“開放”資源挑戰(zhàn)昂貴課本

Students around the world returning to university this week are, whether or not they know it, living disrupters of the global market in education. Given that tuition fees vary widely between colleges and countries, many are looking overseas.

不管他們知道與否，今年9月返校的全球大學(xué)生是全球教育市場活生生的顛覆者。鑒于各所高校和各個國家的學(xué)費有很大不同，很多人把目光投向海外。

A growing number of American students, for example, are trying their luck at British, Canadian, French, German and Australian institutions.

例如，越來越多的美國學(xué)生正嘗試申請英國、加拿大、法國、德國和澳大利亞的學(xué)校。

But there is one corner of the education market that is proving harder to disrupt.

但事實證明，有一塊教育市場更難顛覆。

Regardless of fees charged by the university, all students face high and rising book bills. For 75 per cent of those enrolled at the University of São Paulo, the cost of textbooks exceeded their family’s monthly income.

不管大學(xué)收取的學(xué)費如何，所有學(xué)生都面臨高昂且不斷上漲的課本費用。在圣保羅大學(xué)(University of São Paulo)的所有學(xué)生中，有75%的學(xué)生的課本費用超過家庭月收入。

In the US the retail prices for recent editions of Fundamentals of Corporate Finance,Modern Physics and Principles of Microeconomics, textbooks that are required for big introductory courses, run to hundreds of dollars.

在美國，大型基礎(chǔ)課程所需要的新版課本——如《公司財務(wù)基礎(chǔ)》、《現(xiàn)代物理學(xué)》和《微觀經(jīng)濟學(xué)原理》——零售價高達數(shù)百美元。

Textbook prices in the US increased 82 per cent between 2003 and 2013. The digital versions do not help much; they are often coupled with expensive access codes without which students cannot complete and submit coursework. These codes often come with expiry dates, at which point students’ access to their materials is cut off. The potential for reselling is eliminated.

2003年至2013年，美國大學(xué)課本的價格上漲了82%。數(shù)字版也沒便宜多少;它們往往有昂貴的登錄密碼，沒有密碼學(xué)生就無法完成并提交作業(yè)。這些密碼往往有截止日，過了截止日，學(xué)生就失去了訪問這些資料的權(quán)限。轉(zhuǎn)售的可能性就此被排除。

But, as in so many other industries, a different kind of digital disruption is on the way. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology led the way in 2001 by putting almost all its course materials online for free.

然而，就像其他很多行業(yè)一樣，一種不同的數(shù)字顛覆撲面而來。2001年，麻省理工學(xué)院(MIT)一馬當(dāng)先，把幾乎所有課程資料免費放在網(wǎng)上。

In 2002 Unesco convened a global forum that launched the Open Educational Resourcesmovement.

2002年，聯(lián)合國教科文組織(UNESCO)召集了一個全球論壇，推出“開放教育資源”(Open Educational Resources)運動。

This programme includes textbooks, course materials, online modules, videos and assessments that support teaching and learning. “Open” means more than just free; it means that the resources carry an open copyright licence, giving staff and students the freedom to modify, reuse and share them.

該計劃包括課本、課程資料、在線模塊、視頻以及支持授課和學(xué)習(xí)的評估。“開放”不僅僅意味著免費;它還意味著這些資源有著開放的版權(quán)許可，員工和學(xué)生可以自由修改、重復(fù)使用和分享。

Using openly licensed content also means that staff can legally modify material in order to tailor instruction to meet the needs of their students.

利用開放許可內(nèi)容還意味著員工可以合法修改資料，讓教學(xué)適應(yīng)學(xué)生的需要。

Today the movement is growing fast.

如今，這一運動發(fā)展迅速。

The Paris-based OECD published a report last year, reviewing a decade of OER use around the world and making recommendations for governments seeking to encourage it.

總部位于巴黎的經(jīng)合組織(OECD)去年發(fā)布了一份報告，對“開放教育資源”10年來在全球的使用情況進行評估，并為那些希望鼓勵這項運動的政府提出建議。

The report highlighted initiatives in Canada, India, Ghana and South Africa. Several European governments have been focusing on the costs of materials as a burden on students; Italy is sponsoring the collaborative creation of textbooks by a national network of 800 teachers.

報告介紹了加拿大、印度、加納和南非的計劃。幾個歐洲政府一直關(guān)注于課程資料成本帶給學(xué)生的負擔(dān);意大利正資助一個由全國800名教師組成的網(wǎng)絡(luò)，由其合作編寫課本。

In the US, Achieving the Dream, the education organisation, this year announced a $10m OER initiative. This will support 38 community colleges as they develop two-year degree programmes using OER.

在美國，教育組織“實現(xiàn)夢想”(Achieving the Dream)今年宣布了一項1000萬美元的“開放教育資源”計劃。它將支持38所社區(qū)大學(xué)利用“開放教育資源”發(fā)展兩年期學(xué)位課程。

Awareness of OER will take time to spread among faculty members. Only 10 per cent of the staff teaching large undergraduate courses have adopted OER, according to a recent report by Babson Survey Research Group, although 31 per cent reported that they are open to using open resources in the future.

對“開放教育資源”的認(rèn)識需要花費時間在教職員工中傳播。根據(jù)巴布森集團(Babson Survey Research Group)最近的一份報告，在教授大型本科課程的教職員工中，只有10%使用了“開放教育資源”，盡管有31%稱他們愿意未來使用開放資源。

OER applies more readily to introductory courses covering a wide area in which it is possible to identify an agreed body of knowledge and set of skills that students must master.

“開放教育資源”更適用于基礎(chǔ)課程，這些課程涵蓋廣泛領(lǐng)域，能夠確定公認(rèn)的知識體系和學(xué)生必須掌握的技能。

Higher level courses rely more on books and articles that express a particular author’s opinion, analysis and personal research.

更高級別的課程在更大程度上依賴那些表達某個作者觀點、分析和個人研究的圖書和文章。

As with all intellectual property rights, society must debate how to continue to create incentives for the production of knowledge while also maximising its dissemination. Moreover, “free” goods of any quality do not create themselves. Wikipedia depends on volunteers but also on donations that fund a paid staff.

與所有知識產(chǎn)權(quán)一樣，社會必須就如何在繼續(xù)為知識的產(chǎn)生創(chuàng)造激勵舉措的同時最大化知識傳播展開辯論。另外，無論是何種品質(zhì)的“免費”商品都不會自我創(chuàng)造。維基百科(Wikipedia)依賴于志愿者，還要依靠捐款為員工支付薪水。

Still, the story of OER is a cautionary tale. A few bestsellers have become big hits while everyone else sells far fewer products.

話雖如此，“開放教育資源”的故事是一個警示。少數(shù)暢銷資源走紅，但其他人賣出的產(chǎn)品少得多。

But the digital world also provides myriad ways for people and institutions on the losing end of the winner-take-all equation to strike back.

然而，數(shù)字世界為在“贏者通吃”等式中敗下陣來的人們和學(xué)府提供了多種反擊的方法。

Governments have discovered the power of protests fuelled by social media; the music and media industries have had to develop new business models based on free content and sharing. Software companies have ended up paying a licence to Linux, the crowdsourced free operating system.

政府已發(fā)現(xiàn)社交媒體推動的抗議的力量;音樂和媒體產(chǎn)業(yè)不得不基于免費內(nèi)容和分享開發(fā)新的業(yè)務(wù)模式。軟件公司最終向眾包免費操作系統(tǒng)Linux支付許可費。

High walls and high prices are an invitation for digital disrupters to find new ways to compete.

高墻和高價正促使數(shù)字顛覆者找到新的競爭方式。