CREATE did not begin as a traditional organization or business model.
It evolved naturally through years of collaborative work across northern, rural, and remote education contexts.
As a team, we had each been involved in healthcare education, curriculum development, and distributed learning initiatives across Canada. Over time, our work increasingly brought us into partnership with northern communities, healthcare organizations, educators, and learners.
And throughout those experiences, we kept hearing the same message:
“This is not how people want to learn.”
Traditional online education models often relied heavily on standardized approaches and static content that did not fully reflect:
- the realities of northern learners,
- the strengths already present within communities,
- or the importance of relationships, culture, flexibility, and accessibility.
That feedback became a turning point for us.
We began asking ourselves:
What would online education look like if it were truly designed with communities rather than simply delivered to them?
What began as individual projects and collaborations gradually evolved into a shared commitment to reimagining online and distributed education through:
- accessibility,
- cultural responsiveness,
- flexibility,
- and community-rooted design.
That evolution ultimately became CREATE.