WOLF CONNECTION - ELEARNING CASE STUDY
Wolf Lessons for Human Lives
Introduction
We have been working with Wolf Connection, a wilderness retreat centre in Palmdale, CA to produce a wonderful new resource for youth empowerment.
Amanda and Leo from the centre have been kind enough to spend some time with Stan and Myself (Paul) to answer a few questions about what it's like to develop elearning with Can Studios and the impact the project will make on their organisation.
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Amanda Beer
Director of Programs
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Leo Leckie
Lead of Education
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Ian Stanyer (Stan)
Creative Director
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Paul Hilton
Managing Director
Would you give me a quick overview of Wolf Connection?
At Wolf Connection, we empower youth to become authentic leaders and contributing community members. We accomplish this through facilitating experiential relationships with rescued wolves and the natural environment. These deeply intuitive animals inspire young people to be fully present in their bodies, release ideas and behaviours that no longer serve, and understand their unique role in a human "pack" or community.
The wolves help youth focus on their impulses, feelings, and behaviours in a constructive way; they learn to forgive and give others (and themselves) a second chance.
Why Wolves? … Like the teens we work with, wolves are misunderstood. Yet science tells us the wolf is the first animal we ever associated with more than 40,000 years ago. Early humans adopted our family and social structure, survival and hunting techniques from wolves.
Researchers believe we have a memory of this bond in our DNA, so teens and wolves naturally connect at a deep, primal level, carrying great therapeutic value.
Founded in 2009, what started as in-school presentations and brief visits to the sanctuary have evolved into a multi-disciplined program with one-day field trips and our signature 8-week Experiential Education, Youth Empowerment, and Diversion Program.
Why did you decide you needed some e-learning?
At the tail end of 2020 our organisation took a risk to create/invest in an e-learning platform that could offer the Social Emotional Learning and Magic inherent to our in person programming.
As a non-profit we had previously been unable to dedicate time to create this global e-learning option, but when COVID hit, and our onsite programming froze, we made the choice to invest in this creation.
How would you describe the course we have built in a few sentences?
Our programme is based upon 12 key lessons, each embodied in the story of one of our rescued wolves. The online course follows the same structure, introducing the participant to the unique characters of our wolves through video, animation and interactive elements. We have tried hard to ensure the course is as involving for the learner as our face to face class, they are encouraged to apply the lessons to their own circumstance and create content to express themselves.
The course is beyond what we could have imagined and captures the essence and teachings of our "real life" wolf teachers and organisational philosophy. The animation and design are magnificent.
The interactive quality of the course that has been designed for our planned clientele far exceeds anything we have since come across.
“We would undoubtedly not be as far along in the development of the course. In fact, the ideas presented by Can Studios have not only streamlined the development of the course but have immensely improved on what we even imagined this course being in the beginning.”
Leo Leckie
Lead of Program Education & Outreach
How are we helping Wolf Connection deliver the content?
We will be using Training Post LMS to deliver the course into schools. This allows us to create a separate learning portal for each subscribing school so that teachers in the schools can check their own student progress.
The content for all the portals is managed from a single source so we don’t have to worry about looking after all the portals separately.
“The highest quality of customer service matched with an unparalleled eLearning product makes Can Studios an obvious choice for any organisation.”
Leo Leckie
Lead of Program Education & Outreach
Wolf Connection
RESCUE. EMPOWER. IMPACT.
The course is beyond what we could have imagined and captures the essence and teachings of our "real life" wolf teachers and organisational philosophy. The animation and design are magnificent.