UArctic finally online

The University of the Arctic will soon deliver its first Web-based course, BCS 100: An Introduction to the Circumpolar World.

Twenty-seven students at six northern sites in Canada, Greenland, Finland and Russia, are to participate in the online pilot.

An introductory university-level course, BCS 100 examines the world’s northern peoples and places, and the issues they face. The course’s 15 modules cover such topics as traditional and western knowledge systems, geography, northern peoples and their history, environmental and climate change, economics, indigenous rights and new political structures, and new forms of northern co-operation.

Students from Yukon to Greenland and Lapland to Russia will be able to communicate with each other, despite the distance between their home regions and the huge span of time zones. Students will be able to visit the course site at any time, read the instructor’s comments, and contribute to discussion threads.