【In a Grain of Sand】－开发中世界的进入管道 / 非洲

来自南非的教育家，撒哈拉以南非洲
(EDUCATOR FROM SOUTH AFRICA, SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA)

开发中世界的进入管道
Points of access in the developing world

Francois Viruly, 金山大学
Francois Viruly, University of the Witwatersrand

身为Viruly顾问公司（Viruly Consulting）的主管－南非一家主要的不动产分析公司－房地产经济学家Francois Viruly在过去十年中获得非常丰富的南非商业不动产市场经验。Viruly热爱这个领域并且在约翰尼斯堡金山大学（University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg）以及开普敦大学（University of Cape Town）和普利多利亚大学（University of Pretoria）致力于与学生分享他的经验。
As director of Viruly Consulting—a leading South African real estate analysis firm—property economist Francois Viruly has acquired extensive experience in the South African commercial real estate market over the past decade. Viruly is passionate about his field, and makes an effort to share his expertise with students at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, as well as the University of Cape Town and the University of Pretoria.

Viruly的正规课程之一是金山大学研究生的房地产投资模组。数年前当他开始教授这个模组，他选择“商业不动产分析和投资”（Commercial Real Estate Analysis & Investments）做为教科书，这是一本研究所程度的不动产教科书，由麻省理工学院教授David Geltner著作。当Viruly开始设计此模组做为这本教科书的补充教材时，他无意中发现麻省理工学院的“开放式课程计划”（OpenCourseWare），并且非常兴奋地发觉作者自己早已建构了一个课程，地产财务与投资（Course 11.431J – Real Estate Finance and Investment）来搭配这本教科书。Viruly欣然地采用一个类似架构来搭配他的模组。
One of Viruly's regular courses is a property investment module for graduate students at the University of the Witwatersrand. When Viruly first began teaching the module several years ago, he chose as his textbook Commercial Real Estate Analysis & Investments, a graduate-level real estate text written by MIT Professor David Geltner. As Viruly began to design the module as a complement to the text, he came across MIT's OpenCourseWare, and was excited to discover that the author himself had already structured a course, Course 11.431J – Real Estate Finance and Investment, to fit the text. Viruly readily adapted a similar structure to fit his module.

Viruly宣称:“【开放式课程计划】（OCW）是一套很好的系统，它跨越世界开启知识，我认为这是非常迫切的。它让各大学像是我们的大学可以去进行我们的教学水准评比（我认为这件事本身就是重要的）。它给我们信心因为我们紧密接触国际性的知识本体，和国际性的标准。此外，它确保学生接收的是高品质的讲学。对他们真正有意义的是我们在追随一个有最佳实力的课程和方法。”
OCW is just a great system," declares Viruly. "It opens up knowledge across the world, which I think is critical. And it allows universities like ours—and I think this is important by itself -- to benchmark our teaching. It gives us confidence that we're in close contact with the international body of knowledge, and international standards. In addition, it assures the students that they are receiving high-quality instruction. What it really means to them is that we are following a course and a methodology which is of the highest caliber."

当被问到在不同国家中，譬如美国和南非这两个差异很大的国家，不动产讲学是否可以遵循同一个模式时，Viruly承认其中是有一些严重差异。他同意地说:“很显然，一些课程教材是以美国为焦点。我们有发展中国家特有的课题，所以我们以南非教材来补助OCW教材，并且以不同的作业来替换。虽然如此，我还是认为对开发中的文化地区而言OCW是特别地重要。能够让这里的学生接触到世界上最好的教授，它所造成的差别是很大的。”
Asked if real estate instruction can really follow the same model in countries as different as the United States and South Africa, Viruly admits that there are some crucial distinctions. "Obviously, some of the course material is focused on the United States," he agrees. "We have specific issues in a developing country, and so we complement the OCW materials with South African material, and substitute different assignments. Nevertheless, I think the OCW model is especially important in developing cultures. It can make such a difference to students here to have access to the best professors in the world."