哈佛商学院正式推出在线课程

    今年六月份，哈佛商学院的夏季入学人数将大幅增加，在线课程的价格也从300美元提高到1800美元。阿南德表示，他预计将有3000名学习者报名在线课程，这个数字是哈佛全日制MBA课程录取人数的三倍以上。CORe课程的学生将被分为300至500人的群体。学院也会向学生发放更多助学金。阿南德解释称：“我们正在审慎地扩大规模。你希望同学之间能有足够的交流，有人提出问题时，能够迅速得到回答，而这需要每一期有足够多的参与者。但同时人数又不能太多，否则课程将变得枯燥。”

    与其他许多在线商业课程不同，CORe学员每一门课程的得分取决于测验分数、期中考试成绩和参与程度。课程主要采用案例研究的方式，如研究亚马逊、百事可乐、《纽约时报》和美国红十字会等组织的问题与挑战。此外还有当地小公司管理者们的经验教训，如校园附近的比克拉姆瑜伽工作室。学院会向完成学业的学生颁发结业证书，并且校方会保留学生的成绩单。成绩突出的学生可以得到“成绩优秀”和“优异”的评价，与哈佛MBA毕业生的待遇类似。

    那么，送走了两批学生之后，哈佛从中总结出什么经验教训？第二批B2B学生完成率达到80%，学生参与率同样很出色，与第一批学生类似。学业完成率下降了5个百分点，很大程度上是由于第二批学生全部由在职的管理者和员工组成，经常难以完成所有学习任务。学习者发现，在两个月课程期间，完成所有功课需要每周拿出10个小时。而且，参与者只有在两周内完成一个模块才能进行下一个模块，这个最终期限让落后的学生很难赶上进度。

    阿南德表示，他们最初对课程进行了调整，一方面利用在线学习的异步特性，同时保留一些同步活动，努力实现两者之间的平衡，使学生们可以相互帮助。他说道：“在第一期，我们为全部三门课程设置了五个时间截止点。在秋季，我们对结构进行了微调。如果你一天有三个时间截止点，你便很难跟上进度。所以我们在秋季增加了时间截止点数量，共计17个。当你有17个时间截止点的时候，学生必须持续下去，但你同时也希望为学生保留一定的灵活性。所以，我们进行了折中，规定了10个时间截止点，在材料发布的时候会有部分重叠，使学生可以更快进步。”

    “实行17个最终期限的时候，如果你错过了一个或两个，后续的学习就会变得非常困难。所以，我们在下一期课程之间会设置一周宽松时间，使学员跟上进度。我们将课程从10周延长到11周。每个人生活中都会遇到各种事情。学业完成率已经很高，但我们仍有更高的期待。”

    虽然全职员工学业完成率有所下降，但参与率依旧很高。哈佛希望确定有多少学生是真心希望选择在线平台。阿南德称：“首批学生表示，他们在平台上每学习两个小时，与同学交流的时间便会多一个小时。这令人意外，因为这完全是自愿的工作。许多学生表示，每周可以拿出十个小时研究资料，但许多人会选择每周花15个小时，因为他们喜欢这么做。”

    与传统课程相比，在线学习学到的更多还是更少？阿南德表示，学院正在进行这方面的研究，并计划在近期发布相关报告。他分享了一名学生的故事。去年夏天，这名学生在完成CORe课程一个月后参加了考试。阿南德回忆称：“他之前准备了三天，他告诉我，这是他在学习生涯中第一次不需要复习资料。他记住了所有知识。他说这是学习经历的一部分。他一直在全情参与。他不再是被动的学习者。”（财富中文网）

    译者：刘进龙/汪皓

    审校：任文科

    HBS expects a significantly higher summer enrollment in June, when the price of the program rises by $300 to $1,800. Anand says he expects to have as many as 3,000 learners signed up, more than three times the intake at Harvard’s full-time MBA program. CORe students would be divided into cohorts of 300 to 500. The school will also increase the amount of financial aid available for students. “We are trying to scale up in a measured fashion,” explains Anand. “You want enough thickness on peer group conversations so that when someone poses a question it gets answered quickly and that requires a large cohort. But at the same time you don’t want a cohort that is so large it becomes impersonal.”

    Unlike many other online business courses, CORe participants are graded in each course based on quizzes, a final exam, and their level of participation. The program is largely taught through case studies of issues and challenges at such organizations as Amazon, PepsiCo, The New York Times, and the American Red Cross. But there also are lessons from managers at small, local companies, including the Bikram Yoga studio near campus. Harvard awards a certificate of completion to each graduate and says it will maintain transcripts of the grades. Top performers receive an Honors or High Honors designation, similar to what Harvard MBAs get when they graduate from the school.

    So, what has Harvard learned after sending two cohorts through the program? The second B-to-B cohort had an 80% completion rate and engagement rates off the chart, much like the pioneer cohort. The completion rate fell by five percentage points, largely because the second cohort was comprised entirely of full-time managers and employees who often found it difficult to complete all the work. Learners find that it takes about 10 hours a week over the two-month program to get all the work done. Participants also are prevented from moving forward unless they complete a module within a two-week timeframe, a deadline that makes it hard to catch up when students fall behind.

    Anand says that they initially tweaked the program to strike a balance between taking advantage of the asynchronous nature of online learning while preserving some synchronous activity so that students can help their classmates at certain points. “In the first cohort, we had five gates—or deadlines for the completion of work—across all three courses,” he says. “In the fall, we moved to a slightly different structure. If you have all three deadlines on one day, it becomes very hard to catch up. So we put in many more deadlines, 17 in all, in the fall. The moment you go to 17, students have to keep up continuously but you also want to preserve some flexibity for them. So we are now moving back to something in the middle, about 10 deadlines with some overlap for when material is released to allow some students to move faster.

    “With 17 deadlines, if you miss one or two it becomes really, really hard. So with the next cohort we are creating a slack week in between the program so you can catch up. We’re extending the program from 10 to 11 weeks. Things happen in people’s lives. The completion rates are high, but we would love to see them higher.”

    Despite the decline in the completion rate among full-time employees, engagement remained extremely high. Harvard attempted to determine how many students came on the platform because they wanted to be there. “The pioneers said that for every two hours they spent learning on the platform, they were spending an extra hour engaging with their peers,” says Anand. “This is striking because that is entirely voluntary work. Many students said you could get through the material in 10 hours a week, but a good number chose to spend 15 hours a week because they were enjoying it so much.”

    Do online students learn more or less than students in a traditional classroom? Anand says the school is in the process of studying this and plans to release a report shortly. He shares one anecdote from a student who took his exam a month after finishing CORe last summer. “He sat down to prepare three days before and he told me that for the first time in his educational career he didn’t need to revisit the material,” recalls Anand. “He retained everything. He said it was part of the educational experience. It was engaging throughout. He wasn’t a passive learner.”