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你可能已经知道答案了，那就是——它们在“现实世界”中并不那么重要。但我认为这并非全貌。我发现证书可以成为一个很好的激励来源。人类天生喜欢收集东西，这就是为什么我们喜欢宝可梦，为什么孩子们喜欢收集课堂上的徽章。这是人性。完成一个漫长的课程后，收到一张印有你名字的证书，感觉很好。至少对我来说是这样。也许这是一种弱点，或者某种隐秘的快乐，但我对此并不介意。有些人对此并不在意。他们认为知识本身就值得追求，真正的乐趣在于学习和看到自己的进步。这些人很酷，我很想和他们做朋友，但我不是其中之一。所以我的观点是，如果课程结束时获得证书能激励你完成一门好课程，那么为这张证书付费可能是值得的。价值不在于证书本身。价值在于它提供的动力，前提是它确实能为你提供动力。不知为何，我注意到我上的在线课程越多，就越不想分享。现在回想起来很有趣，当我完成了 EdX 的“系统化课程设计”——这是我上的第一批课程之一——我高兴得简直把证书打印了出来。但我很高兴这些小事能让我快乐。在学习了一些关于学习理论和教育的课程后，我更理解发生了什么。原来所谓的外部激励和内部激励并非对立。外部激励——比如徽章、证书或老师的表扬——对学习者的动力有很大影响，并为他们提供了继续下去的理由。在某个阶段，学习者将不再需要外部激励，因为他们开始享受课程本身。芭芭拉·奥克利（Barbara Oakley）分享了一个她激励年幼的女儿蕾切尔（Rachel）开始阅读的例子。她做了一件简单的事：每当蕾切尔读完一本书，她就会给她钱。为什么不呢？我们都喜欢钱。有时简单的解决方案就能创造奇迹。因为蕾切尔不习惯读书，一开始阅读本身非常痛苦，并不是一件有趣的事情——但金钱让它变得可以忍受。关键在于，读得越多，阅读就越容易，在某个时刻它就会变得有趣。然后芭芭拉就停止了奖励；不再需要了，她已经沉迷于阅读了。仔细想想，这非常有道理。用外部手段来激励自己并没有什么可耻的。有没有人也有同感？

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You probably already know the answer, which is no -- they don't matter much in the "real world."But I think that's not the complete picture.I found that certificates can be a really good source of motivation. Human beings tend to love collecting stuff, that's why we love Pokémon, for instance, and why kids love collecting badges in class. It's human nature.After a long course, it feels nice to receive a certificate with your name on it. At least, it does for me. Maybe it's a weakness or some guilty pleasure, but I'm okay with that.Some people don't care about that. They believe knowledge is worth pursuing in itself, and the real joy is in learning and seeing yourself get better. Those are really cool people, I'd love to be friends with them, but I'm not one of them.So my point is that if having a certificate at the end of a course helps motivate you to complete a good course, then paying for that certificate might be worth it. The value is not in the certificate itself. The value is in the motivation it provides, in the case that it does so for you.For some reason I've noticed the more online courses I take, the less urge I feel to share about it. It's funny now remembering that I felt so happy when I completed the Systematic Program Design on EdX -- one of the first courses I took -- that I literally printed the certificate. But I'm glad such silly things make me happy (https://tenor.com/view/chair-alps-no-shoujo-heidi-heidi-gif-2885451484479610800)After taking some courses on learning theory and education I understood more about what happened. It turns out that the so called extrinsic and intrinsic motivation aren't opposites. Extrinsic means of motivation -- like badges, certificates, or praise from a teacher -- have a great impact on a learner's motivation and give them a reason to continue.At some point the learner won't need the external motivation anymore because they started to enjoy the material itself. Barbara Oakley gives a sweet example of how she motivated her young daughter Rachel to start reading books. She did something simple: whenever Rachel completed a book she would give her money. Why not? We all love money. Sometimes simple solutions do magic.Because she wasn't used to reading books, at first reading itself was so painful, it wasn't a fun activity -- but money made it bearable. The key idea is that reading gets easier the more you read, and at some point it becomes fun. Then Barbara simply stopped rewarding her; there was no need for it anymore, she was already hooked on reading.It makes so much sense when you think about it. There is no shame in trying to motivate yourself using extrinsic means. Does that resonate with anyone else?

课程证书重要吗？