高等教育慕课市场的学分认定机制

Mechanism of Credit Award for MOOC in Higher Education Market

As the number of courses and the quantity of learners continue to rapidly increase， MOOCs provide a new market opportunity for the development of higher education. Granting MOOC credit has become a strategic action which universities must consider in order to meet the new challenge posed by MOOC era. The rise of MOOC enables the separation of education and credit award in universities. Universities are being stratified into MOOC exporters and importers ， which will definitely change the competitive landscape in higher education. According to the sources of courses and credits， there are four models of MOOC credit: self-awarded credit， consortium credit， contracted credit and accredited credit. By comparing various policies that offer MOOC credit in different countries ， this article discovers that a country'S higher education market environment and institutional environment may affect the cost and benefit of granting MOOC credit in different models. The goal and phase of higher education development decide the model of MOOC credit that a country chooses. As the United States has the best higher education in the world， its universities are reluctant to accept MOOCs which are still in its initial stage. MOOC platform and top universities in the US primarily use the model of self-award credit to target potential incoming students for colleges and graduate schools. India as an underdeveloped country with a large population faces the double challenges of improving the quality of university teaching and expanding access to higher education. The government in India and its national MOOC platform adopt the model of accredited credit， asking reputable universities to provide high-quality MOOCs and requiring ordinary universities to accept MOOCs and award credit to MOOC learners. China as a middle - income country needs to improve the quality of higher education through MOOCs. MOOC platforms and universities in China mainly use the model of contracted credit and create a competitive MOOC market， which is conducive to MOOC innovation. The four models of MOOC credit have their advantages and can be conceived as a set of policy tools which can be flexibly applied to promote the growth of MOOC market. China should remove institutional obstacles and introduce the models of self-awarded credit and accredited credit in order to encourage top universities to provide high-quality MOOCs and release MOOC' s potential to improve the quality of higher education. Practical measures are proposed to address the key issues related to MOOC quality assurance and credit transfer. Universities MOOC platforms and Government are recommended to build a multidimensional mechanism to award credit for MOOCs.