Over the last few decades, various emerging technologies have enabled us to learn anything, anytime, anywhere, and the landscape of higher education has been dramatically transformed. Our research explores the future of education and society, enabled by open/online/hybrid education, Artificial Intelligence (AI), gamification, Extended and Virtual Reality (XR & VR) and other educational innovations, as well as how we can personally and collectively learn and teach in more effective and meaningful ways.

Our research and development effort also engages in the creation and diffusion of more flexible and open educational systems, harnessing advanced technologies and media, to respond to the educational needs of present and future society and individuals.

[Research Themes]

·  Future studies of educational systems and cultures

·  Pedagogical innovation harnessing advanced technology

·  Open education and next generation higher education

·  Educational application of XR, VR, and metaverse

·  Development of pedagogical synthesizers

·  Educational digital transformation at societal, organizational, and programmatic levels

·  Digital credentials and learning records for lifelong learning

·  Data- and evidence-based educational improvement and quality assurance

[PROFILE]

Toru Iiyoshi is a professor at the Academic Center for Computing and Media Studies of Kyoto University. He served as Deputy Executive Vice President for Education (2015-2020). He has also served as Director (2014-2022) and a professor (2012-2022) of the Center for the Promotion of Excellence in Higher Education as well as Executive Director of KyotoUx, the institutional MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) initiative in partnership with edX. 

Dr. Iiyoshi works with various international and national initiatives, projects, and organizations in an advisory role to provide vision and leadership in innovative educational development, open education, and future higher education systems. Previously, he was a senior scholar and Director of the Knowledge Media Laboratory at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Senior Strategist in the Office of Educational Innovation and Technology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a visiting professor of Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies at the University of Tokyo.

Dr. Iiyoshi has served as a member of the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on Technology and Education, a juror of NHK Japan Prize, and a member of the Central Council for Education of Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. He is a co-editor of the Carnegie Foundation book, "Opening Up Education: The Collective Advancement of Education through Open Technology, Open Content, and Open Knowledge" (MIT Press, 2008) and an author or co-author of three books including "The Art of Multimedia: Design and Development of The Multimedia Human Body" (ASCII, 1996, in Japanese) and numerous academic and commercial articles. He received the Outstanding Practice Award in Instructional Development and the Robert M. Gagne Award for Research in Instructional Design from the Association for Educational Communications and Technology in the United States.

→More Info at Kyoto University's Activity Database on Education and Research