Anyone who follows education technology has probably heard plenty about the MOOC — a massive open online course often hosted by a well known university that is available to anyone with an Internet connection, usually at no charge, but that does not typically result in college credit. The New York Times even called 2012 the “Year of the MOOC,” though Anant Agarwal, founder of the MIT-backed MOOC provider edX, told the Times he preferred to call it “the year of disruption.”
关注教育信息技术的人对MOOC一定不会陌生：所谓MOOC，是指由知名高校通过网络媒介向广大学子提供的大规模在线开放课程。大规模在线开放课程一般是免费的，但完成课程不一定能得到校方的学分和认证。《纽约时报》甚至将2012年称为“大规模在线开放课程之年”。不过大规模在线开放课程供应商edX的创建人、麻省理工大学教授阿纳特·阿加瓦尔对此持有异议，他告诉《纽约时报》记者，他认为将2012年称为大规模在线开放课程“冲击传统教育的一年”。
That might be fitting among those who believe MOOCs have the potential to change the way people learn, even in regions where traditional higher education is a luxury (or even an impossibility). Students climbed quickly aboard the MOOC movement. According to the N.Y. Times, the Stanford-backed MOOC provider Coursera added more than 1.7 million students in its first year of existence, a growth rate co-founder Andre Ng boasted was “faster than Facebook.”
大规模在线开放课程获得了许多支持者——甚至在那些将传统高等教育视为一种奢侈品甚至幻想品的地区——他们相信MOOC将会改变人们的学习方式，见证着它对传统教育的冲击力。学子们很快对MOOC趋之若鹜。根据《纽约时报》报道，由斯坦福大学资助的MOOC供应商Coursera在成立的第一年就吸纳了超过170万名学员。该公司的联合创办人之一吴恩达骄傲地说，这一增长率已经“超过了脸书网”。
The MOOR: What is Massive Open Online Research?
MOOR：什么是“大规模在线公开研究”？
In September, the University of San Diego’s Jacob’s School of Engineering announced it was launching what it believed was the first major online course that featured a great deal of massive open online research, or MOOR, in addition to the usual coursework.
去年9月份，圣地亚哥大学的雅各布工程学院宣布发起了其第一门在线主修课程，该课程的特点是，在原本的课程结构基础上添加了强大的大规模在线公开课程研究性质。
The course, called Bioinformatics Algorithms — Part 1, would be offered through Coursera and give students a chance to work on targeted research projects under the guidance of what Professor Pavel Pevzner called in a press release published on UCSD’s website “prominent bioinformatics scientists” from all across the globe.
这门在线课程的名称为“生物信息学算法”，通过Coursera课程平台向学生们开放，通过这门课程，学生们有机会在来自全球各地高校的“知名生物信息学家”——引用加利福尼亚大学圣迭戈分校官网上帕维尔·内德维德的说法——的指导下完成有目的的实验项目。
“What sets us apart is combining research with a MOOC,” said Ph.D. student Phillip Compeau, who helped develop the online course. “The natural progression of education is for people to make a transition from learning to research, which is a huge jump for many students, and essentially impossible for students in isolated areas. By integrating the research with an interactive text and a MOOC, it creates a pipeline to streamline this transition.”
“我们课程的独特之处在于，我们在大规模在线课程的基础上增加了研究的元素，” 据参与了该课程研发的博士生菲利普·康波如是说。“从学习到研究，这既是教育的自然过程，也是许多学生学习能力的质的飞跃。由于地域的限制，许多学生难以完成做到这样的转变。而我们的课程通过大规模在线开放课程，互动性课件与研究三者的结合，为学生实现从学习到研究的转变创造了机会。”
In other words, a MOOR is essentially a MOOC, but with a major emphasis on research. It allows students from across the globe — in all their varied experiences and viewpoints — to work together in a very practical way, and education experts believes it has the potential to improve learning outcomes significantly.
换句话说，大规模在线开放研究本质上即是一种以研究为重点的大规模在线开放课程。它让全球各地的学员们共同参与学习研究，尽管他们的成长经历和思维模式各异。教育专们相信，大规模在线开放研究将能够显著的提升学员的学习成果。
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