哈佛商學院趕新潮試水在線教育大綱

Harvard Business School on Friday made its first Move into the digital educational realm with a $1,500 online program of three fundamental business courses for undergraduates and recent graduates of liberal arts programs. The school expects 500 to 1,000 Students to enroll in the beta version of the program, which will launch this June for rising juniors and seniors and freshly minted college graduates who live in Massachusetts.
哈佛商學院(Harvard Business School)終於邁出了進軍數字教育領域的第一步。這所著名的商學院上週五宣佈，準備面向文科專業本科生和應屆畢業生推出一個收費1,500美元、包含3門基礎商業課程的在線項目。哈佛方面預期將有500至1000名學生報名參加這個項目的測試版。定於今年6月份啓動的測試版主要面向大三、大四學生和剛剛走出校園、居住在馬薩諸塞州的畢業生開放。

If all goes well, Harvard expects to make the CORe (Credential of Readiness) program available nationwide in the fall, with as many as 2,000 students, and to roll it out internationally early next year. Students who enroll in the pre-MBA program will take a trio of online classes -- business analytics, economics for managers, and financial accounting -- all taught by full-time, tenured, and endowed professors at Harvard Business School who have taught in the MBA program.
如果一切順利，哈佛將於今年秋天在全美範圍內提供這個名爲“準備就緒憑證”(Credential of Readiness，簡稱CORe )的項目，屆時招收的學生預計多達2000名，同時有望在明年擴大到國際學生。參加這個MBA預備項目的學生將在線學習三門課程：商業分析、管理經濟學和財務會計。授課老師都是任教於哈佛商學院MBA項目的全職、終身和特聘教授。

CORe is the first of what will inevitably be a portfolio of online courses and programs from the Harvard Business School, which has been quietly assembling an in-house online learning group dubbed HBS that now numbers 32 full-time staffers. In choosing to enter the digital education space with a paid offering, HBS has decided to pass on the MOOC bandwagon in which rival schools are providing both core and elective courses to hundreds of thousands of users for free.
CORe是哈佛商學院勢必將推出的一系列在線課程和項目的第一個。這所商學院一直在學院內部悄無聲息地組建一個被冠以哈佛商學院之名的在線學習研發團隊，這支團隊目前已有32名全職員工。選擇採用收費方式進入數字化教育領域這個事實說明，哈佛商學院終於決定加入方興未艾的大規模在線開放課程(下文簡稱MOOC課程)——許多競爭對手正在向幾十萬在線用戶免費提供核心及選修課程。

The school will launch a set of classes in late spring 2014 taught by the school's big guns: strategy guru Michael Porter, Mr. Disruption himself; Clay Christensen; and HBS' top professors in entrepreneurship, Bill Sahlman and Joe Lassiter. They will respectively teach the microeconomics of competitiveness; disruptive innovation, growth, and strategy; and entrepreneurship and innovation. Christensen's course will require four to five hours per week over four weeks, while the entrepreneurship course will initially be limited to Harvard undergrads, graduate students, and postdoctoral and clinical fellows.
這所商學院將於今年春末推出一系列課程，執教者皆是該校的招牌教授，比如戰略大師邁克爾•波特【即“破壞先生”(Mr. Disruption)本人】、克雷•克里斯坦森，以及頂級創業學教授比爾•薩爾曼和喬•拉斯特。他們將分別講授競爭力微觀經濟學；破壞性創新、增長和戰略；創業和創新。克里斯坦森的課程需要每週學習4到5個小時，爲期4周，而創業學課程最初將僅限於哈佛的本科生、研究生、博士後和研究員。

In the past couple of years, many business schools have been experimenting with massive open online courses, justifying their investments as a learning opportunity in search of a business model. In January of last year, the University of Virginia launched its first MOOC on growing an entrepreneurial business. In September, Wharton became the first business school to bundle a collection of MOOCs together to deliver much of its core required classes in the MBA program. Stanford's Graduate School of Business weighed in last October with a MOOC on the finance of retirement and pensions.
過去幾年來，許多商學院一直在嘗試MOOC課程，聲稱投資這些課程是爲了給他們提供一個探索商業模式的學習機會。去年1月份，弗吉尼亞大學(University of Virginia)推出了它第一個MOOC課程，主題是如何助推初創企業發展壯大。9月份，沃頓(Wharton)成爲第一所把一系列MOOC課程捆綁在一起，用以傳授MBA項目大部分核心必修課的商學院。斯坦福大學商學院(Stanford's Graduate School of Business) 去年10月份推出一個關於退休和養老金理財的MOOC課程。

Online degree programs have also proliferated. Though Indiana University's Kelley School of Business has been offering an online MBA since 1999, newer entrants such as Carnegie Mellon's Tepper School and the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina have brought additional credibility to the notion of getting an online MBA. More than 2,000 students have earned Kelley MBAs online, and the school's Kelley Direct online program currently has an enrollment of 728 students.
在線學位項目也在迅速激增。儘管早在1999年，印第安納大學( Indiana University)凱利商學院(Kelley School of Business)就開始提供在線MBA學位，但卡耐基梅隆大學(Carnegie Mellon)泰珀商學院(Tepper School )和北卡羅萊納大學(University of North Carolina)凱南-弗拉格勒商學院(Kenan-Flagler Business School)這些新加入這個行列的學校進一步增加了獲得一個在線MBA學位這種想法的公信力。超過2,000名學生已經獲得了凱利商學院頒發的在線MBA學位，它的在線項目“凱利直通車”(Kelley Direct)目前擁有728名在冊學生。

Until now, Harvard Business School has been on the sidelines, not wanting to either cannibalize or cheapen its existing on-campus MBA program or its executive education offerings. But a small group of faculty and administrators quietly began informal discussions on what HBS should do with digital education some 15 months ago.
哈佛商學院此前一直持觀望態度，不願意蠶食或貶低現有的在校MBA和高管培訓項目。但大約15個月前，一小羣教師和管理人員開始不事張揚地討論哈佛商學院應該如何應對這波數字教育浪潮。

"In the earliest conversations," says Youngme Moon, senior associate dean and chair of the MBA program at Harvard Business School, "we simply looked at what was out there. When TV was first invented, they put a camera in front of a stage and taped plays. It's at the point where people are still putting cameras in classrooms to capture lectures."
“在最早的談話中，”哈佛商學院資深副院長，MBA項目主管揚米•穆恩說。“我們只是看了看這一領域的動態。電視剛發明出來的時候，他們在舞臺前擺上一架攝像機來錄製節目。（在線教育）現在也處於這個階段，人們依然是在教室裏擺上攝像機來捕捉授課內容。”

The HBS group made an early determination to embrace the technology, using it to more deeply engage students rather than delivering a static classroom experience. The school decided in January 2013 that it would have to develop its own proprietary software platform to accomplish those goals.
哈佛商學院的在線學習研發團隊早早就決定擁抱新技術，用它來更深入地接觸學生，而不是提供一種靜態的課堂體驗。2013年1月份，它決定開發自己的專有軟件平臺，以實現這些目標。

"We are piggybacking on media companies that have tried to make the digital transition," says Bharat Anand, who was named faculty chair of HBX, Harvard's online platform, last September. "We said there is no way you can replicate the magic that goes on in an HBS classroom. So we created a digital upgrade. We asked, 'What is it that makes an HBS class special? There are two principles: 1) Action learning. We call it the case method but it is an active way to learn. People don't just come in and listen. They participate. People are all in, all the time. You're not a tourist at HBS. And 2) The case method does not start with simple ideas and build to complexity. We throw you into the deep end. We start with complexity and then dive down."
“我們正在與幾家致力於數字化轉型的傳媒公司合作，”巴拉特•阿南德說。去年9月份，他被任命爲哈佛在線平臺HBX的首席教授。“我們最初覺得根本沒辦法複製哈佛商學院課堂的神奇之處。所以就進行了數字化升級。我們問自己：‘究竟是什麼讓哈佛商學院的課堂如此獨特？’有兩個原則：1) 行動學習。我們把它稱爲案例教學法，但它其實是一種積極的學習方式。學生們不只是走進教室，聽老師講。他們還從始至終親自參與其中。在哈佛商學院，你不僅僅是一位遊客。 2) 案例教學法並不是以簡單的理念開始，逐步增大複雜性。我們一開始就把你扔到深水區，從複雜性開始，然後一個猛子紮下去。”

The group then selected a market segment in which HBS does not currently have an offering. "We began to think about how we could make a real difference," says Moon. "We have MBA and executive education, so the space we began to narrow in on is undergraduates who lack the basic language of business."
這個團隊隨後選擇了一個哈佛商學院目前還沒有進入的細分市場。“我們開始思考我們怎樣才能產生真正的影響力，”穆恩說。“我們已經擁有了MBA和高管培訓項目，所以我們開始把注意力集中在另一個潛在市場，即那些缺乏基礎商業知識的本科生。”

What HBS has come up with is a highly intuitive learning platform that is inspired by social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn as well as online gaming portals. Rather than putting a camera in front of a lecturing professor, the school's proprietary software platform mimics Harvard's famous case study approach, replete with cold calls to individual students and grades based on participation in online classrooms.
受Facebook和LinkedIn等社交網絡和在線遊戲門戶網站的啓發，哈佛商學院最終打造了一個高度直觀的學習平臺。它的專有軟件平臺不是用一臺攝像機對準一位正在授課的教授，而是模擬著名的哈佛案例教學法，時常冷不丁地向個別學生提問，根據學生在網上課堂的參與度爲學生打分。The school has developed a new series of 15 live cases for the online program, with video snippets of protagonists who grapple with various business challenges at a wide range of well-known companies including Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN), Google (GOOG), Disney (DIS), The New York Times (NYT), and Harrah's casinos as well as at smaller entrepreneurial outfits, including a Bikram yoga studio and a Boston ticket reseller. Professors pop up on video to guide a discussion or provide context and perspective.
哈佛商學院已經爲在線項目全新開發了15個鮮活案例。在這些視頻短片中，主人公正在應對各種商業挑戰，其中既涉及衆多知名公司，比如蘋果( Apple)、亞馬遜(Amazon)、谷歌(Google)、迪斯尼(Disney)、紐約時報(The New York Times)和哈樂斯娛樂公司(Harrah's）的賭場，也包括一些規模較小的初創企業，比如一家高溫瑜伽工作室和一家位於波士頓的機票代理商。教授們時不時地出現在視頻上，引導討論、提供背景和分析視角。

Anand, a strategy professor who is a two-time winner of teaching awards at HBS, is teaching a class called economics for managers. Janice Hammond, who has taught pre-MBA boot camps to incoming poets (those without significant math backgrounds) at HBS, is teaching the course on business analytics. V.G. Narayanan, who chairs the accounting and management faculty unit at HBS, is teaching financial accounting.
兩度榮膺哈佛商學院教學成果獎的戰略學教授阿南德將講授一個名爲管理經濟學的課程。珍妮絲•哈蒙德將執教商業分析課，她曾經在哈佛商學院向那些未來的詩人們（即沒有雄厚數學背景的學生）傳授MBA預備項目的基礎知識。哈佛商學院會計學和管理學首席教授V•G•納拉亞南將講授財務會計課。

When students log into the HBX platform, they will immediately see a map with pulsating dots, each dot representing another student currently on the platform. Click on any of the dots and a photo of a student pops up on the screen, along with his or her name and bio. Click on the photo and up comes a list of professional and personal passions and interests, from an individual's dream job to their favorite band and role model. Students are asked how they are feeling at the moment, from "confused" or "happy" to "inspired," their moods visible to fellow classmates.
登陸HBX平臺後，大家會立刻看到一張佈滿脈動點的地圖，每個脈動點代表着另一位正在平臺上學習的學生。點擊任何一個點，屏幕上會彈出一位學生的照片，連同他或她的姓名和簡歷。點擊這張照片，人們將看到他或她一系列的專業興趣和個人愛好，從理想職業，到最喜愛的樂隊，再到人生榜樣，不一而足。系統會問你刻的感受，是“迷茫”，“開心”，還是“很有啓發”。你的情緒狀態是公開的，其他同學都可以看到。

Students can track their progress in each course against their peers. Each cohort will move through the program together, passing through a series of gates, during which assignments, cold calls, and projects must be completed. "You need to keep up with projects and deadlines or you get dropped out of the course," says Anand.
你可以追蹤你的每門課相對於其他同學的學習進度。每期學生將一起完成在線課程，一起通過一系列門檻。學生必須完成學習任務，電話提問和相關項目。阿南德說：“你必須跟上項目和期限，否則就會掛科的。”

While in the online classroom, a student can chat with classmates, jot down notes, and engage in the discussion. Similar to video game software, a student puts his or her name in a queue and is pinged when a critical mass of classmates appear. "When you get a team of six, a conversation occurs," adds Anand.
在在線課堂上，你可以與其他同學聊天，記筆記，還可以參與討論。與視頻遊戲軟件類似，你可以把你的姓名放入一個隊列之中，當同學達到臨界數量時，你就會聽到敲擊聲。“當你組建的團隊人數達到6人時，你們就可以交談了，”阿南德補充說。

The cases at the center of the program range from the impact of a paywall at The New York Times to estimating the likely demand for tickets to a sports event. "We wanted to deal with concepts that start with real-world examples," says Moon.
這個在線項目的核心是一些案例。從收費牆政策對《紐約時報》的影響，到預測一場體育賽事的門票需求，這些案例的內容非常廣泛。穆恩說：“我們希望應對源自現實世界例子的概念。”

And then, there is that dreaded cold call. "It's one of the most powerful levers in the classroom," says Anand. "It gets some people terrified to speak in front of their peers. But it's also a way to share learning and gain confidence."
然後還有那可怕的臨時點名。“它是課堂上最強大的槓桿之一，”阿南德說。“它讓一些人害怕在同學面前發言。但它也是一種分享學習和增強信心的方式。”

A window will unexpectedly pop up on the screen with a question, along with a box requiring a student's answer in a set period of time. The answer then becomes part of the ongoing discussion in the online class, visible to all the other students.
一個帶有問題的窗口會出其不意地閃現在屏幕上，同時出現的一個方框要求學生在設定的時間內給出答案。這個答案隨後會成爲在線課堂課堂討論的一部分，其他學生都可以看到。

The CORe program lasts just two months, requiring between seven and ten hours a week from students. Courses can be taken at any time during the two-month period because none of the online sessions will be in real time. Grades for each course will be based on participation and tests, including a final examination. HBS will maintain a transcript of each student's grades and award a certificate of completion to every student who graduates from the program.
CORe項目只持續兩個月，要求學生每週學習7到10小時。學生在這段期間內可以隨時學習這些課程，因爲沒有一個在線課程是實時進行的。每門課的分數將以參與度和考試成績（包括一個期終考試）爲根據。哈佛商學院將保留每位學生的成績單，併爲每位完成項目的學生頒發一張結業證書。

HBS decided that the "first wave" of students would be limited to those living in Massachusetts so it can quickly respond to any problems and refine the product for "wave two." The school will make available an online application for the program in early-to-mid April.
哈佛商學院決定，“第一波”學生將僅限於居住在馬薩諸塞州的應屆畢業生，這樣它就可以迅速地解決任何有可能出現的問題，同時根據這些問題改進“第二波”產品。CORe項目將在4月初到中旬接受在線申請。

"We want this to be accessible but we want serious learners only. The sweet spot is rising juniors and seniors," says Moon. HBS will make financial aid available on an as-needed basis. The $1,500 inaugural cost of the program will likely rise, though Harvard is not saying by how much. The school also declined to say how much it has already invested in HBX or how many online students it ultimately expects to have.
“我們希望這是一個易於參與的在線教育項目，但我們只想要踏實認真的學生。最理想的受衆羣體是正在成長的大三和大四學生，”穆恩說。哈佛商學院將向那些的確有困難的學生髮放助學金。這個項目的初始費用（1,500美元）很可能會上升，但哈佛方面並沒有透露具體的增幅。哈佛同時也拒絕透露它已經向HBX平臺投資了多少資金，以及它期望最終能夠招收多少在線學生。