NEWS
What is a MOOC ?
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are free online courses that anybody can take, and those who complete the course can earn an official certificate for a fee. Top universities around the world offer MOOCs, and the total number of registered learners on the Coursera and edX platforms has reached more than 130 million. Along with self improvement, learners are using MOOCs to improve their professional skills, and the individually validated certificates are helping learners advance in the workplace and make career changes.
Featured Courses
Interactive Computer Graphics
Computer graphics can be a powerful tool for supporting visual problem solving, and interactivity plays a central role in harnessing the users' creativity. This course will introduce various interactive tools developed in computer graphics research field with their design rationales and algorithms. Examples include enhancements to graphical user interfaces, authoring tools for 2D drawings and 3D animations, and interactive computer-aided design systems. Rich live demonstrations and course assignments will give you insights and skills to design and implement such tools for your own problems.
Interactive Teaching
This course consists of three parts: Knowledge sessions, Skill sessions, and Story sessions. In Knowledge sessions, you can learn how to use pedagogical knowledge to promote students’ interactive learning. In Skill sessions, you can learn techniques for creating an environment for active learning from a theatrical and expressive perspective. In Story sessions, leading researchers and practitioners in their respective fields will share their teaching practices and experiences. This course is intended not only for graduate students and university teachers, but also for primary and secondary teachers and people in human resource development departments of companies. This course provides a meaningful opportunity for all the people engaged in “teaching.” For more information about the course, please see the following video "Course Outline & Learner's Guide". https://www.coursera.org/lecture/interactive-teaching/jiang-zuo-nogai-yao-toshou-jiang-fang-fa-course-outline-learners-guide-eUoJ2
Quantum Mechanics of Molecular Structures
Knowing the geometrical structure of the molecules around us is one of the most important and fundamental issues in the field of chemistry. This course introduces the two primary methods used to determine the geometrical structure of molecules: molecular spectroscopy and gas electron diffraction. In molecular spectroscopy, molecules are irradiated with light or electric waves to reveal rich information, including: Motions of electrons within a molecule (Week 1), Vibrational motions of the nuclei within a molecule (Week 2), and Rotational motions of a molecule (Week 3). In the gas electron diffraction method, molecules are irradiated with an accelerated electron beam. As the beam is scattered by the nuclei within the molecule, the scattered waves interfere with each other to generate a diffraction pattern. In week 4, we study the fundamental mechanism of electron scattering and how the resulting diffraction images reveal the geometrical structure of molecules. By the end of the course, you will be able to understand molecular vibration plays an important role in determining the geometrical structure of molecules and gain a fuller understanding of molecular structure from the information obtained by the two methodologies.
Sustainability Science - A Key Concept for Future Design
Sustainability is indispensable for the future of humankind. Sustainability science has emerged as an effort to tackle the complex problems the world is facing today. Lecturers from different disciplines provide a holistic overview of key issues in sustainability including industrial pollution, an aging society, human-nature connection, urban planning, resilience, environmental governance, and education for sustainable development. In this course, you will learn about historical and current sustainability issues that have emerged around the world, as well as some of the approaches that have been used to solve them. You will be exposed to industrial and water pollution control issues, in addition to challenges caused by an aging and shrinking population. You will also learn about the human-nature connection and initiatives that aim to create sustainable societies in harmony with nature, based on the concept of Socio-Ecological Production Landscapes and Seascapes (SEPLS). You will explore how ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction (Eco-DRR) approaches can be used to reestablish the human-nature connection through re-naturalization of damaged environments. This course will also consider an urban planning point of view by exploring the value of an urban-rural land use mixture to create new sustainable societies and resilient megacities. Finally, you will learn about environmental governance, a crucial element for progress towards a sustainable future. You will be introduced to Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) as a learning method for sustainable development and discuss international debates on ESD. Japanese perspectives are emphasized throughout the course in the hopes of providing concrete value to solving contemporary sustainability issues.
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