Electronic Ethnobiology: Connecting Students to Nature and Culture Online

Athabasca University, a Canadian University founded in 1970, specializes in online

distance education. Students come from a wide range of academic and geographical

backgrounds, with some registered at traditional universities looking to complete their

course requirements for example, with others coming from remote locations in the

expansive Canadian north, including Aboriginal communities. Johnson designed an

online undergraduate self-directed asynchronous ethnobiology course over a dozen

years ago and has been teaching it since, with Baker joining her as a tutor (in the British

sense) over seven years ago. Johnson also offers a graduate level ethnobiology course

online. We will describe the structure and practicalities of the courses, followed by a

discussion of the challenges and benefits of teaching ethnobiology online. In particular,

we will focus on techniques used for engaging students from a distance with

ethnobiology in their own lives, and in local, Canadian, and global contexts.