There was a time when Heraldo Sales-Cavalcante, the director of strategic analysis and head of learning at Ericsson, was sceptical that a pure online course would provide as rich a learning experience as the classroom.
爱立信(Ericsson)战略分析总监和员工学习主管埃拉尔多•萨莱斯-卡瓦尔坎特(Heraldo Sales-Cavalcante)一度怀疑，单纯的在线课程无法提供与课堂学习一样丰富的学习体验。
“There is magic when you meet face-to-face,” he says. “You form great networks.”
“面对面的交流会产生一种魔力，”他说，“你会结成强大的人脉关系网。”

However, Mr Sales-Cavalcante was eager to experiment. Online classes are “a fraction of the cost” of campus executive education courses, and mean less time away from families and jobs. Since January 2014, 120 employees have taken an open-enrolment online class from Columbia Business School. He rates the course highly and more staff will follow.
然而，萨莱斯-卡瓦尔坎特很想尝试一下。就成本而言，在线课程只是在校高管教育课程的“一个零头”，而且学员离开家庭和工作岗位的时间更短。自2014年1月以来，有120名员工参加了哥伦比亚商学院(Columbia Business School)的开放式在线课程班。萨莱斯-卡瓦尔坎特对课程评价很高，将安排更多员工学习这一课程。
He adds that, in future, sending employees to residential courses “will be questionable” unless there is a clearly defined “experiential learning” component. “Business schools need to think about how they reinvent themselves and how they leverage technology,” he says.
他补充道，未来，送员工参加在校课程“将是有问题的”——除非相关课程有明确界定的“体验式学习”环节。“商学院需要考虑一下如何再造自身，如何运用技术，”萨莱斯-卡瓦尔坎特说。
It is a message top schools, including Columbia, Harvard and Wharton, are heeding. As technology improves and online learning gains credibility, many schools are creating a portfolio of online courses. These are intended to supplement — not replace — the short, residential executive education courses that have been a cash cow for decades.
包括哥伦比亚商学院、哈佛商学院(Harvard Business School)和沃顿商学院(Wharton Business School)在内的一些顶级商学院都在听取这一信息。随着技术不断进步，随着在线学习的认可程度提高，许多商学院正在打造一系列在线课程。这些课程意在对短期在校高管教育课程进行补充，而非替代。后者数十年来一直是商学院最赚钱的项目。
Harvard, for instance, offers a three-week course called Disruptive Strategy with Clayton Christensen at $1,500 a head. The class, on the school’s online platform HBX, mixes video lectures, team assignments and case studies.
比如，哈佛商学院推出了为期三周的“颠覆性战略”(Disruptive Strategy)在线课程，由该校教授克莱顿•克里斯坦森(Clayton Christensen)讲授，每位学员收费1500美元。课程在哈佛商学院的在线课程平台HBX上进行，包含视频授课、小组作业和案例研究。
Bharat Anand, who runs HBX, admits the growth in free and cheap content online may cause a small fall in numbers on campus courses — and therefore an erosion of a revenue stream. But, he says, companies have different needs and various models will coexist.
负责HBX平台运营的巴拉特•阿南德(Bharat Anand)承认，免费和廉价的在线课程内容增多，或许会造成校园课程学员人数的小幅下降，侵蚀这方面的收入流。但他表示，企业有不同的需求，多种模式将会并存。
At top schools, campus courses retain the prestige and networking possibilities, and big, international client organisations are less price sensitive.
在顶级商学院，在校课程依然保持威望，还能提供拓展人脉的可能性，同时大型、国际化的单位客户对价格的敏感程度较低。
“Among the elite schools, executives will always want to have face-to-face programmes,” says Michael Malefakis, associate dean of executive education at Columbia. “It’s the network effect. The global elites want to be here — whether it’s New York City, Boston, or Fontainebleau [where Insead is based].”
“高管们总是希望参加精英学校的面对面课程，”哥伦比亚商学院高管教育副主任迈克尔•马莱法基斯(Michael Malefakis)说，“关键是人脉效果。全球精英都希望来到这里——不管学校是在纽约市、波士顿，还是枫丹白露（欧洲工商管理学院(INSEAD)的所在地）。”
Still, two years ago Columbia launched online open enrolment courses, costing $2,000-$2,800 per student. It also offers online custom courses.
话虽如此，两年前哥伦比亚商学院推出了开放式在线课程，每名学员收费2000美元到2800美元。该校还推出了在线定制课程。
“The primary goal is not creating a new profitmaking line of business,” he says. “Certainly, we want to cover costs, but our goal is an economically sustainable business model.”
“主要目标不是建立一条新的盈利业务线，”他说，“当然，我们想要收回成本，但我们的目标是一种在经济上可持续的商业模式。”
Wharton last year introduced an eight-week, application-only course for executives taught by Peter Fader, the marketing professor, on the Strategic Value of Customer Relationships. The cost is $3,700 per student. Wharton also offers custom online programmes.
去年，沃顿商学院推出了为期8周，需要申请才能入学的在线高管课程，由营销学教授彼得•法德(Peter Fader)讲授，课程名为“客户关系的战略价值”(Strategic Value of Customer Relationships)。每名学员收费3700美元。沃顿也提供定制的在线课程。
“In the past, the only option was to send people to campus,” says Shilpa Patwardhan, connected learning director at Wharton Executive Education.
“过去，唯一的选择是送人们去校园，”沃顿高管教育联网学习主任希帕•帕特瓦尔丹(Shilpa Patwardhan)说。
“But [the costs] limited the number of people who could take the class. The reach that online education has is what organisations find attractive.”
“但（成本）限制了参加课程的人数。在线学习的覆盖面在单位客户眼中颇具吸引力。”
The price of online courses varies with the number of tutorials, assignments and other “high-touch” features.
在线课程的收费依课时、作业和其他“高层次”特色内容的多寡而有所不同。
“The cost of developing the online programme [for Wharton] is significant,” she says. “The more times the programme is offered — that’s when you begin to see economies of scale both for Wharton and the customer.”
“（对沃顿来说）开发在线课程项目的成本非常可观，”帕特瓦尔丹说，“课程运行的次数越多，你就越能看到对沃顿和客户双方的规模效益。”