Welcome to the Applied Frameworks Online Academy!
For some of you, this program will be the first time you have participated in an online education experience like this. Others will have taken online classes before, but the experience and learner expectations were probably different than what they will encounter in on our Online Academy.
In order to help you achieve your personal and professional goals, and maximize your success in this environment, we need to teach you a little about the history of Northern Canada during the 17th and 18th Centuries. Specifically, we need to tell you about something called a Hudson’s Bay Start.
What is a Hudson’s Bay Start?
In the 1600’s and 1700’s, the land surrounding Hudson Bay, sometimes called Rupert’s Land, in Northern Canada was explored and mapped by the French and English through a series of hunting, fishing and trapping expeditions. Expeditions would go out into the wilderness, extract natural resources and return them to the more developed parts of Canada where these natural resources could be sold for profit. In these centuries, expedition season was brief – a few short months beginning in late Spring – so the window of opportunity was small. Any delays in starting meant less time to hunt, fish, trap or explore before the cold weather of winter began. Once in the wild, there was no access to technology or medical care, so explorers had to bring what they needed or go without.
These expeditions were often hazardous and unpredictable. In fact, it was common that entire expeditions of men would simply disappear into the Canadian wilderness, never to be heard from again. To prevent this loss of life and decrease the risk of failure, the Hudson’s Bay Company, which still exists today, devised an ingenious solution. Instead of launching an entire expedition and hoping for the best, expeditions to the Hudson’s Bay watershed would pack everything and everyone into canoes, travel a few miles into the outback and camp the night. As they set up camp, and broke it down the next morning, expedition members would identify what – or who – was missing. If something essential had been overlooked, they would return to their base of operations, pick up whatever was needed and start over the next day.
And so was born the idea of a “Hudson’s Bay Start”, a dry run, or dress rehearsal, at the start of a complex endeavor to test assumptions and make sure you packed everything you needed.
What is the structure of this orientation course?
This orientation course is your Hudson’s Bay Start and is divided into six sections with some basic goals.
- Exercise: what is a Hudson’s Bay Start and meet your instructor.
- Video: what are the site features that you will use.
- Apply Your Learning: what are your personal objectives and what is your path to get there.
- Conclusion: who are you and how will you engage with others on this journey.
- Challenge: what is left for you to complete your Hudson’s Bay Start.
- Feedback: what can we do to make this online orientation more perfect.
Our goal is to help remind you of the program requirements, give you the opportunity to learn how to use this site and ensure that you have everything you need to be successful in this environment. In the meantime, good luck and take only what you need…but don’t forget anything!