What College Will Be Like in 2023

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十年之前，没有人能够准确预测今天我们生活在这样一个资讯无比发达，网络连通你我的环境中，科技给我们生活带来改变的速度正在不断被刷新纪录，原本不可能的事情变为可能。《华尔街日报》的教育专家预测，十年之后的大学会有同样精彩的变化，大学从表面上可能或许跟今天没什么两样，但学生所获得的学习体验将有根本性的不同。

Ten years from now college might not look too different from the outside—the manicured quads,1. manicured： 修剪整齐的；quad： 四方院子。the football games, the parties—but the learning experience students receive will probably be fundamentally different from the one they get today.

Textbooks. Lecture halls. September-to-spring calendars. Over the next decade, technology may sweep away some of the most basic aspects of a university education and usher in a flood of innovations and changes.2. sweep away： 清除，消灭；usher： 迎来，使……开始。Look for online classes that let students learn at their own pace, drawing on materials from schools across the country—not just a single professor and a hefty textbook.3. at one’s own pace： 以自己的步调或节奏；draw on： 利用，吸收；hefty： 重的，沉重的。

All those changes probably won’t make a university education cheaper—alas—but they will likely upend our perceptions about how we value it.4. alas：（表示悲哀、遗憾、懊悔、忧虑等）哎呀；upend： 颠倒，颠覆；perception：认识，看法。Traditionally, schools have been judged by how many prospective students they turn away, not by how many competent graduates they churn out.5.在过去，评价一所学校的好坏是看它们拒绝了多少申请者，而不是看它们培养出了多少出色的毕业生。prospective： 未来的，将来的；churn out：（艰难地）制造出，生产出。

“Those are status rankings, driven by exclusivity and preservation of an old model,” says Michael Crow, the president of Arizona State University.6.“这些（学校的）排名其实是受排他性驱使和对旧模式的保护。”亚利桑那州立大学校长迈克尔·克劳说道。exclusivity： 排外性，排外性；preservation： 保护，维护。But as new technologies seep into7. seep into： 渗入，影响到。the classroom, it will be easier to measure what students actually learn. That will “make universities more accountable8. accountable：（对自己的行为）有责任的，应负责任的。for what they produce,” Dr. Crow says.

Here are four areas where you can expect to see major changes and one area where you probably won’t:

The Classroom

In the near future, professors will run their courses over digital platforms capable of collecting data on each student’s progress. These platforms were initially developed for massive open online courses, or MOOCs9. MOOC：=massive open online course，大规模开放在线课堂（课程），一种针对大众人群的在线课堂，人们可以通过网络来学习在线课程。. However,universities are now using these platforms for their traditional classes because they make it easier to share content, host discussions and keep track of student work. A professor might still “teach” a class, but most of the interaction will happen online. If professors and students do meet in a physical classroom,it will be to review material, work through problems or drill10. drill： 练习，操练。down on discussion topics. Scenes like John Houseman lecturing to an auditorium full of students inThe Paper Chasewill be a thing of the past.11. 像电影《力争上游》中约翰·豪斯曼对着满堂学生授课的场景即将一去不返。John Houseman： 约翰·豪斯曼（1902—1988），美国演员，以在《力争上游》中扮演查尔斯·金斯菲尔教授而知名；auditorium： 大讲堂。

These platforms are constantly improving. Soon, they will be able to monitor which students are spending 15 minutes on a calculus problem and which ones slog away for an hour.12. calculus： 微积分；slog away：苦干，辛苦地工作。This can raise red flags13. red flag： 危险信号，警示信号。for professors (and their teaching assistants) about who might need extra help. As Rovy Brannon,associate dean at the University of Wisconsin-Extension, says, “The course platform will get to know you far better than your professor does today.”

The Calendar

As more classes move partially or entirely online, the requirements of having a uniform start and end date diminish.14. uniform： 统一的，一致的；diminish： 减少，变小。Having all the class material online also means some students could sail through a semester’s worth of classes in a few weeks and then start again with new courses. Some might finish a bachelor’s degree in two years. Those who stick around for four years might have three majors.

It’s a move that educators are likely to encourage:Fast learning makes their undergrads look more impressive and lets schools pocket15. pocket： 把……装入口袋内。more revenue by moving more students through the system. “You used to be on a regimented16. regimented： 经过严密组织的，经过严加管理的。schedule that produced this experience,” says Dr. Crow, the Arizona State president.

The Institution

It used to be that getting accepted to a prestigious university was how you accessed the best professors and could hang out with the smartest students.17. prestigious： 有威信的，有声望的；access： 获得，利用。That’s because universities were, for the most part, closed information systems that doled out their content to a select few.18. closed： 封闭的，不公开的；dole out： （少量地）发放，配给。That’s changing.

More universities are making their courses available through online platforms, and great lectures can be found on YouTube. Students are supplementing19. supplement： 补充……的不足。their own school’s classes with online lectures from rock-star professors at other institutions.

More and more, this type of learning will become part of the fabric20. fabric： 构架，根基。of college life. “Students will be able to acquire knowledge globally, across different campuses,” says Ron Kraemer, chief information and digital of ficer at the University of Notre Dame.

Schools, meanwhile, will take advantage of this setup to conserve their resources.21. setup： 机构，体制；conserve：保护，保全。They might develop courses of their own only when they think they can provide a big advantage over other schools’ offerings. Otherwise, they might simply adopt an online course that was developed elsewhere, and then put their own stamp22. put one’s stamp on： 在……上盖下自己的印记。on it by designing assignments, discussions and studentfaculty interactions.

“The university will be part of a club where they will share their resources,because they don’t all want to offer the same econ23. econ： economy的缩写，经济学。class,” says Shelton Waggener, the senior vice president of Internet2, a research network founded by several U.S. universities.

Mr. Kraemer anticipates fierce battles over intellectual property as universities begin to open up their content to the outside.24. anticipate： 预料，预期；intellectual property： 知识产权。If a professor develops a course that becomes popular at campuses across the country, who gets compensated25. compensate： 获得报酬，获得补偿。? The professor? The university? And, as has happened in fields such as music and book publishing, what’s to prevent star professors from breaking out of the con fines of a university to strike out on their own?26. confine： 约束，限制；strike out： 想出，设计出。

But he also says opening up colleges will improve the learning experience.“It levels the playing field27. level the playing field： 使成为公平竞争的情况。because it allows greater access to materials,” Mr.Kraemer says. “It challenges everyone to up their game.”

The Textbook

No professor will need to assign the whole textbook. Each class will have its own tailored28. tailored： 定做的，（按特定口味、目的）修改过的。materials. The books themselves will cease to be physical volumes and instead will be sources of interactive digital content that include text, videos and simulations29. simulation： 模拟，模拟实验。. In some cases, the material that used to be in a textbook will simply be integrated into the online course platform, where students can watch a lecture, read an essay and do a homework assignment.As students work their way through them, they will engage in social learning experiences with classmates or even students at other universities—everything from sharing notes on the reading to engaging in video chats about course topics.

The Cost

In the future, tuition will drop dramatically.30. tuition： 学费；dramatically：显著地，引人注目地。No, just kidding.

The expansion of online delivery has led some to believe that universities will be able to scale up31. scale up： 增加，提高。their classes and reduce their costs per student.While this will happen in a few cases—Georgia Tech is now offering an online computer science master’s for $6,600—it won’t transform the university’s cost structure. That’s because so many of the added costs32. added cost： 附加成本。are the result of the expansion of university administrations and other nonacademic functions,from career counseling to student activities.

Technology will help increase the class size, says Anthony P. Carnevale, the director of Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce,“but that’s pocket change33. pocket change： 零钱，小钱。此处指整个大变革中的一小部分。in the whole scheme of things.”