网络公开课提供教育.doc

网络公开课提供免费教育 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. ? A class with tens or even hundreds of thousands of students might sound like a teachers bad dream. But a big idea in higher education these days is the \o massive是什么意思 massive open online course, or MOOC. ? Some universities offer free, non- \o credit是什么意思 credit MOOCs \o available是什么意思 available to anyone in the world. Others charge for courses and provide credits. The idea is still developing. ? The Massachusetts \o Institute是什么意思 Institute of Technology recently started its first MOOC. The \o school是什么意思 school plans to offer many free, non- \o credit是什么意思 credit courses through a project called MITx. ? So far, most \o massive是什么意思 massive open online courses are in computer science, technology, \o mechanics是什么意思 mechanics and engineering. For example, students around the world are taking a free course called Building a Computer Search Engine. Two computer scientists, Sebastian Thrun and David Evans, are offering this course through . ? Mr. Evans is on leave from the University of ? There are no education requirements for the course. The students watch short videos. Then, says Mr. Evans, they take \o informal是什么意思 informal, ungraded quizzes after the videos each week for six weeks. ? DAVID EVANS: Quizzes are part of the lecture to keep students \o engaged是什么意思 engaged and keep them thinking, for students to be able to \o check是什么意思 check that they understood what we covered. Those are not graded and students try those as often as they wish. ? They can repeatedly watch the videos and take the quizzes whenever they want. ? Students receive homework. They join online groups to \o exchange是什么意思 exchange questions and answers about the course. ? The teachers hold virtual office hours to answer questions that the students have voted to send them. They also present their own questions and observations. ? The students take a final examination to show where they