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.不管他们告诉与否，今年9月回校的全球大学生是全球教育市场活生生的颠覆者。鉴于各所高校和各个国家的学费有相当大有所不同，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，更加多的美国学生于是以尝试申请人英国、加拿大、法国、德国和澳大利亚的学校。
But there is one corner of the education market that is proving harder to disrupt.但事实证明，有一块教育市场更加无以政治宣传。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 So Paulo, the cost of textbooks exceeded their family’s monthly income.不管大学缴纳的学费如何，所有学生都面对高昂且大大下跌的课本费用。在圣保罗大学(University of So Paulo)的所有学生中，有75%的学生的课本费用多达家庭月收益。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.在美国，大型基础课程所必须的新版课本——如《公司财务基础》、《现代物理学》和《微观经济学原理》——零售价低约数百美元。
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，美国大学课本的价格上涨了82%。数字版也没有低廉多少；它们往往有便宜的指定密码，没密码学生就无法已完成并递交作业。这些密码往往有截止日，过了截止日，学生就丧失了采访这些资料的权限。
出售的可能性早已被回避。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，就像其他很多行业一样，一种有所不同的数字政治宣传扑面而来。2001年，麻省理工学院(MIT)一马当先，把完全所有课程资料免费放到网上。
In 2002 Unesco convened a global forum that launched the Open Educational Resourcesmovement.2002年，联合国教科文组织(UNESCO)开会了一个全球论坛，发售“对外开放教育资源”(Open Educational Resources)运动。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.该计划还包括课本、课程资料、在线模块、视频以及反对教学和自学的评估。“对外开放”某种程度意味著免费；它还意味著这些资源具有对外开放的版权许可，员工和学生可以权利改动、重复使用和共享。
Using openly licensed content also means that staff can legally modify material in order to tailor instruction to meet the needs of their students.利用对外开放许可内容还意味著员工可以合法改动资料，让教学适应环境学生的必须。Today the movement is growing fast. 如今，这一运动发展很快。
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.总部坐落于巴黎的经合组织(OECD)去年公布了一份报告，对“对外开放教育资源”10年来在全球的用于情况展开评估，并为那些期望希望这项运动的政府明确提出建议。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.报告讲解了加拿大、印度、喀麦隆和南非的计划。
几个欧洲政府仍然注目于课程资料成本带来学生的开销；意大利于是以资助一个由全国800名教师构成的网络，由其合作撰写课本。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.在美国，教育的组织“构建梦想”(Achieving the Dream)今年宣告了一项1000万美元的“对外开放教育资源”计划。它将反对38所社区大学利用“对外开放教育资源”发展两年期学位课程。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.对“对外开放教育资源”的了解必须花费时间在教职员工中传播。
根据巴布森集团(Babson Survey Research Group)最近的一份报告，在教授大型本科课程的教职员工中，只有10%用于了“对外开放教育资源”，尽管有31%称之为他们不愿未来用于对外开放资源。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.“对外开放教育资源”更加限于于基础课程，这些课程涵括普遍领域，需要确认普遍认为的科学知识体系和学生必需掌控的技能。Higher level courses rely more on books and articles that express a particular author’s opinion, analysis and personal research.更加高级别的课程在更大程度上倚赖那些传达某个作者观点、分析和个人研究的图书和文章。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.与所有知识产权一样，社会必需就如何在之后为科学知识的产生建构鼓舞措施的同时最大化科学知识传播进行辩论。
另外，无论是何种品质的“免费”商品都会自我建构。维基百科(Wikipedia)依赖志愿者，还要依赖捐助为员工缴纳薪水。Still, the story of OER is a cautionary tale. A few bestsellers have become big hits while everyone else sells far fewer products.话虽如此，“对外开放教育资源”的故事是一个警告。少数最畅销资源窜红，但其他人售出的产品较少得多。
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，数字世界为在“赢者通吃”等式中败下阵来的人们和学府获取了多种反攻的方法。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.政府已找到社交媒体推展的抗议的力量；音乐和媒体产业被迫基于免费内容和共享研发新的业务模式。软件公司最后向众包在免费操作系统Linux缴纳许可费。High walls and high prices are an invitation for digital disrupters to find new ways to compete.高墙和高价于是以促成数字颠覆者寻找新的竞争方式。
本文来源：安博·体育-www.yzw24.com
扫一扫咨询微信客服