哈佛商学院试水在线教育 - 手机财富中文网

哈佛商学院试水在线教育

John A. Byrne | 2014-03-26 14:00

哈佛商学院终于决定投身方兴未艾的网络教学热潮。它准备今年秋季正式在自主研发的平台上面向文科专业本科生和应届毕业生推出一个收费1,500美元、包括3门基础商业课程的在线项目，战略大师迈克尔•波特这个级别的招牌教授们有望亲自担纲授课。

哈佛商学院(Harvard Business School)终于迈出了进军数字教育领域的第一步。这所著名的商学院上周五宣布，准备面向文科专业本科生和应届毕业生推出一个收费1,500美元、包含3门基础商业课程的在线项目。哈佛方面预期将有500至1000名学生报名参加这个项目的测试版。定于今年6月份启动的测试版主要面向大三、大四学生和刚刚走出校园、居住在马萨诸塞州的毕业生开放。

如果一切顺利，哈佛将于今年秋天在全美范围内提供这个名为“准备就绪凭证”(Credential of Readiness，简称CORe )的项目，届时招收的学生预计多达2000名，同时有望在明年扩大到国际学生。参加这个MBA预备项目的学生将在线学习三门课程：商业分析、管理经济学和财务会计。授课老师都是任教于哈佛商学院MBA项目的全职、终身和特聘教授。

CORe是哈佛商学院势必将推出的一系列在线课程和项目的第一个。这所商学院一直在学院内部悄无声息地组建一个被冠以哈佛商学院之名的在线学习研发团队，这支团队目前已有32名全职员工。选择采用收费方式进入数字化教育领域这个事实说明，哈佛商学院终于决定加入方兴未艾的大规模在线开放课程(下文简称MOOC课程)——许多竞争对手正在向几十万在线用户免费提供核心及选修课程。

这所商学院将于今年春末推出一系列课程，执教者皆是该校的招牌教授，比如战略大师迈克尔•波特【即“破坏先生”(Mr. Disruption)本人】、克雷•克里斯坦森，以及顶级创业学教授比尔•萨尔曼和乔•拉斯特。他们将分别讲授竞争力微观经济学；破坏性创新、增长和战略；创业和创新。克里斯坦森的课程需要每周学习4到5个小时，为期4周，而创业学课程最初将仅限于哈佛的本科生、研究生、博士后和研究员。

过去几年来，许多商学院一直在尝试MOOC课程，声称投资这些课程是为了给他们提供一个探索商业模式的学习机会。去年1月份，弗吉尼亚大学(University of Virginia)推出了它第一个MOOC课程，主题是如何助推初创企业发展壮大。9月份，沃顿(Wharton)成为第一所把一系列MOOC课程捆绑在一起，用以传授MBA项目大部分核心必修课的商学院。斯坦福大学商学院(Stanford's Graduate School of Business) 去年10月份推出一个关于退休和养老金理财的MOOC课程。

在线学位项目也在迅速激增。尽管早在1999年，印第安纳大学( Indiana University)凯利商学院(Kelley School of Business)就开始提供在线MBA学位，但卡耐基梅隆大学(Carnegie Mellon)泰珀商学院(Tepper School )和北卡罗莱纳大学(University of North Carolina)凯南-弗拉格勒商学院(Kenan-Flagler Business School)这些新加入这个行列的学校进一步增加了获得一个在线MBA学位这种想法的公信力。超过2,000名学生已经获得了凯利商学院颁发的在线MBA学位，它的在线项目“凯利直通车”(Kelley Direct)目前拥有728名在册学生。

哈佛商学院此前一直持观望态度，不愿意蚕食或贬低现有的在校MBA和高管培训项目。但大约15个月前，一小群教师和管理人员开始不事张扬地讨论哈佛商学院应该如何应对这波数字教育浪潮。

“在最早的谈话中，”哈佛商学院资深副院长，MBA项目主管扬米•穆恩说。“我们只是看了看这一领域的动态。电视刚发明出来的时候，他们在舞台前摆上一架摄像机来录制节目。（在线教育）现在也处于这个阶段，人们依然是在教室里摆上摄像机来捕捉授课内容。”

哈佛商学院的在线学习研发团队早早就决定拥抱新技术，用它来更深入地接触学生，而不是提供一种静态的课堂体验。2013年1月份，它决定开发自己的专有软件平台，以实现这些目标。

“我们正在与几家致力于数字化转型的传媒公司合作，”巴拉特•阿南德说。去年9月份，他被任命为哈佛在线平台HBX的首席教授。“我们最初觉得根本没办法复制哈佛商学院课堂的神奇之处。所以就进行了数字化升级。我们问自己：‘究竟是什么让哈佛商学院的课堂如此独特？’有两个原则：1) 行动学习。我们把它称为案例教学法，但它其实是一种积极的学习方式。学生们不只是走进教室，听老师讲。他们还从始至终亲自参与其中。在哈佛商学院，你不仅仅是一位游客。 2) 案例教学法并不是以简单的理念开始，逐步增大复杂性。我们一开始就把你扔到深水区，从复杂性开始，然后一个猛子扎下去。”

这个团队随后选择了一个哈佛商学院目前还没有进入的细分市场。“我们开始思考我们怎样才能产生真正的影响力，”穆恩说。“我们已经拥有了MBA和高管培训项目，所以我们开始把注意力集中在另一个潜在市场，即那些缺乏基础商业知识的本科生。”

受Facebook和LinkedIn等社交网络和在线游戏门户网站的启发，哈佛商学院最终打造了一个高度直观的学习平台。它的专有软件平台不是用一台摄像机对准一位正在授课的教授，而是模拟著名的哈佛案例教学法，时常冷不丁地向个别学生提问，根据学生在网上课堂的参与度为学生打分。

哈佛商学院已经为在线项目全新开发了15个鲜活案例。在这些视频短片中，主人公正在应对各种商业挑战，其中既涉及众多知名公司，比如苹果( Apple)、亚马逊(Amazon)、谷歌(Google)、迪斯尼(Disney)、纽约时报(The New York Times)和哈乐斯娱乐公司(Harrah's）的赌场，也包括一些规模较小的初创企业，比如一家高温瑜伽工作室和一家位于波士顿的机票代理商。教授们时不时地出现在视频上，引导讨论、提供背景和分析视角。

两度荣膺哈佛商学院教学成果奖的战略学教授阿南德将讲授一个名为管理经济学的课程。珍妮丝•哈蒙德将执教商业分析课，她曾经在哈佛商学院向那些未来的诗人们（即没有雄厚数学背景的学生）传授MBA预备项目的基础知识。哈佛商学院会计学和管理学首席教授V•G•纳拉亚南将讲授财务会计课。

登陆HBX平台后，大家会立刻看到一张布满脉动点的地图，每个脉动点代表着另一位正在平台上学习的学生。点击任何一个点，屏幕上会弹出一位学生的照片，连同他或她的姓名和简历。点击这张照片，人们将看到他或她一系列的专业兴趣和个人爱好，从理想职业，到最喜爱的乐队，再到人生榜样，不一而足。系统会问你刻的感受，是“迷茫”，“开心”，还是“很有启发”。你的情绪状态是公开的，其他同学都可以看到。

你可以追踪你的每门课相对于其他同学的学习进度。每期学生将一起完成在线课程，一起通过一系列门槛。学生必须完成学习任务，电话提问和相关项目。阿南德说：“你必须跟上项目和期限，否则就会挂科的。”

"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."

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.

"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."

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

在在线课堂上，你可以与其他同学聊天，记笔记，还可以参与讨论。与视频游戏软件类似，你可以把你的姓名放入一个队列之中，当同学达到临界数量时，你就会听到敲击声。“当你组建的团队人数达到6人时，你们就可以交谈了，”阿南德补充说。

这个在线项目的核心是一些案例。从收费墙政策对《纽约时报》的影响，到预测一场体育赛事的门票需求，这些案例的内容非常广泛。穆恩说：“我们希望应对源自现实世界例子的概念。”

然后还有那可怕的临时点名。“它是课堂上最强大的杠杆之一，”阿南德说。“它让一些人害怕在同学面前发言。但它也是一种分享学习和增强信心的方式。”

一个带有问题的窗口会出其不意地闪现在屏幕上，同时出现的一个方框要求学生在设定的时间内给出答案。这个答案随后会成为在线课堂课堂讨论的一部分，其他学生都可以看到。

CORe项目只持续两个月，要求学生每周学习7到10小时。学生在这段期间内可以随时学习这些课程，因为没有一个在线课程是实时进行的。每门课的分数将以参与度和考试成绩（包括一个期终考试）为根据。哈佛商学院将保留每位学生的成绩单，并为每位完成项目的学生颁发一张结业证书。

哈佛商学院决定，“第一波”学生将仅限于居住在马萨诸塞州的应届毕业生，这样它就可以迅速地解决任何有可能出现的问题，同时根据这些问题改进“第二波”产品。CORe项目将在4月初到中旬接受在线申请。

“我们希望这是一个易于参与的在线教育项目，但我们只想要踏实认真的学生。最理想的受众群体是正在成长的大三和大四学生，”穆恩说。哈佛商学院将向那些的确有困难的学生发放助学金。这个项目的初始费用（1,500美元）很可能会上升，但哈佛方面并没有透露具体的增幅。哈佛同时也拒绝透露它已经向HBX平台投资了多少资金，以及它期望最终能够招收多少在线学生。（财富中文网）

译者：叶寒

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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

"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.

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