大规模在线开放课程（Massive Open Online Course, MOOC）是基于课程与教学论及网络和移动智能技术发展起来的新兴在线课程形式。从2008起，短短几年间，MOOC已经从悄然无声发展到井喷阶段。清华大学教育研究院的在线教育研究组，作为国内首批从事MOOC研究的学术团体，将研究聚焦于MOOC的发展动态、MOOC的基本特征、MOOC背后的教育理论基础与课程设计理念、MOOC的制作与教学过程等，并初步取得了一些有价值的研究成果。 本书旨在将我们近期的研究成果呈献给教育领域的教师和学习者。以为广大教师和读者了解MOOC、参与MOOC，使MOOC最大限度地发挥其成效提供帮助。

Whether you are a student struggling to fulfill a math or science requirement, or you are embarking on a career change that requires a higher level of math competency, A Mind for Numbers offers the tools you need to get a better grasp of that intimidating but inescapable field. Engineering professor Barbara Oakley knows firsthand how it feels to struggle with math. She flunked her way through high school math and science courses, before enlisting in the army immediately after graduation. When she saw how her lack of mathematical and technical savvy severely limited her options—both to rise in the military and to explore other careers—she returned to school with a newfound determination to re-tool her brain to master the very subjects that had given her so much trouble throughout her entire life. In A Mind for Numbers, Dr. Oakley lets us in on the secrets to effectively learning math and science—secrets that even dedicated and successful students wish they’d known earlier. Contrary to popular belief, math requires creative, as well as analytical, thinking. Most people think that there’s only one way to do a problem, when in actuality, there are often a number of different solutions—you just need the creativity to see them. For example, there are more than three hundred different known proofs of the Pythagorean Theorem. In short, studying a problem in a laser-focused way until you reach a solution is not an effective way to learn math. Rather, it involves taking the time to step away from a problem and allow the more relaxed and creative part of the brain to take over. A Mind for Numbers shows us that we all have what it takes to excel in math, and learning it is not as painful as some might think!