Distance Learning through Self-Induced Learning Infrastructure (SELIN) Implemented by Arctic Anthropologists

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This EAGER (Early-concept Grants for Exploratory Research) award supports an exploratory project that investigates a developing field of anthropological research, human-animal communication, and tests a new e-learning platform for facilitating research training in the social sciences at the university level. The project pairs new distance learning software, Self-Induced Learning Infrastructure (SELIN), with materials designed to generate enthusiasm among college students for science research. Several programs in Alaska are currently using community based traditional knowledge as a launching point for science education. A good example is an existing lesson that uses dog sleds to teach physics to students from rural Alaskan communities. The Alaska based SELIN project team will add to these efforts by investigating a new area of social science research on human-animal interactions by investigating the relationships between dog mushers and their dogs. This relationship will be documented and the data used to create a course that teaches social science concepts and research methods to college students. SELIN, the new e-learning platform developed at the University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland, lends itself to a variety of observational sciences including biology, veterinary medicine, sociology, linguistics, and child development. The availability of SELIN distance courses in English will make the platform accessible to a wider audience. The findings and data that come from this research (which will be made available, unedited, to other researchers) about the cultural and economic factors that drive dog mushing will be beneficial to veterinarians and those involved in resource management in the Arctic. The fact that the course is asynchronous means it can deliver science to communities where there is limited access to scientists and science education, among them rural and Indigenous Arctic communities for whom the subject matter is of particular interest. The findings from the research used to develop the course on human and animal communication offer insights for those involved in practical applications such as training and coordinating activities with animal species for search and rescue, law enforcement, and potentially service animals who assist the disabled.