翻译《课程与内容》
Courses Vs. Content
课程与内容
Online Offerings From Major Institutions Are Not Created Equal
由大型机构提供的在线内容不等于原创
国家研究委员会
What is an online course? What is an online education? These questions are at the heart of recent offerings of free online content from institutions like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Britain's Open University.
什么是网上课程？什么是网上教育呢？这些问题直指最近由麻省理工学院和英国的开放大学等机构提供的免费网上内容的核心。
When it was launched in 2002, MIT's OpenCourseWare (OCW) was emphatically declared to be a limited online offering. "OCW is not about online degree programs. It isn't even about online courses for which students can audit or enroll," wrote Phillip D. Long. It was intended to be nothing more than "the content that supports an MIT education."
2002年麻省理工断然宣布开放课件（OCW）成为网上有限提供。“OCW不能在线获得学位。它也不是可以让学生旁听或登记的在线课程。”龙飞利这样写道。用意无非是“这些内容支持麻省理工的教学”。
The understated message in an initiative such as OCW is that an MIT education is not equivalent to the resources that support the education, that it consists essentially of the contact with the professors and the community that develops among the students. And the scale of that difference is emphasized by the release of the material, so much so that OCW could be considered to be a marketing ploy by the University.
蕴含在诸如OCW这样一个创新中的基本信息就是麻省理工教育并不等于为这些教育提供的资源，在本质上它是由与教授的接触和学生之间形成的团体构成。区别的关键在于是否强调对素材的释放，所以OCW可以视为是一种大学的营销手段。
Perhaps not, but as OCW materials circle the globe via the internet, something like an MIT education is being created with them, often with MIT's stamp of approval. Thus we see UNESCO and the French University of Egypt signing an agreement to adapt the MIT content for use in the delivery of a number of courses. Something like an MIT education can be obtained—but like the liturgies of old, the intercession of the scholar is needed to interpret the source materials.
也许不是，但当OCW素材通过互联网传遍全球之时，有人利用这些素材创造出了一些类似麻省理工教育的东西，其中多数带有麻省理工学院认可标记。 因此我们看到联合国教科文组织和埃及法国大学签署了一项协议，改编麻省理工的内容用于多项课程中。你可以获得像麻省理工教育的东西，但像古时的礼拜仪式，就需要学者来解释原始素材。
But is the development of an institution and a class, whether online or in person, necessary in order to translate digital content into learning? What of the self-study materials that have blanketed the digital world offering everything from database design to Spanish lessons?
但是作为机构开发的课程，无论上网或亲身，都需要将数字内容翻译成学习么？从数据库设计到西班牙语课，数码世界提供的一切自学材料的重要性如何呢？
Enter the Open University, which in 2006 announced the launch of OpenLearn, it's own open content initiative. Rather than the mere release of learning materials, the Open University released complete courses. The courses contain learning outcomes, links to resources and structured instructional materials. Everything, it might be said, that a home learner needs to complete the course.
进入开放大学，它在2006年宣布推出OpenLearn，主动公开内容。不仅仅放出教材，公开大学也放出完整的课程。课程包括学习成果、到资源的链接和有条理的教学资料。一切，也许可以说，一个在家学习者完成课程所需要的一切。
The MIT model has captured a lot of interest. Now institutions such as Johns Hopkins and Utah State and numerous others have followed MIT's path. The model has come, almost, to define online learning. But prior to MIT's initiative, online learning embodied the full package, and the offerings online could quite properly be called a course. And open educational resources meant something like "free courses," as offered, say, by the University of Washington.
麻省理工模式已获得了大量的利益。现在诸如霍普金斯、犹他州和无数其他机构走上麻省理工学院的道路。模型来了，几乎要界定网上学习。但在麻省理工开始之前，在线学习包含完整的离线软件包，在线提供的只能勉强称为课程。开放教育资源的意思有点像“免费课程”，由华盛顿大学提供。
In the world of open access journals, different publishers are classed by color according to how open their offerings really are. There is the "gold" model, where content is published in completely open access journals, and the "green" model, where articles appear in subscription-based journals, but may also be self-archived on one's own website. The difference is that while one model, the gold model, ensures a publication will be freely available, the other model, the green model, means only that it is possible.
在允许公开访问的期刊世界里，不同的出版商依照开放提供资料的程度决定其分类颜色。“金色”模式，其内容出版在完全开放访问的期刊里，“绿色”模式，文章出现在用户订阅的期刊里，但也可以在自己的网站上自我存档。不同的是只有有一种模式，金色模式，确保出版物可以无偿使用，其他模式，绿的模式，意味着只是一种可能性。
A similar distinction may be made between the models offered by the Open University and MIT. The Open University offers a "gold" model for open learning online. The course materials are presented in a fully online course, from which a learner could obtain an education in that subject. The MIT model, by contrast, is a "green" model. It makes free online learning possible. But it is itself not an instance of free online learning.
开放大学和麻省理工之间的区别类似模式之间的区别。开放大学提供了“金色”网上开放式学习模式。课程资源存在于完全在线的课程中，学习者可以从中获得教育科目。麻省理工学院的模式，相比之下，是一个“绿色”模式。它也许提供免费网上学习，但它本身并非免费网上学习的实例。
About the Author
关于作者
Stephen Downes works with the E-Learning Research group of NRC's Institute for Information Technology and is based in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada. He spends his time working on learning object and related metadata, blogs and blogging, RSS and content syndication, and raising cats.
加拿大新不伦瑞克省芒克顿的他把自己的时间用在工作和学习对象及相关相关元数据、日志、写日志、RSS和内容联合上面，还有养猫。http://www.elearnmag.org/subpage.cfm?section=opinion&article=82-1
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