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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
Words Spun Out of Images: Visual and Literary Culture in Nineteenth Century Japan
In their ambition to capture “real life,” Japanese painters, poets, novelists and photographers of the nineteenth century collaborated in ways seldom explored by their European contemporaries. This course offers learners the chance to encounter and appreciate behavior, moral standards and some of the material conditions surrounding Japanese artists in the nineteenth century, in order to renew our assumptions about what artistic “realism” is and what it meant. Learners will walk away with a clear understanding of how society and the individual were conceived of and represented in early modern Japan. Unlike contemporary western art forms, which acknowledge their common debt as “sister arts” but remain divided by genre and discourse, Japanese visual and literary culture tended to combine, producing literary texts inspired by visual images, and visual images which would then be inscribed with poems and prose. Noticing and being able to interpret this indivisibility of visual/literary cultures is essential in understanding the social and psychological values embedded within the beauty of Japanese art.
Adapting to the Effects of Climate Change on Quality of Life
As stated in the IPCC's Sixth Assessment Report, human activities are causing global warming, primarily through greenhouse gas emissions, and the Earth's surface temperature is rising. Climate change affects people's lives in many ways, including health, crop damage, and disasters. To cope with global climate change, mitigation and adaptation must be pursued simultaneously. In this course, participants will gain an understanding of the global and Japanese context of climate change, and learn about the impact of climate change on the quality of life of local people and adaptation measures, using Japanese case studies. The course, which consists of four modules, introduces the global and Japanese situation regarding climate change, basic information on the impacts on people's quality of life, impacts and responses in fruit tree production sites, adaptation measures in the field of urban planning and design, impacts on urban infrastructure and assets and their management Mitigation and adaptation through the management of urban infrastructure and assets, and understanding the impacts and risks of climate change on transport systems, through case studies.
Tokyo Hillside, Tokyo Riverside: Exploring the Historical City
In recent years, Tokyo became a global tourist destination as interest in the city increased in the lead-up to the planned 2020 Olympics. While the Olympic venues are concentrated in the city’s southwest and along the waterfront, Tokyo’s historical center and the roots of its urban culture are located in the northeast of the city, in an area stretching from Nihonbashi north through Kanda and Akihabara toward Ueno and Yanaka, and eastward to Asakusa. This area remains home to a wide range of unique historical and cultural heritage. This course offers an introduction to Tokyo’s urban history as Prof. Yoshimi explores northeast Tokyo by foot and boat in two sections: Tokyo Hillside and Tokyo Riverside. Visiting lesser-known historical places that have endured Tokyo’s modern transformation, this course will provide participants a different perspective on Tokyo when visiting for tourism, study, or work. Prof. Yoshimi proposes a method of geo-history that examines the city’s history in the context of its topography and social geography. Both the Hillside and Riverside sections focus on the spatial changes that took place as Tokyo underwent modernization. In particular, the course focuses on how the experience of three military occupations impacted Tokyo’s historical development. The first occupation was at the end of the 16th century, when Tokugawa Ieyasu established a new regime in Edo (modern-day Tokyo). The second was in the late 19th century, when the forces of the new imperial army arrived from Kyoto in the west. The third was the occupation by the American military that began in 1945 and preceded the rapid urban development of the 1950s and 1960s. The lectures will explain how the hillside and riverside areas were impacted by these occupations and underwent urban changes as a result.
Contemporary Garden City Concept from Asia
The course focuses on contemporary urban planning issues, particularly the Garden City concept, addressing the global trend of integrating green spaces into cities to combat environmental challenges. Cities worldwide are striving to introduce green elements regardless of location, driven by concerns such as climate change, natural disasters, and political instability. The course discusses the transition from traditional urban structures to dispersed green matrices, emphasizing the importance of green spaces in enhancing their resilience. It contrasts Western cities' vertical agricultural integration with historical Japanese cities' horizontal integration, advocating for a new approach to urban agriculture. Let's consider the concept of a contemporary Garden City, focusing on the symbiotic relationship between urban and rural land uses. Through a mixture of theoretical discussion and practical examples, this course explores strategies for realizing this urban planning vision. The course is offered in Japanese and English and is available at all times. Anyone can take the course from the Coursera website.
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