Massive Learning

In November 2013， Liu Xinhua， a sophomore， turned her day-to-day university life upside down when she discovered Coursera， the world’s biggest open online course website， by accident. She chose several courses from internationally renowned universities， such as Algorithms： Design and Analysis， Part 1 from Stanford University， Records of the Grand Historian from National Taiwan University， and Enhance Your Career and Employability Skills from University of London. Thanks to internet， the 21-year-old now learns from top international scholars thousands of miles away， which was completely unimaginable only a few years ago.

China and MOOC

MOOC， an acronym for massive， open， online courses， started just a few years ago. In 2011 autumn， 160，000 people from more than 190 countries registered for Stanford’s free online course Artificial Intelligence. Later， this course gave birth to Udacity， the world’s first MOOC website. Soon， two Stanford professors launched Coursera， which by May 2014， had signed agreements with more than 80 universities around the world to offer more than 650 online courses， and attracted 7.68 million registered users. In May 2013， Massachusetts Institute of Technology （MIT） and Harvard jointly launched non-profit edX， which rivals Udacity and Coursera as one of the three most well-known MOOC platforms.

Compared with traditional higher education， MOOC’s contrasting features are exhibited in its name： massive， online， and open. “Massive” refers to the huge number of learners. A single course can easily attract more than 10，000 students. “Online”refers to the lack of a physical classroom or restrictions on time and space. “Open”means that MOOCs are open to all. And more importantly， most of them are free. Moreover， MOOC differs from many other open online classes in that it features a complete set of teaching standards， requiring participation， feedback， homework， assessment， examination and certification.

The emergence of MOOC shook up the education world. Several experts even predicted that it could change future global educational modes. Against this background， increasing numbers of top universities began to develop their own MOOC platforms. Chinese universities， of course， didn’t want to be left behind. In October 2013， Shanghai Jiaotong University， Xi’an Jiaotong University， Southwest Jiaotong University， Beijing Jiaotong University and Taiwan-based National Chiao Tung University jointly launched Ewant. According to the cooperation agreement， credit hours for courses on Ewant are recognized at all five universities. In the same month， Tsinghua University launched XuetangX， and the first 11 courses are some of the most popular that Tsinghua and Peking universities offer.

Chinese Students and MOOC

In 2013， global MOOC fever quickly swept across China. At present， a passable computer， tolerable internet connection， and a simple quick registration are all Chinese people need to join some of the world’s most noted MOOC platforms， where they can learn under the supervision of the most respected academics.

With the increasing numbers of Chinese students， many noted MOOC plat-forms， with most courses in English， have gradually realized that language barriers can be major obstacles for their Chinese users， which is likely a major reason for some dropping courses. To encourage learning without limits， they tailor to Chinese learners’ needs and set up localized projects. For example， Coursera works with Yeeyan， the largest translator community site in China， to translate complete lectures from selected courses into Chinese.

More Chinese subtitles for MOOCs come from volunteers. At the end of 2012， MOOCers established an online study lounge at Guokr.com， which later morphed into Guokr MOOC College with more than 50，000 enrollees. In terms of the language obstacle， the college has developed a specific mode to provide Chinese subtitles for some courses： a MOOCer asks for subtitles， volunteer translators are recruited， and editors check translations for quality. Many university students have joined such efforts. Zhejiang University of Technology’s MOOC study team， which was set up in 2013， is the first offline MOOC team in China. It has set up a translation department to enlist volunteers to translate subtitles for English courses such as Harvard’s ChinaX and Duke University’s Introduction to Astronomy.

However， some MOOCers and teachers believe that translated courses differ considerably from the original versions. And translators do make mistakes. Thus， some insist that if possible， learners should stick to original course versions or turn to some Chinese MOOC platforms if they are not confident with English.

University recognition of MOOC credits and certification is another problem facing the platform. Even in United States， the birthplace of MOOC， great efforts to push for the recognition of MOOC credits have failed. In China， since MOOC has a smaller influence， certification is limited to an even narrower scope. In China today， MOOCs are more of a channel for selfimprovement than formal education. It is very difficult for learners to receive certification from the traditional higher education system for MOOCs they take.

Although MOOC provides food for thought on conventional methods of education， and some educators still believe it will eventually replace traditional education， many more knowledge-seekers don’t yet concur.

Yu Jingsong， vice director of the Department of Computational Linguistic Engineering at Peking University， is one of the first Chinese teachers to pioneer MOOC. He opened Principles and Practice of the Computer-assisted Translation on XuetangX last October. Every week， Yu uploads new videos， lecture notes， and other materials to the website. Students need to watch videos， read all the material， and digest some of the new knowledge first. Then they discuss the professor’s questions online and carry out homework assignments.

According to Professor Yu， although exchange between teachers and students in MOOC “classrooms” is a major improvement compared to previous online education， it is still far from enough. Having used the same syllabus for MOOC and conventional classrooms， Yu found that students in physical classrooms held more lively and heated discussions， while discussions held online were loose and random.

“I think that the core task for education is much more than just to pass on knowledge，” Yu opines. “More important is to help students foster critical and creative thinking. MOOC is a good tool in terms of passing on knowledge， but when it comes to fostering critical and creative thinking， they’re difficult goals for MOOC， at least for the time being. On the contrary， traditional education， if carried out properly， has more advantages in accomplishing the latter.”

Today， MOOC is not the last word in online education and remains in no position to replace traditional education. In an era of global competition， when top international universities open their education resources to people around the world， their influence is further expanded and average colleges find themselves in trouble. Some experts even predict that prestigious universities’ free offer of educational resources to the general public will not make them more “accessible.” On the contrary， their walls will become higher， and quality higher education will be even more difficult to acquire.