and online learning gains credibility, many schools are creating a portfolio of online courses. These are intended to supplement — not replace — the short, residential executive education courses that have been a cash cow for decades.

包括哥倫比亞商學院、哈佛商學院(Harvard Business School)和沃頓商學院(Wharton Business School)在內的一些頂級商學院都在聽取這一信息。隨着技術不斷進步，隨着在線學習的認可程度提高，許多商學院正在打造一系列在線課程。這些課程意在對短期在校高管教育課程進行補充，而非替代。後者數十年來一直是商學院最賺錢的項目。

Harvard, for instance, offers a three-week course called Disruptive Strategy with Clayton Christensen at $1,500 a head. The class, on the school’s online platform HBX, mixes video lectures, team assignments and case studies.

比如，哈佛商學院推出了爲期三週的“顛覆性戰略”(Disruptive Strategy)在線課程，由該校教授克萊頓•克里斯坦森(Clayton Christensen)講授，每位學員收費1500美元。課程在哈佛商學院的在線課程平臺HBX上進行，包含視頻授課、小組作業和案例研究。

Bharat Anand, who runs HBX, admits the growth in free and cheap content online may cause a small fall in numbers on campus courses — and therefore an erosion of a revenue stream. But, he says, companies have different needs and various models will coexist.

負責HBX平臺運營的巴拉特•阿南德(Bharat Anand)承認，免費和廉價的在線課程內容增多，或許會造成校園課程學員人數的小幅下降，侵蝕這方面的收入流。但他表示，企業有不同的需求，多種模式將會並存。

At top schools, campus courses retain the prestige and networking possibilities, and big, international client organisations are less price sensitive.

在頂級商學院，在校課程依然保持威望，還能提供拓展人脈的可能性，同時大型、國際化的單位客戶對價格的敏感程度較低。

“Among the elite schools, executives will always want to have face-to-face programmes,” says Michael Malefakis, associate dean of executive education at Columbia. “It’s the network effect. The global elites want to be here — whether it’s New York City, Boston, or Fontainebleau [where Insead is based].”

“高管們總是希望參加精英學校的面對面課程，”哥倫比亞商學院高管教育副主任邁克爾•馬萊法基斯(Michael Malefakis)說，“關鍵是人脈效果。全球精英都希望來到這裏——不管學校是在紐約市、波士頓，還是楓丹白露（歐洲工商管理學院(INSEAD)的所在地）。”

Still, two years ago Columbia launched online open enrolment courses, costing $2,000-$2,800 per student. It also offers online custom courses.

話雖如此，兩年前哥倫比亞商學院推出了開放式在線課程，每名學員收費2000美元到2800美元。該校還推出了在線定製課程。

“The primary goal is not creating a new profitmaking line of business,” he says. “Certainly, we want to cover costs, but our goal is an economically sustainable business model.”

“主要目標不是建立一條新的盈利業務線，”他說，“當然，我們想要收回成本，但我們的目標是一種在經濟上可持續的商業模式。”

Wharton last year introduced an eight-week, application-only course for executives taught by Peter Fader, the marketing professor, on the Strategic Value of Customer Relationships. The cost is $3,700 per student. Wharton also offers custom online programmes.

去年，沃頓商學院推出了爲期8周，需要申請才能入學的在線高管課程，由營銷學教授彼得•法德(Peter Fader)講授，課程名爲“客戶關係的戰略價值”(Strategic Value of Customer Relationships)。每名學員收費3700美元。沃頓也提供定製的在線課程。

“In the past, the only option was to send people to campus,” says Shilpa Patwardhan, connected learning director at Wharton Executive Education.

“過去，唯一的選擇是送人們去校園，”沃頓高管教育聯網學習主任希帕•帕特瓦爾丹(Shilpa Patwardhan)說。

“But [the costs] limited the number of people who could take the class. The reach that online education has is what organisations find attractive.”

“但（成本）限制了參加課程的人數。在線學習的覆蓋面在單位客戶眼中頗具吸引力。”

The price of online courses varies with the number of tutorials, assignments and other “high-touch” features.

在線課程的收費依課時、作業和其他“高層次”特色內容的多寡而有所不同。

“The cost of developing the online programme [for Wharton] is significant,” she says. “The more times the programme is offered — that’s when you begin to see economies of scale both for Wharton and the customer.”

“（對沃頓來說）開發在線課程項目的成本非常可觀，”帕特瓦爾丹說，“課程運行的次數越多，你就越能看到對沃頓和客戶雙方的規模效益。”