DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

                  AKNS Bridge To Success

 

 Dr. Maria Williams, Alaska Native Studies Chair, and Dr. Agatha John-Shields, College of Education, worked with a small cohort of current Alaska Native undergraduate students to design a series of online modules with videos, resources, and games for incoming AKN students. The modules are connected by a storyline, Bridge To Success, with two AKN students enrolling at UAA. They arrive on campus and are by the Troll of Set Backs. His weapons are confusion and delay.

This was a student-driven program with current AKN students (Liz Savage, Zach Lane, and Angie Williams) coordinating the production and delivery of the Bridge To Success narrative.  Angie Williams, UAA Business Major, first conceived the idea for the narrative as a way for Alaska Native students coming to UAA for the first time prepare for an urban campus life.  The modules are infused with Alaskan Native cultural values. The project goals are to increase Alaskan Native student retention, promote self-determined learning behaviors (taking control of own learning, developing lifelong learning tendencies, developing success-oriented habits of mind and practice), and maintain AKN value and community through the students' academic career.

 

The project, intended to create community before Alaska Native students came to campus, also created a learning community with the student production team.  See picture of the production process at the Flickr site, UAA Alaska Native Project.

 

The final production successfully launched in August 2016 with the support of UAA Admissions and Alaska Native Corporations.  Bridge To Success is a Robust On-Line Learning (Title III grant) supported project with Nancy McCoy Wozniak as lead.  

 

The journey begins with warm welcomes by Panigkaq Agatha John-Shields, Assistant Professor, College of Education and Brian Walker II, Anthropology major. 

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.
DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.
DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.