UAF develops first online course using animal research

August 17, 2015

Marissa Carl-Acosta
907-455-2070

A mouse from the colony studied by UAF's Abel Bult-Ito surveys its surroundings from a perch on a researcher's arm.

Abel Bult-Ito has studied the obsessive-compulsive tendencies of mice in a colony for more than 20 years. This fall, his research escapes from its campus lab to student computers around the world.

The University of Alaska Fairbanks, where Bult-Ito is a biology professor, will launch an online introductory course that uses animal research to study potential causes of obsessive-compulsive disorder in people. It's a first in the education arena.

In addition to the traditional for-credit option, the Behavioral Neuroscience Research course will offer a second section open to the public for a $125 fee.

“This is an awesome opportunity for students from many different backgrounds to do original research with live mice in a completely online format,” Bult-Ito said. “This is the first time that members of the public get to see and work within the animal research enterprise.”

Students in the noncredit section, dubbed the Massive Online Research Experience, will have access to the same data sets and will receive a certificate of completion at the end of the semester.

“We’re excited about this course and its underlying model,” said Owen Guthrie, an instructional designer for UAF eLearning. “It holds tremendous potential for involving large numbers of students in a high-quality, authentic research project, and, as far as we know, this course is the first of its kind for observational science.”

Students will be assigned a subset of mice and will use video footage to collect, analyze and interpret data. Their results will be published as original behavioral neuroscience research and could advance the understanding of OCD in Bult-Ito’s mouse model and the potential relevance to the human condition. All students will be trained in using animals for research.

ON THE WEB: http://elearning.uaf.edu/go/more

NOTE TO EDITORS: Select course content, including more photos and video, is available.

The work was supported by the National Institutes of Health, award numbers: RL5GM118990, TL4 GM 118992 and 1UL1GM118991.