在互联网上看一场TED演讲视频或者一场公开课，或者注册线上课程学习一门新语言或者一个兴趣爱好，正在成为一种趋势。如果你从未经历过上面这些，那么你就会被认为落伍了。
Watching a video of TED talk or an open class on the Internet, or registering for an online course to learn a new language or hobby, are trending. You'll be seen as behind the times if your experience of the above is zero.
线上教育正在蓬勃发展。据投资界官网数据显示，自2014年以来，中国已经成立了超过1000多个线上教育企业。
Online education is growing. More than 1,000 online education start-ups have been established since 2014 in China，according to news.pedaily.cn.
由于线上教育不受地域限制，高程度标准化和内容再利用的规模经济，这是企业家和风险投资聚集度最高的领域之一。
It is one of the most popular fields where entrepreneurs and venture capitalists flock together on account of the absence of geographic restrictions, a high degree of standardization, and economies of scale from reuse of content.
慕课，即大规模开放的在线课程，是人们可以免费注册的平台之一。通过它，人们可以试听全球大学提供的所有线上课程。
MOOC, or Massive Online Open Courses, is one of the platforms where people can register for free and have access to all online courses provided by universities worldwide.
据MOOC官网表示，MOOC拥有常规线下课程的评估和测试系统。注册的人可以参与视频演示，讨论，提交作业，询问问题以及参与期末考试。
According to its official website, MOOC courses have assessment and examination just like a regular offline courses do. People signing up can participate in video illustration, discussion, submitting assignments, asking questions and a final exam.
一旦课程完成，使用者可以收到一个电子证书，或者付钱获得纸质副本，这些都得到很多雇主的认可。
Once a course completed, users can receive an electronic certificate or pay for a paper copy, which are now acknowledged by many employers.
教育部表示，MOOC扩大了教学的时间和空间，激发了学习者的兴趣，帮助更多的人从高质量的教育资源中获益，加速教学领域的改革。
The Ministry of Education said MOOC "has enlarged the time and space of teaching, fired learners' interest, helped more people benefit from high-quality educational resources and accelerated reform in many aspects of teaching".
自2013年起，大型开放式网络课程就在国内很流行，包括清华北大在内的一些学校已经建立了自己的开放式网络课程平台。
MOOC has gained popularity in China since 2013 and some universities, including Tsinghua University and Peking University have established their own MOOC platforms.
据研究机构Ambient Insight发布的报告显示，2015年，全球线上教育市场份额预估达到了479亿美元，截止2020年，这一数据将有望增加25亿美元。
The estimated market size of global online education in 2015 has reached about $47.9 billion and will be increased by $2.5 billion until the year 2020, according to a report released by research firm Ambient Insight.