For the first time ever, students from all over the Circumpolar World are part of a single virtual classroom.

"It's an exciting opportunity to widen my world perspective," says Joy Sather, a UNBC student in Fort St John. "I've attended field classes before where you get a hands-on perspective from people in different regions or different countries. In this course, I'll get those different perspectives while studying at home and applying the experiences of others in the North."

"Developing the course has been a cooperative effort," notes Iceland's Jon Haukur Ingimundarson, Co-chair of the circumpolar team that has developed the course. "Over twenty people from all eight northern nations have helped with the curriculum. Athabasca University has provided the web expertise and developed the web portal. The University of Northern British Columbia, which has two of the seven sites, is registering the students. Yukon College is providing the instructor. Grid-Arendal in Norway has provided much of the technical environmental material. The University of Lapland is doing the comprehensive evaluation. And each of the seven classroom sites - including Ilisimatusarfik in Greenland and Yakutsk State University in Russia - are providing students with the necessary computer resources. Everyone, including major funders such as the Government of Canada and the Scandinavian Seminar Group, is contributing."

Because of the challenges inherent in offering a course over so many time zones, students in the course have the opportunity to visit the inline classroom at any time, read the instructor's comments, and participate in class discussions. The course starts this week.

The University of the Arctic is a university without walls and has been developed by universities throughout the Cirumpolar North to raise awareness of northern issues and increase opportunities for northern students to access university education.