哈佛“慕课”深度谈——访哈佛大学副教务长包弼德教授

An In - depth Interview on Harvard's MOOC Initiative ----------------An Interview with Prof. Peter K. Bol

2012年，哈佛大学改变了原来的政策，积极加入了“慕课”（MOOC，assive Open Online Course)建设大军。\r借参加“2014哈佛中国教育论坛”之机，笔者之一得以与哈佛大学著名的中国历史学家包弼德（PeterK. Bol)教授深入交流。包弼德教授是哈佛大学分管教学创新的副教务长（Vice Provost for Advances in Learning)，曾任东亚语言与文明系主任、查理斯.卡威尔（Charles H. Carswell)讲座教授，创立了哈佛大学地理分析中心(the Center for Geographic Analysis)，并任主任。他代表哈佛大学与中国开展密切合作，主持建设了《中国历史地理信息系统》（Chinese Historical GIS)和《中国历代人物传记资料库》（Chinese Biographical Database)等大型数据库。包弼德教授也是edX平台ChinaX课程(2012年10月31日上线，https://www.edX.org/course/harvard-university/sw12x/china/920)的主讲教授之一。在本次访谈中，包弼德教授阐述了他如何看待哈佛大学2012年加入edX，介绍了哈佛大学为何新设副教务长；还介绍了目前HarvardX的基本情况、运行、成本以及未来发展，以及对翻转课堂（flipped classroom)、小规模非公开网络课程（small private online course，SPOC)的尝试；最后他以ChinaX这门MOOC为例，介绍了如何通过分析工具对MOOC的学生数据以及课程运营情况进行分析，还对“慕课”的走势提出了自己的看法。

＂Harvard University launched HarvardX in 2012 and started actively participating in the creation of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Course). Since then， many world-renowned universities have also joined the MOOC movement and opened up their online courses to the world， trying to enhance their own brands and influence by sharing some of their best courses. The quantity and quality of MOOCs have been greatly improved in the past two years and a wide spectrum of innovations has been implemented in the MOOC world， among which HarvardX is a very active participant. There are many questions from academia and the general public about MOOCs ： What is the status quo of MOOCs? What is the future trend? What experiments and researches have been conducted? What can we learn from those findings ? During the Harvard China Education Symposium conference， one author of this paper has conducted an in-depth interview with Professor Peter K. Bolof Harvard University to attempt to answer some of these questions. Bol is the Vice Provost for Advances in Learning， the Charles H. Carswell Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations ， and the founding director of the Harvard Center for Geographic Analysis. He holds degrees from the University of Leiden and Princeton University. On behalf of Harvard University， he has closely collaborated with China ， in Chinese Historical GIS， Chinese Biographical Database， etc. Bol is also one of the lead professors of ChinaX， a MOOC about China 爷 s history on edX ( https ： //www. edX. org/course/harvard - university/sw12x/china/920 ).In this interview， we first tried to understand the shift of Harvard University 爷 s move in joining edX， followed by the rationale of Harvard University 爷 s decision in creating a Vice Provost position for Advances in Learning and why Bol accepted this position which is not directly related to his field of study. Further， he introduced the status quo of HarvardX， including the operation， cost and future development plan， etc. ， as well as the innovative experiments of Flipped Classroom in Harvard 爷 s residential courses and SPOC ( Small Private Online Course). Lastly， he used ChinaX as a case to elaborate the multiple approaches to conduct experiments and researches with MOOCs， including Flipped Classroom， Structure Topic Modeling analysis ， etc. Based on these analyses， Bol further shared his thoughts on MOOCs ： the subsequent iterations of MOOC courses should allocate the funds reasonably and revise the course structure to iteratively improve the course quality; compared to MOOC， SPOC has a much higher completion rate and can provide a more effective teaching and learning experience， more similar to the residential course ； more modules should be provided for students to choose from ； relevant modules should be integrated into a course to enhance students 爷 learning experience.＂