President Yamagiwa's MOOC to begin on edX in October 2015 (8 July 2015)

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In May 2013, Kyoto University became a charter member of "edX", an international consortium of massive open online courses (MOOCs), established by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and including many of the world's leading universities.

In October 2015, President Juichi Yamagiwa will start his own MOOC, entitled "Evolution of the Human Sociality: A Quest for the Origin of Our Social Behavior", through Kyoto University's edX platform, KyotoUx. Registration is currently open at the edX website (link below).

This online course covers the historical development of primatology at Kyoto University -- the cradle of the field in Japan -- and discusses details of research that President Yamagiwa conducted on gorillas in the field in Africa, while also delving into the origins of human sociality.

Although there are already more than 1,500 courses currently available on major worldwide MOOC platforms, such as edX and Coursera, "Evolution of the Human Sociality" will be the first MOOC taught by a sitting president of a major research university as part of the institution's official online curriculum.

President Yamagiwa discussing his upcoming course

A scene from the introductory video

At the press conference

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