VOA慢速英语:Getting a Free Education, in Huge Online Classes

A class with tens or even hundreds of thousands of students might sound like a teacher's bad dream. But a big idea in higher education these days is the massive open online course, or MOOC.
一个班有数十名，或甚至数十万名学生听起来像是一个教师的噩梦。但这些天来，高等教育的一个宏大理念就是大规模网络开放课程，或称为MOOC。

Some universities offer free, non-credit MOOCs available to anyone in the world. Others charge for courses and provide credits. The idea is still developing.
一些高校向世界上任何人提供免费的、不计学分的网络开放课程。另一些高校对课程收费并提供学分。这种想法仍在探索之中。

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology recently started its first MOOC. The school plans to offer many free, non-credit courses through a project called MITx.
麻省理工学院最近开始了它的第一次网络开放课程。学校计划通过一个名为MITx的项目提供许多免费的、不计学分的课程。

So far, most massive open online courses are in computer science, technology, mechanics and engineering. For example, students around the world are taking a free course called "Building a Computer Search Engine." Two computer scientists, Sebastian Thrun and David Evans, are offering this course through udacity.com.
到目前为止，最庞大的开放式网络课程涵盖了计算机科学、科技、力学和工程。例如，世界各地的学生正在学习一项名为“建立一个计算机引擎”的免费课程。两位计算机科学家，Sebastian Thrun和David Evans通过udacity.com网站提供了这一课程。

Mr. Evans is on leave from the University of Virginia, where he is an associate professor. Mr. Thrun is a Stanford research professor and a Google Fellow best known for his work on a driverless car.
Evans先生是弗吉尼亚大学的副教授，目前正在休假。Thrun先生是斯坦福大学一名研究教授，也是一名因无人驾驶汽车而响誉的谷歌研究员。

There are no education requirements for the course. The students watch short videos. Then, says Mr. Evans, they take informal, ungraded quizzes after the videos each week for six weeks.
这些课程没有教育程度要求。Evans先生说，学生们观看这些短片之后每周参加非正式、未分级的测试，总有有六周时间。

DAVID EVANS: "Quizzes are part of the lecture to keep students engaged and keep them thinking, for students to be able to check that they understood what we covered. Those are not graded and students try those as often as they want."
DAVID EVANS：“测验是课程的一部分，它让学生保持参和思考，让学生们能够检查他们是否明白我们所讲的内容。测验不计分数，学生们可以根据自己的意愿随时参加。”

They can repeatedly watch the videos and take the quizzes whenever they want.
他们可以在任何时候反复观看视频和参加测验。

Students receive homework. They join online groups to exchange questions and answers about the course.
学生们会获得作业。他们加入在线群组交流与课程相关的问题和答案。

The teachers hold virtual office hours to answer questions that the students have voted to send them. They also present their own questions and observations.
教师们在虚拟办公时间回答学生们通过投票决定发给他们的问题，他们还会提出自己的问题和意见。

The students take a final examination to show where they rate in the class  Everyone who finishes the course receives a grade and proof of completion. Top students get letters documenting their work.
学生们参加期末考试，以表明他们在班级中的名次。完成课程的学生会获得一个评分等级和结业证明。最优秀的学生会收到证明其功课的信件。

Mr. Thrun started Udacity, which supports free MOOCs. Udacity hopes to make a profit in the future by connecting possible employers with interested students. On his Stanford homepage he says he wants to "democratize" education. Education, he says, should be free, accessible for all, everywhere and any time.
Thrun先生创办了支持免费网络公开课的Udacity网站。Udacity希望未来通过连接潜在的雇主和有意向的学生来获得利润。在他的斯坦福大学的网页上他表示希望使教育民主化。他说，教育应当是免费的，任何人、任意时间和地点都能访问。

So how does David Evans compare the education in MOOCs to traditional teaching?
那么，David Evans如何比较网络公开课和传统教学的呢？

DAVID EVANS: "There are things that we can do better in the online format. We can certainly deliver high-quality education to so much more students at much lower cost ."
DAVID EVANS：“在网络教育方面，有些事情我们可以做得更好。当然，我们可以以更低成本，为更多的学生提供高质量的教育。”

But he recognizes the limits.
但他也承认局限性。

DAVID EVANS: "Part of what I hope will happen as a result of this is that the best traditional universities will be able to focus on the things they can do really well that can't be done better through an online university."
DAVID EVANS：“我希望将发生的部分结果是，顶级传统大学可以将重点放在那些网上大学无法做得更好的工作。”

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