An innovative e-learning concept to support the motivation of Indigenous students in their university studies

As part of a distance education counselling program for First Nations students at University of Quebec in Chicoutimi, we deployed an innovative educational formula to respond to their cultures and meet their specific needs. This formula also stimulates and maintains their motivation, favouring their academic success and perseverance. Offered online in synchronous and asynchronous mode, it is presented like a script for a television series. The e-learning concept is applied through a dual information and teaching scenario that places skill development in a virtual living environment. This becomes the framework for adventures and interactions between different characters who are grappling with problems that require the student's collective commitment to solve them. The skills developed are reinvested in new problem resolutions proposed in subsequent courses. This practice story presents the innovative educational formula and the specific application we have made of it. In light of our experiences, this formula seems to support the motivation of Indigenous students in their university studies.