大学自由选修课的价值

讨论让世界运转不息。

Discussion keeps the world turning.

这里是圆桌论坛。

This is Roundtable.

你好。

Hello.

欢迎来到圆桌论坛，我们为您奉上关于中国及全球热点议题的激烈辩论。

Welcome to Roundtable, where we serve up piping hot debates on the issues that sizzle in China and beyond.

我是林霓虹。

I'm Niohong Lin.

如果你向任何大学生询问公共课程，很可能会听到两种截然不同的说法。

If you ask any university student about public courses, chances are you'll hear two very different stories.

一种是让人意犹未尽的精彩课堂，另一种则是连教授都显得意兴阑珊的课程。

The inspiring class they never wanted to end and the one where even the professor seemed a bit bored.

随着高校正在削减学分并重新评估课程设计，讨论焦点正从'需要多少学分'转向'什么样的学习真正有价值'。

With universities now cutting credits and reassessing course design, the conversation is shifting from how many credits do we need to what kind of learning actually matters.

今天，我们将探讨如何让大学公共课程变得更有意义、更令人难忘、更值得参与。

Today, we explore how university public courses can become more meaningful, memorable, and worth showing up for.

本期节目，我们邀请到了余迅和史蒂夫·哈瑟利共同参与。

For this episode, I'm joined by Yu Xun and Steve Hatherley.

现在请拿起你的虚拟指南针，跟随我们深入讨论核心。

Now grab your virtual compass and follow us to the heart of the discussion.

通识教育的初衷是拓宽视野，确保学生不仅精通专业，更能理解专业之外的世界。

General education was designed to broaden horizons to ensure students didn't just master a major but understood the world beyond it.

然而在某个阶段，有些课程失去了活力，变成了毕业所需的勾选框，而非激发好奇心的门户。

Yet somewhere along the way, some courses lost their spark, turning into checkboxes for graduation rather than gateways to curiosity.

当大学重新思考课程体系时，挑战已十分明晰。

As universities rethink their curricula, the challenge is quite clear.

我们该如何重建一个培养批判性思考者，而非机械记忆者的体系？

How do we rebuild a system that nurtures critical thinkers, not corrected collectors?

要回答这个问题，我们首先需要了解这个概念，或至少将其与其他课程类型区分开来——即公共课程的概念。

To answer that question, we should first know the concept or at least differentiate the concept from other kind of courses, the concept public course.

首先，在中国大学语境下究竟什么是公共课程？

Exactly what is a public course in the context of Chinese universities to start with?

是的。

Yeah.

公共课程是面向所有专业学生开设的课程，旨在提供基础知识、跨学科视野、文化素养，可能还包括公民教育和个人发展。

Public courses are courses that offer to all students across all majors aiming to provide foundational knowledge, interdisciplinary exposure, cultural literacy, and maybe civic a civic education and personal development.

因此这些课程属于全校课程体系的一部分。

So these courses are part of the university wide curriculum.

有些是必修课，因为它们与专业知识和技能直接相关，甚至涉及毕业要求，比如大学英语、政治经济学等；另一些则是选修课，如电影史或文化交流，你可以选修这些课程来获取其他专业领域的知识。

Some courses are required because they're directly connected to their professional knowledge and skills and maybe even some graduate requirements such as college English and, political economics, and others are electives like, film history or cultural exchange that you can elect for having a little bit more knowledge on maybe another from another major.

对。

Yeah.

这些就是你专业之外能获得学分的课程。

So these are classes that you would take outside of your major that would give you college credits.

对吧？

Right?

他们还是说'是的'。

They're still Yeah.

会给你毕业所需的学分，但区别在于这些不是必修课，也就是说它们不是完成专业所要求的课程。

Gonna give you the credits that you need to graduate, but the difference is they're not required classes in the sense that they're not asked for to complete your major.

在加拿大基本上也是一样的。

It's basically the same thing in Canada.

我们称之为自由选修课，学生基本上可以选择任何他们想学的课程。通常来说——这个问题我们稍后再详细讨论——策略是不要选择那些，怎么说呢，超出你当前技能范围的课程。

We call them free electives where students can choose basically anything they want, and typically, I guess we'll into this a little bit later, the strategy is not to choose something, how shall I say, beyond your current skill set.

我认为说到公共课程，实际上至少有两种类型。一种是像雨顺说的那样，无论你是什么专业都必须修的课程。

And I think when it comes to public courses, actually there are at least two types, The ones, like Yu Shun said, that you have to take no matter what your majors are.

比如我当时就必须学习高等数学

Those for example, I had to learn high level mathematics

是的。

Yeah.

这对我的专业来说并不是那么必要。

Which is not that essential to my major at that time.

但很多学生都必须学习这门课。

But a lot of students would have to learn about it.

我认为在某些大学，即使是那些专业像医学这样的学生，严格来说他们的专业并不要求数学作为必修课程。

And I think in certain universities, even for those students who are who have the majors as, for example, a medical student, technically speaking, their major does not require math as a must study kind of course.

但由于学校的要求，他们仍然必须选修这门课。

They still have to sign up for it because of the requirements from the universities.

但另一种类型才是今天讨论的重点。

But the other type is the focus of today's conversation.

这些课程学生可以选择选修或退选。

That is the ones that students can choose to sign up for or to drop.

你选了高等数学是吧。

You took high level math Yeah.

作为自由

As a free

真的很难。

really hard.

作为自由选修课吗？

As a free elective?

这不是自由选修课。

It's not a free elective.

这正是我要说的。

That's what I'm talking about.

这是某种

It's the Some kind

是必修的。

are mandatory.

是的。

Yes.

从技术上讲，这类公共课程是——如果你打算一直待在办公室用电脑工作，你其实不必上体育课，但这是为了健身锻炼，对健康有好处之类的。

It's the kind of public course that Technically speaking, if you are going to stay in an office and work with your computer all the time, you don't have to, you know, learn PE classes, but it's for your bodybuilding, exercising, good for your health and stuff.

明白了。

Understood.

是的。

Yeah.

但这些课程是你必须选修的，这意味着教师必须优秀。

But those are the ones that you have to take, which means the teachers need to be good.

我们确实在鼓励更多、更好、更具创意的教学方式。

We are encouraging more or better, more creative way of teaching for sure.

但就像史蒂夫说的，关于自由选修课，我们至少在大学生中已经讨论过一段时间了。

But for, like Steve said, the free electives, we have had this discussion at least among university students for a while.

在加拿大和美国，受欢迎的课程——我刚查过。

In Canada, the ones that are popular, and America too, I just looked it up.

公开演讲是学生常选的课程，还有创意写作、心理学——我记得我上学时这些就很受欢迎。

Public speaking is a is a popular one for students to take, creative writing, psychology, remember I that was popular when I was school.

对。

Yeah.

有时还会开设体育课程。

Physical education courses are sometimes available.

还有其他更具艺术性的课程，比如陶艺、舞蹈或某种体育活动。

Then there's other more artistic things like ceramics or dance or some type of sporting activity.

我认为这取决于你的学校及其提供的课程，但若我没记错的话，我当时对这些课程很兴奋，因为它们超出了我的常规学习范围，是些不同的东西，让我有机会比局限于本专业课程时更深入地探索大学。

I think it depends on your school and and what they offer, but if my memory serves me correctly, I was kind of excited about these classes because it was outside of my regular studies, so it was something different, and it was just an opportunity to explore the university a little bit more than I would have been able to within my own restrictive class.

理想情况下，本应如此。

Ideally, it's supposed to be like that.

对吧？

Right?

这些选修课本应拓宽学生视野，提供他们在专业课程中接触不到的内容。

These electives and these they're supposed to, like, broaden students' perspectives offering content that may not encounter within their majors.

但问题或者说争议在于这些课程的质量。

But the problem is or the debate debate is about the quality of these courses.

所以其中有些课程质量非常差。

So some of them are of very poor quality.

有些学生反映，整个学期下来什么都没学到，课程千篇一律毫无亮点，上课时大家都在各干各的。

Some of students are saying that, after a whole semester, they didn't learn anything, that the classes were all the same and nothing memorable, and then everyone was just doing their own thing during classes.

中文里有对应的说法吗？

Do you have a term for it in Chinese?

英语里我们称之为'bird courses'（水课）。

In in English, we call them bird courses.

其实我觉得这是加拿大俚语。

I think that's Canadian slang, actually.

水课。

Bird courses.

对。

Yeah.

因为你可以飞走或者灵魂出窍？

You Because you fly away or your soul flies away.

不是，是因为你能轻松混过这门课。

No, because you can fly through the class no problem.

哦。

Oh.

这些课程通常比你的专业课要简单，或者说至少目标是这样的。

These tend to be easier classes than the ones that you're studying in your major or that's the goal anyway.

我们称之为'水课'，因为我们相信干货才是精髓。

We call it water classes because we believe that the dry stuff is the essence.

这些内容就像是能滋养你精神和头脑的主食。

It's the stuff that would serve as the kind of staple food that can nurture your spirit and your brain.

如果内容太水，那就是被稀释了，被掺水了，超级掺水的课程就是水课。

And if it's too watery, then it's diluted, it's watered down, and the super watered down classes are water classes or water courses.

这让我看到了视角差异，因为'鸟课'这个词暗示你可以轻松飞过，意味着学生可能对这些课感兴趣是因为能轻松通过从而提高GPA，但'水课'似乎暗示质量较低，我这么说对吗？

So that right there tells me a difference in perspective because the term bird course implies that you can fly through it easily, which means that the students might be interested in those classes because you can fly through the class easily and therefore bump up your GPA, but water class kind of implies a lesser qual am I wrong when I say that?

它暗示质量较低，对吗？

It implies a lesser Right?

或者不够有趣。

Or not as fun.

很多这类评价都在说，这些课程内容肤浅，缺乏互动和挑战性。

So a lot of people or some of these judgments are saying that these courses are having the content that they feel is quite shallow, and there's little just little interaction and challenge.

有些本应有趣的课程，比如我提到的电影文化或跨文化研究，却因为教师缺乏专业素养，或教学过度依赖观看材料而不讨论，或老师只是照读PPT而令人失望。

In some cases, courses that could be interesting, like, as I mentioned, film culture or cross cultural studies, and then they fail to deliver because the instructors lack specialized expertise or the teaching relies heavily on just watching materials without discussion or the teachers are just reading reading out the PowerPoint slides.

这些PPT通常都是十年前或十五年前的。

Which are usually ten years or fifteen years old.

我说的是

I'm talking about the

展示非常过时的材料。

presentation of Outdated materials Very much.

如同

As

我认为确实有许多不同的因素共同导致了这一局面。

And I think there are definitely so many different factors contributing situation.

我们必须审视为何教师在课程设计上投入不足。

We have to take a look at why the teachers are not concentrating enough in designing their courses.

同时，学生可能也起到了一定作用——我记得自己上大学时，就特意选过一些以‘水课’著称的课程，这类课容易通过且轻松拿学分。

At the same time, maybe students play a role because I remember when I was a university student, I deliberately took some classes that have the reputation of being a bird course, easy to pass and easy to get the credit.

在我那个年代，我们就已经需要在线抢这类课程了。

And at my time, we already have to sign up for those classes online, which means you have to grab them.

你必须...这些课很抢手。

You have to They're fight for popular.

它们很受欢迎。

They're popular.

所以肯定存在多种原因。

So there must be different reasons.

当然，教师是其中一部分原因。

Of course, teachers is part of it.

比如教师缺乏动力，他们可能没有足够的激励来投入公共课程教学，因为现有评价体系往往更重视科研而非教学。

Like, the motivation that teachers are lacking, they may lack the incentive to dedicate their effort to these public courses because the existing evaluation system often some prioritize their scientific research over teaching.

哦，是的。

Oh, yeah.

所以他们忙于研究，就没那么多时间或精力投入这些课程了？

So they're busy they're busy with their research, so they don't put as they don't have as much time or they don't put as much time into these classes?

当你是一名大学教师时，你会有不同的职责，其中一些人既要教授课程，又要完成他们的学习和研究目标。

When you are a university teacher, you kind of have different duties, And some of them, they have to be both teaching courses and finishing their, like, study and research goals.

嗯。

Mhmm.

这是因为他们需要在自己的研究上投入大量时间和精力，这意味着他们可能没有足够的时间来准备课程。

So that's that is because they have they need to spend a lot of time and energy on their own research, which means they may have not enough time to prepare for their courses.

《国家治理周刊》在2019年进行了一项调查，他们发现受访的年轻大学教师中有70%超时工作，同时还面临着发表论文、职称评定等方面的压力。

There was a survey done in 2019 by National Governance Weekly, and what they found from that survey was that 70% of of those young university teachers they talked to work extra hours, and they also have pressure coming from publishing papers and title evaluations and things like that.

我认为我们需要考虑到，当教师授课时，这并不是他们工作中唯一要做的事情。

I think we need to take that into account that when teachers are teaching a class, it's not the only one thing they are doing in their job.

他们手头还有很多其他事务。

There is plenty of other things on their plate.

那么，这算是一个合理的借口吗？

Now, is that a good excuse or is it not?

你或许能找到一些理由说这是个好借口，但对学生来说，要知道这些课程可不是免费的。

You could probably come up with some reasons to say that it is a good excuse, but for the students who are you know, these classes aren't free.

他们是通过学费支付的，对吧？所以要求更高我认为是相当合理的诉求。

They're they're being paid for, right, through their tuition, expecting more is a pretty reasonable ask, I think.

但对一些学生来说，他们不求更多，而是追求更高分数，因为他们期待继续深造。

But for some students, instead of expecting more, they're expecting higher scores because they are looking forward to further education.

他们热爱自己的专业，对专业外的领域不感兴趣，这意味着这类本该拓宽视野的课程对他们来说并不重要。

They love their major and they're not interested in the outside of their majors, which means that these kind of courses, which are supposed to be broadening their horizons, are not that important to them.

他们并不希望自己的视野被拓宽。

They do not want to be their horizons do not wanna be broadened.

他们只是想在自己的专业领域深入钻研，这不过是个人选择罢了。

They just wanna dig deeper in their own majors, which is, you know, personal choices.

我不认为这有什么问题。

I don't see that as something wrong.

而且在当今时代，你可以像想象中那样轻松地在网上找到各种公开课和免费课程。

And also in today's day and age, you can get different types of open courses and free courses on the Internet just as easy as you can imagine.

那我们还需要这些自由选修课吗？

And do we still need these free electives?

它们能带来什么好处呢？

What are some benefits they're providing?

嗯，就像我们聊天开场时说的，我最喜欢自由选课的一点就是能从专业核心课程中暂时解脱出来，我觉得这个优势至今依然存在。

Well, as I said in in our opening of this chat, one of the things that I really enjoyed about having the freedom to choose those classes was taking a break from my regular core studies, and I think that still holds true today.

对吧？

Right?

你要面对学业压力，在专业课程中与其他同学竞争以取得好成绩。

You have your academic pressures where you're competing with the other students in the class to do very well in your in your major studies.

所以有机会探索专业之外的领域，确实是个很好的精神调剂，我觉得这点可能被忽视了，因为你感受不到同样的压力

So having a chance to explore outside of that is a really nice mental break, and I think that's something that might be overlooked because you don't feel that same pressure

确实如此。

That's true.

也许吧。

Perhaps.

对吧？

Right?

此外，你可能会发现一些自己之前从未意识到的兴趣所在。

Also, there are things that you could find interest in that maybe you didn't know you had interest in before.

就像我之前说的，比如艺术、音乐、辩论或创意写作这类事物。

Things like art or music or debate or creative writing, like I said before.

也许你在这些方面有天赋。

Maybe you have a talent there.

或许你只是从未有机会发现这种天赋。

Maybe you've never had an opportunity to discover that talent.

这些自由选修课说不定会影响你的未来，甚至影响你的职业选择。

Having these free elective courses, who knows, could have an influence on your future, could even have an influence on your career choices.

我确实亲身体验过这种情况。

I exactly experienced that, you know.

我主修英语专业，但说实话我们也能选修视频剪辑和编程这类课程。

I majored in English, but we can have some elective courses like video editing and also coding, to be honest.

我选了两门，这些课程真的帮了我大忙。因为在职业选择时，要选定自己所学专业方向其实非常困难。

I I chose two of them, and, it really helped me, because, because in, you know, in career, when you're choosing your career, it it's really hard to actually choose something that you studied.

在这样的社会和时代背景下，你不能仅靠单一技能工作。

And in this kind of a society and era, you cannot just, you know, work with only one thing that you learned.

你必须掌握多种复合技能。

It gotta be some combined skills that you're gonna have.

所以掌握视频剪辑技能确实帮助我获得了新工作机会或适应了新工作环境。

So having some video editing skills is absolutely helping me to get into a new job or a new job environment.

纯粹出于好奇，你大学时最喜欢的自由选修课是什么？

Just out of curiosity, what was your favorite free electives in university?

还是说你有想报名但没成功的课程？

Or is there one that you wanted to sign up for but failed?

任何视频

Any Video

剪辑绝对是其中之一。

editing is absolutely one of them.

哦。

Oh.

因为确实如此。

Because yeah.

我其实很享受做这些剪辑工作。

I I actually enjoyed doing these editings.

当你能真正完成这些打磨和转变时，确实很有成就感。

When you can actually have these polished and transforms that you can have Yeah.

那些转场效果。

You transitions.

这就像在讲故事。

It's like storytelling.

是啊。

Yeah.

这是在讲述你自己的故事，你自己拍摄视频并制作成作品。

And it's telling your own story and you take videos by yourselves and make that kind of a piece that you will have.

我得说这真的很有趣。

It is really amusing, I would say.

我...我很享受...我选修了...我想我之前在圆桌会议上提到过这个。

I I enjoyed I took I think I've mentioned this on Roundtable before.

我选了两门课。

I took two classes.

一门叫'爱'，另一门叫'死亡'，是关于世界各地不同文化中恋爱、婚姻及相关事物的文化研究课程，而死亡课程则是前者的对立面，所以这两门课某种程度上是相辅相成的。

One was called love and the other was called death, and they were cultural studies about how relationships and marriage and things related to love existed in different cultures around the world, and the death course was the the flip side of that class, so they were kind of taught together.

我真的很喜欢这些课，因为当你来自加拿大新斯科舍省——一个位于东海岸的半岛地区时，那里某种程度上是与世隔绝的。

I really enjoyed it because when you're from Nova Scotia, Canada, it's a peninsula way on the East Coast, so you're kind of isolated there.

我觉得可以这么说——我并不是在批评新斯科舍省，也不是在批评加拿大。

And I think it's fair to say, I'm not criticizing Nova Scotia and I'm not criticizing Canada.

我爱我的国家和省份，但我觉得那里在文化上也是相对封闭的。

I love my country and I love my province, but I think you're kind of culturally isolated there too.

所以当我选修那些课程，我们讨论亚洲文化、印度文化中如何处理爱与死亡，非洲文化中的婚姻仪式等等时——

So when I took those classes and we were talking about Asian culture and Indian culture and how they deal with love and death and African culture and marriage rituals and things like that.

那是我第一次接触这类事物。

That was all my first exposure to those types of things.

你可能会说，这让我开始萌生去世界其他地区生活或定居的念头。

And you might say that started my brain thinking about maybe moving or living in other parts of the world.

我完全理解这种感受。

I totally understand that.

而且这类公开课现在也都变成了互联网上的免费开放课程。

And also all of these kind of public courses are also turning into free open courses on the Internet.

我觉得耶鲁大学的'死亡课'就非常非常受欢迎。

I think the death from Yale University has been very, very popular.

他们讨论的问题包括那些当我们开始思考自身有限生命时会出现的问题。

They discuss issues like including well, the kind of issues that arise once we begin to reflect on our mortality.

他们可能考虑的是死亡或许并非真正终结的可能性。

They possibly well, the possibility that death may not actually be the end is considered.

还有，在某种意义上，我们是否是不朽的？

And also, are we, in some sense, immortal?

永生会是可欲的吗？

Would immortality be desirable?

同时也清晰界定了死亡的含义，并对这类问题进行了探讨。

Also a clear notion of what it is to die, and it is examined, this kind of issue.

此外还有哈佛大学的《正义》课程。

And there's also the course Justice from Harvard University.

本课程对古典及当代正义理论进行批判性分析，并讨论其在当今社会的应用。

This course explores critical analysis of classical contemporary theories of justice, including discussion of present day applications.

议题涵盖平权行动、收入分配、市场作用、权利辩论，以及世界各地不同背景下对正义的理解——包括文化背景和法律背景下的各种观点。

Topics include affirmative action, income distributions, the role of markets, debates about rights and all different kind of things in different parts of of the world, the kind of understanding about justice in different backgrounds, cultural backgrounds, legal backgrounds around the world.

这些都是相当经典的课程。

And those are very well, relatively classic ones.

还有一些更现代、更前沿且面向未来的课程，比如我觉得很有意思的《机器人学导论》。

And there are modern ones, more contemporary and more towards future kind of courses, including I think this one is interesting, Introduction to Robotics.

本课程旨在介绍机器人系统的基本建模、设计、规划与控制，并提供构建人工智能机器人的实践入门。

The purpose of this course is to introduce you to basic modeling, designing, planning, and control of robot systems, and there's also a hands on introduction to building AI enabled robots.

哦，

Oh,

是的。

yeah.

这很有趣，不是吗？

That is fun, isn't it?

它提供了人工智能机器人技术的实践入门课程。

It offers a hands on introduction to AI powered robotics.

而且，如果你是个好学生，在课程结束时你将能够——没错，你将能够亲手打造属于自己的机器人。

And they well, at the end of the course, you would be able if you're a good student, you'll be able to build your very own robot.

现在你有《爱，死亡和机器人》了。

Now you have love death robot.

干得漂亮。

Well done there.

我想说的是，尽管我们讨论的是中国公开课的话题，尤其是大学生们在热议——我们真的喜欢某些课程吗？

And what are some because I think these days, even though we're talking about the fact that people are discussing public courses here in China and especially university students are talking about, oh, are we enjoying some of the courses?

我们是否讨厌某些课程？

Are we disliking some of the courses?

中国大学里确实有些优秀的公开课范例，一些非常受欢迎的开放课程。

There definitely are some good examples here in Chinese universities, some very popular open or public courses.

没错。

Yes.

比如南京邮电大学的《漫画与插画创作》课程，由方忠伟老师主讲，全程围绕创作展开。

In at Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, the course Comic and Illustration Creation or it's all about, creation, by teacher Fang Zhong Wei.

这门课让工程专业的同学们共同探索构图技巧与色彩情感。

This class brings students together to explore the composition and color emotion for many engineering majors.

它为学生们打开了艺术之门，成为他们校园生活的亮点。

It opens the door to the arts and becomes a highlight of their campus lives.

你知道的，这门课程着重于对构图、色彩和视觉叙事的实践探索，让学习过程变得非常非常吸引人且易于理解。

You know, the the course focuses on hands on exploration of composition, color, and visual storytelling, making the learning process very, very engaging and accessible.

一些学生表示，这门课通过提供常规课程中几乎找不到的艺术体验，丰富了他们的校园生活——想想看他们可都是工程专业的学生。

Some students saying that it enriches their campus life by offering an artistic experience barely found in their regular curriculum because imagine they are just engineering majors.

是啊。

Yeah.

他们整天和机械之类的东西打交道。

They do with the mechanics and that kind of thing.

然后在这些课堂上，这位老师通过各种艺术表达形式，把这门课变成了整个学期的亮点。

And then in these classes, they this this teacher is turning the class into a semester highlight with all of these artistic expressions.

哇。

Wow.

南开大学还有一门叫《跨越文化》的课，概述中西文化差异，并运用两种文化中的现实案例。

There's another one at Nankai University called Beyond Culture, an overview of Chinese and Western cultures, and it engages real life examples from both cultures.

他们会讨论中国南方的甜豆花和北方的咸豆花之争。

They talk about sweet tofu pudding in Southern China versus the salty tofu puddings in in the North.

这个我之前还真不知道。

That I did not know about.

课程还介绍了中国餐饮习俗，并包含真实案例分析。

It also introduces Chinese dining customs and has real world case studies.

它还探讨了中国企业在海外投资项目中的文化冲突案例，所有这些都旨在教会学生如何分析和解决实际的跨文化问题，并让学生参与文化讨论，将课堂案例与更广泛的跨文化交流主题联系起来。

It also talks about Chinese companies overseas investment projects with cultural conflicts, and that all of that is to teach students how analyze and solve practical cross cultural problems, and it gets the students involved in discussions about cultures, and it connects classroom examples to kind of broader cross cultural communications themes.

再说一遍，这类课程对学生来说真的很有趣。

And again, these types of courses are are really fun for the students.

我认为它们非常重要。

They're really important, I think.

世界经济论坛的一份报告指出，像分析思维、创造力和领导力这样的软技能，是劳动力市场需求增长最快的技能之一。

There was a report from the World Economic Forum that talked about the fact that soft skills like analytical thinking and creativity and leadership, those those skills are among the most growing in demand in the workforce.

所以这些课程绝不是浪费时间。

So it's not a these classes are not a waste of time by any stretch at all.

是的。

Yes.

引起我注意的是深圳大学的一门课。

And the one that got my attention was one from Shenzhen University.

他们有一门关于创意设计的课程。

They have a creating or creative design kind of class.

但不仅仅是设计图案或图形，他们让学生选择一个中国传统节日，比如中秋节。

But instead of design only the pattern or the graphics, they ask students to pick a traditional Chinese festival, and they pick the Mid Autumn Festival, for example.

他们用几节课的时间设计月饼包装、产品海报，以及所有与推广、广告、营销相关的内容

They used several courses to design the mooncake package, to design the poster for your product, and also everything related to the promotion, the advertising, the marketing

还有工商管理课程。

and Business administration class.

对。

Yeah.

这可能非常非常实用，也很有趣。

And it can be really, really useful and also really fun.

它能将你的创造力转化为现实。

It can transform your creativity into the reality.

我认为那些课程绝对会非常充实。

I think those classes, those courses would definitely be very enriching.

是啊，或者不是。

Yeah, or not.

我的意思是，这是我刚刚想到的。

And what I mean by that is I I just thought of this right now.

我大学前两年主修经济学，其中一门课是市场营销。

I was an economics major for the first two years of my university life, and one of the classes I took was marketing.

在那门课上，我们的小组项目是为空气清新剂做营销。

And I learned in that class our our group project was to market air freshener.

对吧？

Right?

嗯哼。

Mhmm.

所以我们必须制定营销计划，比如电视广告和各种虚构内容来推销空气清新剂。我记得坐在教室里时就在想：我根本不在乎。

So we had to come up with this marketing plan like TV commercials and all these kind of fake things to sell air freshener, And I remember sitting in the classroom thinking, I don't care.

不。

No.

我不

I do not

不是那样的。

It wasn't that.

我只记得那一刻我在想，我根本不在乎这个。

I just remember that moment where I thought, I don't care about this.

你不是。

You're not.

我要么想要空气清新剂，要么不想要。

I either want the air freshener or I don't.

但我没兴趣试图说服别人买这款空气清新剂。

But I'm not interested in trying to convince someone to buy this air freshener.

喜欢的人自然会喜欢。

If they like it, they like it.

不喜欢的人就是不喜欢。

If they don't, they don't.

对从事市场营销的人绝无冒犯之意。

And no offense to anybody who's involved in marketing at all.

但就我个人而言，那一刻我意识到，哦，这不适合我。

But for me personally, I realized in that moment, oh, this is not for me.

这些选修课还能起到另一个作用——任何课程都能做到。

And that's the other thing that these free electives can serve, as any class can.

但当你选修这门课时，你有机会弄清楚自己是否会爱上它并让它以某种方式影响你的未来，或者你不喜欢它从而让它以相反的方式影响你的未来。

But when you take the class, you have an opportunity to figure out if you're gonna love it and it'll influence your future in one way, or if you don't love it and therefore it'll influence your future in the opposite way.

我认为可以确定的是，在一个完美的理想世界里，我们希望所有选修课都充满乐趣，能提供实践机会，让你有机会以从未有过的方式审视自己、了解自己。

Well, I think it is established that in a perfect ideal world, we want all the free electives to be really fun, to be able to provide a hands on experience, to be able to give you the opportunity to examine yourself, to understand yourself in a way that you haven't had the chance to.

你可以知道自己喜欢什么。

You can know what you like.

你可以敞开心扉迎接新的可能性。

You can open yourself to new possibilities.

是的。

Yes.

当然。

Of course.

这些都很有趣。

These are all quite fun.

但我们也必须为教师、学生和学校考虑成本效益。

But we also have to be cost effective for teachers, for students, for the schools.

如果我们要求教授这类公共课程的教师将100%的精力投入到课程设计中，而忽视或减少他们在其他职责上的时间和精力投入。

If we ask teachers who are teaching these kind of public courses to devote 100% to the designing of these courses, to all of these courses, and ignore or at least put a little less energy and time in other of their responsibilities.

这真的有那么重要吗？

Is it really that important?

或者我们如何在提高公共课程质量、完善整个体系使其对学生、教师乃至整个教育体系更有利的同时，确保我们不会投入过多资源？

Or how can we strike a balance between improving the quality of the public courses, making the whole system better and more beneficial to the students, to the teachers, to to the entire education system, and at the same time, also make sure we're not putting too much in it.

嗯。

Mhmm.

实际上，这就是为什么我在想，从所有学生的角度来看，他们真的不想要这些所谓的'水课'吗？

Actually, that was why, I was wondering, from the perspective of all of these students, do they really not want these quote unquote bird courses or watery courses?

事实上，对很多学生来说，如果这些课程有趣，对他们绝对是有益的。

In fact, for a lot of students, if they're interest if these courses are interesting, it's absolutely beneficial for them.

如果课程不如他们想象的那么有趣，但正如我们提到的，这些课程具有容易通过的特性。

If they are not as interesting as they think or but they have a, like, nature or character characteristic as I as we mentioned, they are easy to pass.

他们选择这门课程是为了提高GPA，这可以说是他们获得更好成绩最轻松快捷的方式。

It is a course that they chose for boosting their GPAs, and that is kind of the easiest and fastest way for them to get a better score.

但这不公平。

But that's unfair.

你选的课程既不需要投入太多精力、脑力，也不需要花费多少时间，却能获得同样的学分。而同一个班级或不同学校的学生，可能选修了一门非常困难、极具挑战性的课程，他们为这门课付出很多，却只能得到相同的学分。

You're taking a course that you're not putting a lot of energy and and brainpower and time in, whereas one getting the same kind of credit, where another student from the same class or a different school is taking a course that is really hard, really challenging, and they contribute a lot to that course and get the same credit.

是的。

Yes.

所以想想这个问题。

So thinking about that.

我在想，或许我们需要关注的根本问题是学分制度本身的底层逻辑。

So I was thinking maybe the issue, we need to pay attention to is about the underlying logic of the credit system itself.

有时候，当你必须修满规定学分时，可能就会存在需要填补的学分缺口。

Sometimes this, when you are having that set amount of credits, then you you need to achieve, maybe there is a gap that you do need need to fill in.

这就是为什么我注意到，本学年许多大学或网友都发现，减少总学分数量已成为高校改革的新趋势。

That is why I saw that in this academic year, many universities have or many netizens have noticed that, you know, reducing the total number of credits has become a new reform, you know, trend in universities.

在这些改革中，削减一批低价值的通识或公共课程已成为众多高校的普遍选择。

Among these changes, scaling back a group of these low value general or public courses has become a common choice across many universities and institutions.

我觉得这算是个简单的解决办法。

I think it's kind of an easy fix.

如果我是大学的教务主任，听到有人抱怨某些水课之类的，我不会直接取消这些水课。

If I'm the academic director at a university and I'm hearing that there are complaints about some of the water classes or whatever, I'm not gonna remove the water classes.

为什么呢？

Why?

这些对我的大学有好处。

Those are good for my university.

为什么？

Why?

它们提高了学生的GPA，从而在学校评估时提升了整体GPA和学术表现。

They bump up the GPA of the students, which bumps up the GPA, the academic performance when my school gets evaluated.

我喜欢这样。

I like that.

那很糟糕。

That's bad.

这无关紧要。

That it doesn't matter.

这是事实，而且我喜欢这样。

It's a fact, and I like that.

但如果学生们在抱怨，抱怨学生质量或老师备课不足、课堂投入不够，我就会找老师谈话，问他们是否还想教这门课。

But if the students are complaining about it, about the the quality the students are or the teachers aren't preparing enough and they're not putting enough into the class, then I talk to the teacher and I say, do you wanna teach this class or do you not?

如果答案是肯定的，那就把精力投入到这门课上。

And if the answer is yes, put your effort into this class.

如果答案是否定的，那就别教了。

If the answer is no, then don't.

这就是我说的简单解决方法。

That's what I mean when I say simple fix.

现在我想谈谈硬币的另一面——那些对此抱怨的学生。

Now the other side of this coin that I feel, I wanna talk to the students who are complaining about this.

闭嘴。

Shut up.

你在干什么？

What are you doing?

这就是你在这里提升GPA的方式。

This is you're bumping up your GPA here.

对吧？

Right?

这才是重点。

The this is the point.

这算是种普遍现象。

This is kind of a universal thing.

别抱怨太多。

Don't complain too much.

你知道那句英语谚语吗？小心许愿。

You know that English expression, be careful what you wish for?

哦，我希望这门课更有挑战性。

Oh, I want this class to be more challenging.

哦，真的吗？

Oh, really?

好吧。

Okay.

这是件你真的、真的需要投入时间和精力去学习的事情。

Here's something that you really, really have to dedicate time and study for.

我明白他们的诉求，但你知道，或许可以稍微减少些抱怨。

I get what they're wanting, but just, you know, maybe relax on the complaints a little bit.

如果我有机会像你说的那样向课程主任或负责设计的人提建议，也许还能确保将一些真正受欢迎的公共或通识课程转为开放课程。

And if I have the opportunity to give suggestions to, like you said, the curriculum director or those who are in charge of the design of different maybe it's also possible to make sure some of the really popular public or general courses can be moved to open courses.

你可以调动教师。

You move the teacher.

把整个班级搬到更大、宽敞得多的教室，并录制课程，这样不仅你们学校的学生，全世界的人都能享受到这门课——前提是这确实是一门优质课程。

You move the entire class to a bigger, much bigger classroom, and you record the session so that students from not only your university but around the world will be able to enjoy it if it's a really good class to start with.

另外我认为，对于学生经常抱怨的那类课程，如果学生有意见，肯定有各种原因。

Also, maybe, I think, for the kind of course that are often complained by students, if students are complaining about it, there must be different reasons.

有时是因为课程不够有趣。

Sometimes it's because the course is not fun enough.

有时是因为老师缺乏活力。

Sometimes it's because the teacher is not dynamic.

这未必是课程内容的错。

It's it's not necessarily the fault of the content.

有时可能只是因为老师太严格，学生不喜欢会给他们打低分的老师。

And sometimes maybe it's just the teacher's too strict and students don't like the teacher that will give them low low scores.

是啊。

Yeah.

去听几节课吧。

Go attend some of the classes.

真正听上一节课你就明白了。

Really listen to one of the class and you will know.

是的。

Yeah.

我一直在想很多学生说，哦，我在这些课上只是做自己的事情。

I was thinking a lot of these students saying that, oh, I'm just doing my own things during these classes.

但我也曾有过那样的同学。

But I I I I had that kind of same classmates before.

但我在想，你是在浪费你父母的钱。

But I was thinking you are spending your time your parents' money.

对吧？

Right?

你为什么不听听他们的话呢？

Why don't you just listen to them?

也许你能得到一点收获。

Maybe you can get a little bit Yeah.

从中受益。

Benefits from it.

我是说，我之前开过玩笑。

I mean, I made jokes before.

对吧？

Right?

但我确实理解。

But I do understand.

那门机器人实践课。

That hands on robotic class.

对吧？

Right?

也许你对那类内容真的很感兴趣，结果去上课发现课程设计得很糟糕，实际上没什么实践活动，而且内容过时。

Maybe you're really interested in that type of thing, and then you go to the class, and it's just poorly planned, and there's actually not a lot of hands on activities, and it's outdated.

你知道的，就是2014年的机器人教学那种。

You know, it's robot teaching from 2014.

那样的话，你当然会感到失望。

Then, of course, you're gonna be disappointed in it.

我完全理解。

I I I totally understand.

归根结底，我们只是希望确保每个人的时间和精力——包括老师和学生——都能得到充分利用，让每个人都能从中受益。

And at the end of the day, we just wanna make sure that everybody's time and energy, including the teacher and the students, to be well spent, and it benefits each and every one of us.