The American Indian Higher Education Consortium’s Aseto’ne Network Project is an initiative to help TCU students learn about the essential and enriching career opportunities available in health science research. In the Cheyenne language, aseto’ne refers to the concepts of growth and taking first steps. The Aseto’ne team encourages all interested TCU faculty and students to take those first steps by utilizing the opportunities the network offers, including a new video library.

Recently, the Aseto’ne Network Project rolled out 100 videos specifically created to aid in teaching for biomedical and behavioral health research. Embracing the sophistication of contemporary students’ knowledge and eagerness to explore and utilize innovative technologies, the Aseto’ne Network Project has modified a face-to-face institute into a virtual one with new partnerships for online learning and mentoring. As part of these efforts, the Aseto’ne team created a virtual library of videos that encompasses a wide array of topics for use as teaching aids available to TCU faculty, who can incorporate them into their health and research classes.

Building on partnerships with the University of Nebraska Medical Center, the University of North Dakota, and the National Native Health Research Training Initiative, these videos represent a culmination of their combined efforts. With the Native American perspective in mind, these videos look at such topics as research methods, clinical research, nursing research, research skills, and research in Indian Country, which investigate strategies used by Native researchers. Other videos focus on infectious diseases, exploring their impact in American Indian/Alaska Native communities; environmental health, with a focus on concerns and considerations in tribal communities; infrastructure; and policy to provide an examination of ways to reach into tribal communities to support and expand policy building, research ethics, and research capacity.

Additional video offerings highlight important topics including historical trauma, Indigenous mathematics, addiction interventions, career building, researcher profiles, behavioral health, health disparities, public health, traditional stories, and student development.

“The Aseto’ne Network Project learning resources are organized by topic with short descriptions of the material in that category. Our hope is that TCU faculty will explore the site and find videos relevant to the courses they teach,” says Reno Charette, the Aseto’ne Network Project director. “We are collecting various data points to assess usage of the videos by college name, title of course, and enrollment in the course. The site includes a thumbs up or down rating scale and comment section for users to give us and other users feedback about specific videos. TCU faculty can also request topics for development in the comment section or let us know if they have a video to share,” adds Charette. “We anticipate that TCU faculty will download the videos and use video clipping software to cut out sections for use in their lectures, or other presentations.”

All TCU faculty are encouraged to register for access to culturally appropriate videos made to enhance course curriculum with the Native student in mind. They can also check out reviews by other TCU faculty for more insights and recommendations as they explore videos applicable to their courses. The Aseto’ne Network team hopes that the use of these videos helps to promote student interest and engagement in health research that builds on health-focused programs and initiatives offered at TCUs.

The Aseto’ne Network Project also offers students an opportunity to enroll in their health research program, the virtual Aseto’ne Institute, where they can receive personal mentoring services, build a professional network, gain access to Native researchers, learn from courses developed and delivered from the Native perspective, and more.