近兩年，世界名校網絡公開課受到熱捧，各大字幕組爭相出字幕，門戶網站也爭相購版權。一時間，追隨網絡公開課的人似乎都有點比別人先進一步的感覺。這些網絡公開課在英語里叫Massive Open Online Course(MOOC)。

MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) are the latest addition to the acronym-bound lexicon of higher education, and quite possibly the most significant of them all. They represent a new generation of online education, freely accessible on the internet and geared towards very large student numbers.

MOOC(網絡公開課)是高等教育相關縮寫詞匯中的新成員，也可能是所有詞匯中最具影響力的一個。網絡公開課代表網絡教育的新一代，可以通過網絡免費獲取，接收到學生數目巨大。

The phenomenon has been likened by the president of Stanford University to "a digital tsunami", threatening to sweep aside conventional university education. Whether or not the rise of MOOCs will prove to warrant such hyperbole, there is no doubt that something very important is happening in the global system, raising profound questions about the very nature and future of higher education.

這一現象被斯坦福大學的校長比作“一場數字海嘯”，稱有可能將傳統大學教育全部“沖走”。不論網絡公開課的崛起是否真的會達到如此夸張的階段，有一點可以肯定的是全球體系內正在發生一些重要的事情，并引發了對高等教育本質和將來的一些疑問。

At this early stage of the MOOC revolution, it is premature to predict the impacts on conventional higher education providers. The universities and private venture funds investing in this area openly acknowledge the high level of experimentation and testing of waters involved. The current MOOC offerings are mostly digital versions of conventional pedagogies – what blogger Dan Butin has called "Learning 1.0 products in a Web 2.0 world".

在網絡公開課發展的早期階段，預言其對高等教育提供者的影響還為時尚早。投資該領域的高校和私人風險基金均空開表示其投資行為只是實驗性質，純屬試水之舉。目前網絡公開課提供的課程大部分都是傳統課堂教學過程的數字版本，博客作家丹?布汀將其稱為“在web2.0的世界學習1.0的產品”。

This can and will change through the incorporation of the kinds of user interactivity already well-established in social media technologies. There is no inherent reason why MOOC-acquired learning cannot be accredited and recognized, especially as the market for degree-awarding powers opens up, subject perhaps to appropriate quality assurance arrangements.

這些狀況都會隨著社交媒體技術帶來的用戶互動行為而發生改變。通過網絡公開課獲取的知識沒有理由不被認可，尤其是在確保質量的前提下，學位授予機構的市場已經開放。