高等教育借助在线发展已成不可逆转的趋势———美国在线教育11年系列报告的综合分析及启示

Irreversible Online Development of Higher Education ： Systematic Analysis of 11-Year Sloan Consortium Report Series on Online Education in the US

斯隆联盟连续十一年发布美国在线教育调查报告显示，高校在线教育保持稳定发展的态势，表现为：在线课程注册学生数持续增长，在线教育质量逐渐被院校主管认同，大多数院校将在线教育作为长期发展战略，半数以上院校提供在线学位；高校在线教育实践体现出了性质、规模和层次方面的差异性；在线教育发展的主要障碍是：在线课程学生的低保持率，学生需要有较强的自律能力，教师缺乏对在线教育的认同与投入，用人单位对在线教育缺乏认可等。ＭＯＯＣｓ等热点事件对在线教育有积极的推动作用，但左右不了在线教育整体发展态势，也不能解决其面临的主要障碍。在线教育发展需要站在数字化知识经济时代人才培养转型的高度，从整体上认识其重要性；热点事件经过短暂的“扰动”之后最终将回归到整体发展轨道；各类院校应尊重在线教育规律，结合自身目标和特点选择不同发展道路；中国在线教育需要更加全面系统深入的跟踪研究。

Surveys conducted by the Sloan Consortium revealed that online education in the United States has maintained a stable development in the past eleven consecutive years. As shown in the report series，online enrollments have increased at rates far in excess of the overall rates of higher education； the majority of academic leaders rated learning outcomes in online education as the same as or superior to those in fac^tc—face instruction； most higher education institutions reported online education wascritical to their long-term strategy； more than half of the institutions have offered online degrees. At the same time，different institutions (in size， level，and class) held different views towards online instruction .The main obstacles to the development of online education are still there： lack of faculty acceptance ，need for more discipline on the part of online students，lower retention rates，and lack of recognition of online education by employers. Although hot spots like MOOCs may be viewed as a catalyst for further integration of technology with education，they could neither change the development trend， nor overcome the obstacles to online education. The analysis results of this study indicate that the nature and trajectory of online education should be understood from the holistic perspective of education transition in the digital knowledg economy era. Those hot spots would be positioned eventually in the systems of online courses and online education after making short-time “disturbance”. Higher education institutions need to develop objectives and trajectories for online educations based on their own requirements and characteristics. In addition， online education in China needs to be investigated with long-term tracking studies.