Reducing the Special Circumstances
Today’s sailors, soldiers, airmen and Marines are supporting an operating tempo that is unrivaled in recent history. Increased time away from home station, diminished time for personal pursuits and interests and other special circumstances challenge service men and service women to complete quality off-duty education.
By Marty Kauchak
Today’s sailors, soldiers, airmen and Marines are supporting an operating tempo that is unrivaled in recent history. Increased time away from home station, diminished time for personal pursuits and interests, and other
special circumstances challenge service men and service women to complete quality off-duty education. Help is on the way through the efforts of the Defense Activity for Non-Traditional Education Support (DANTES) (http://www.dantes.doded.mil/dantes_web/DantesHome.asp). The activity’s efforts to make distance learning (DL)-structured courses widely available for DoD’s learners will help this generation of servicemembers become the best educated in the department’s history.
Mission
DANTES supports the off-duty, voluntary education programs of DoD. Beyond this broad, overarching charter, DANTES’ specific, day-to-day efforts on behalf of the department’s learners includes working with testing agencies, colleges and universities, and educational associations to help the learning audience expand its knowledge and skills, as well as document prior learning experiences. This is accomplished “mostly through centralized management of contracts with organizations such as the American Council on Education, Servicemembers Opportunity Colleges (SOC), and the College Board, to name just a few,” Betty Keese, distance learning programs manager, DANTES, told Military Advanced Education (MAE).
DANTES’ primary mission also includes completing special projects to support the department’s learners in the contemporary learning environment. A representative project was “a recent study on mobile learning, to see how effective courses are when delivered via handheld devices, such as personal digital assistants (PDAs) and iPods,” recalled Keese. “We are especially interested in these delivery modes right now because of the high number of deployed and remote servicemembers,” she emphasized.
DL Mission
Another vital part of the DANTES portfolio increases learners’ awareness of opportunities to complete distance learning (DL) courses and programs. The agency’s DL program Website provides servicemember-students with an introduction to DL, describes the benefits of DL-formatted instruction, lists the media through which DL courses are delivered and provides the DoD community with information on how to enroll in courses and programs. Important resources available at the Website are the three DANTES DL catalogs that supply information about courses and degrees available through DL-formatted instruction.
“There are almost 200 ‘military-friendly’ educational institutions listed in our DANTES distance learning catalogs that provide courses and external degree programs for servicemembers,” noted Keese. Of special interest, the menu of institutions from which to select courses and programs is dynamic, as DANTES is interested in identifying new schools and programs to help servicemembers achieve their professional and personal goals. The DANTES DL team has increased its interest in foreign languages, homeland security and teacher certification in recent years. DANTES’ focus on teacher certification is a natural progression from its collateral responsibility to provide information and referral assistance to service men and women and their spouses who are interested in a teaching career through the Troops to Teachers or Spouses to Teachers programs.
DEDC
The DANTES External Degree Catalog (DEDC) “lists distance learning programs available from regionally accredited colleges and universities that have little or no residency requirements for degree completion, making them very useful to servicemembers in achieving their educational goals,” pointed out Kathy Westlake, field services operations specialist, DANTES. “The catalog lists associate, baccalaureate, masters and doctoral programs as well as credit-bearing certificate programs and teacher certificates,” she added.
One representative on-line program from the DEDC Catalogue was Arizona State University’s (ASU) Master of Science in Technology with a concentration in environmental technology management. Three areas of study within the concentration are available in environmental management, international environmental management or emergency management.
“Having spent 20 years in the U.S. Air Force, I felt that active duty personnel, especially those in deployed status, needed an education option that was flexible in terms of synchronicity as well as being available at deployed locations,” said Dr. Danny Peterson, professor, ASU.
Synchronous and asynchronous are common terms in DL course overviews and they should be in the DoD learner’s vocabulary. The terms describe how time is spent in the learning environment. In the synchronous DL classroom, there are times when all students are required to be logged in together, such as during live classroom chats. Asynchronous instruction places no requirements on students to “meet” at the same time. Students can turn in assignments, post responses to questions and meet other requirements at times of their choosing.
The DL courses in Peterson’s programs use the Blackboard-enabled Web-delivery platform, studio-recorded lectures, PowerPoint presentations, written lectures, and other media to deliver content. This technology insertion and other strategies ensure ASU’s DL courses are as rigorous as their in-resident counterparts.
“We do not believe that any quality has been lost by providing the program online. In fact, we believe that because of the diversity of experience and jobs that distance students brings to the virtual classroom, quality is enhanced,” added Peterson. The program accommodates face-to-face interaction through live meetings of the learning cohort.
More online opportunities for the DoD learner in DL-formatted homeland security programs are on the way. “We are currently bringing online a certificate program in homeland security. The four core classes for this new program were developed through a partnership with the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey,” concluded Peterson.
NADLP
The catalog of Nationally Accredited Distance Learning Programs (NADLP) contains course listings from schools accredited by national accrediting agencies. The catalog lists courses and describes academic degree programs as well as vocational-technical certificates. “Servicemembers may choose from a variety of individual courses and programs ranging from diplomas, certificates and degrees (associate, bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral and professional). The nationally accredited schools appearing in the NADLP provides options for independent study for servicemembers,” observed Westlake.
What will gain even the casual observer’s attention during a review of the NADLP catalog is the diversity of vocational-technical and certificate programs. The National Tax Training School is an accredited, New Jersey-based institution that is devoted exclusively to tax preparation.
The California College for Health Sciences offers a certificate in health care billing and coding and an associate’s degree in respiratory therapy, in addition to a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing, a master’s degree in public health and other academic programs.
A third, NADLP program, The Institute of Logistical Management, is on the cusp of dramatically expanding its 16, 3-credit course Certified Logistics Practitioner certificate program. The program increases the learner’s real-world knowledge of logistics and the supply chain. “We use a combination of practical materials (textbooks, workbooks, etc.) from which the student can study and then submit their lessons electronically by computer, fax or telephone,” Frank Breslin, dean, Institute of Logistical Management, told MAE. “We are currently converting all courses to an online format, although students will still be required to use a textbook,” he added.
The institute expects to add more courses throughout 2008 and forecasts progress on its efforts to offer an associate’s degree in logistics and supply chain.
The Institute of Logistical Management’s courses are transferable to a number of U.S. universities and colleges, including the University of Phoenix, where the courses are articulated—another term DoD learners should become familiar with. Articulation agreements are formal agreements between two institutions. They define how courses taken at one college or university campus can be used to satisfy a subject matter requirement at another college or university campus.
For its part, Cleveland Institute of Electronics (CIE) offers 15 DL diploma and degree programs ranging from entry-level computer and electronics troubleshooting courses to more advanced associate degrees in electronic engineering and computer information technology.
Marites Capistrano, veterans affairs coordinator, CIE, provided insights on how technical courses are delivered through DL media. “Each course was designed with a convenient, step-by-step learning format that will allow students to master new topics quickly and effectively. CIE’s hands-on labs and instructor support let students gain practical real-world training without leaving their home,” she pointed out. CIE’s laboratory experiments simulate real world scenarios. “Laboratory lessons request measurements and calculations to be performed and then students are tested on their results,” added Capistrano.
CIE is representative of how DANTES DL programs have evolved to support learners’ schedules. Instructor support is included with every course and CIE’s highly trained faculty is available six days a week for personal one-on-one instruction. Students can contact an instructor through e-mail, phone or during regularly scheduled chat room hours. “CIE students can start their training at any time during the year, and there is no limit to the number of lessons they can finish during each term after they meet their minimum lesson requirement. Students who study at an accelerated pace can realize their goal sooner,” she concluded.
DISC
The Dantes Independent Study Catalog (DISC) lists more than 6,700 undergraduate and graduate distance learning courses from regionally accredited institutions. “The purpose of this catalog is to provide specific enrollment information about distance learning courses that can be used to continue pursuing educational goals when the military student does not have access to more traditional course offerings. It also lists schools that offer credit-by-examination and schools that offer high school courses,” concluded Westlake.
The first-time or even veteran DISC user should first look at the information contained on http://www.dantescatalogs.com/DISC/CourseListings.asp to better allow them to navigate the catalog. An example of post-secondary courses and the wealth of accompanying information from a catalog entry can be gleaned from the entry UNIX (05.02.06). The data would reveal a UNIX operating system and the Internet course is offered by Syracuse University along with the course description, required media support, tuition and other information.
There are a wide array of colleges and universities with courses in DISC. Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University delivers instruction in aviation courses. A partial list of the university’s offerings includes aerodynamics, aircraft performance and air traffic management.
Some representative courses provided by Pennsylvania State University are hospitality facilities management, hospitality financial accounting and food, beverage and labor cost control.
A third institution, the University of Northern Iowa, also provides DL instruction across the catalog’s subject areas. The university delivers courses in principles of financial accounting, psychology of adolescence, introduction to music theory and other topics.
Advanced Planning Needed
The military learner should carefully investigate his or her options before enrolling in a DL program and course, according to the DANTES staff. Increased operating tempos and other considerations add a sense of importance to making the correct off-duty education decision early-on. “I think service members exploring various DL options need to do their homework first,” pointed out Keese. Four of many questions she suggested the prospective learner answer early-on included: what is the instructional approach, how is the program structured, how does the program provide for dialog, and what types of learner support services are required?
Other suggestions to allow a student to select, plan and complete DL courses and programs are provided at http://www.dantes.doded.mil/dantes_web/distancelearning/dl-tips.htm. ♦