This week marks the launch of Duke University’s latest Coursera MOOC, “Introductory Human Physiology.” Over 64,000 students have enrolled in this foundational course to build an understanding of the normal function of the human body. This 11 week course was developed by Emma (Mimi) Jakoi, PhD and Jennifer Cabrey, PhD both from the Department of Cell Biology at Duke University. This course is also one of a relatively small number of Coursera offerings currently eligible for a Verified Certificate under the Coursera Signature Track program that links course participation to a student’s verified identity.

Since the course site was opened, more than 22,000 students have logged in to begin studying the materials, completing problem sets and participating in the online discussions.  More than 70,000 streaming views and 27,000 downloads have been recorded so far. Although the course is but a few days old, over 16,000 students have viewed the Course Introduction and more than 3000 have completed the first week’s course videos.

Almost 1,000 students have joined the discussion forums in the course web site, but there are a range of options for making connections with other students. Study Groups forming range from an International Facebook study group with ~290 members to many smaller affinity groups by language, region, time zone or nationality such as Greece, Malaysia,”Global China,” Portuguese speakers and students in the Eastern US time zone. Participants hail from more than 130 countries and of course include many aspiring doctors, a Canadian farmer and an industrial engineer in Haiti. It’s not too late to join them!