Mission Online Learning

By Sherrie Negrea

After his eight-hour combat patrols, Army Capt. David Bustamante would return to his military base in Iskandariyah, Iraq, log-on to a computer and begin answering homework questions for the courses in information and technology management he was taking at Webster University in Webster Groves, Mo.

During his second 15-month deployment, Bustamante took five classes in a master's degree program and managed to e-mail all his homework in on time. "What I would do is work very hard on the weekend," he says. "I would always be two weeks ahead so I could turn my stuff in on Sunday or Monday and my group could see what I did."

The 34-year-old officer, who earned his degree in May, is one of thousands of active-duty military personnel who have enrolled in distance learning programs to advance their education while stationed overseas. Since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, online degrees have become increasingly popular among military members who cannot attend a bricks-and-mortar college.

"When the global war on terror began and deployments became more and more of a lifestyle versus the exception, the active duty response to that was to go online more and more to get their education," says Jim Hendrickson, vice president of military education for Colorado Technical University, based in Colorado Springs. "The veterans who did get out and wanted to finish their education also began taking online courses because they were more familiar with it."

Since much of the training in the military is conducted online, it has been an easy transition for active duty members and veterans to complete their civilian education in a virtual environment. The military, adds Hendrickson, a 24-year military veteran, was the driving force behind online education. After the military perfected online learning, higher education adapted distance learning programs.

Many members of the military switched to an online education after enrolling in courses offered by colleges and universities on American military bases. "We have many students who started at a military base in a classroom," says Dan Viele, associate vice president for academic affairs at Webster University, which has programs at 44 military installations. "They can then shift and complete their degree in an online program."

Tech. Sgt. Jessica Mohney, 28, had no interest in college when she enlisted in the Air Force as a junior in high school but changed her mind when she took a lunchtime sociology class while stationed at the Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in Wrightstown, N.J. She instantly became hooked and started taking more classes offered by Burlington County Community College at the base.

After two years of coursework, between deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq, she decided to switch to an online degree program in criminal justice at Thomas Edison State College in Trenton.

"It was a little intimidating at first taking an online class," says Mohney, who will earn her bachelor's degree in December. "With online, procrastination can seep in there. But I think I realized I had the discipline the military instilled in me. I just have to have a plan and stick to it." The training used by the military makes service members ideal students for online courses. "Something with all that discipline and character building translates into being really good students," says Viele, who has taught military personnel at Webster as an accounting professor. "They're typical of what a really good online student has to be — self-disciplined, self-engaged and creative thinkers."

Administrators for several online degree programs say their schools are willing to work with active-duty officers who may have to drop courses if they are suddenly called to serve in an extended mission away from the base.

"We know they're subject to deployments on very short notice so we've truncated our courses to eight weeks in length," said David Persky, assistant to the president of Saint Leo University, a school near Tampa, Fla., where military members make up a third of the enrollment. Nevertheless, Persky adds, "We understand that their mission comes first and that their academics come second to their mission as a member of the United States military."

One segment of the military that is flocking to online degree programs is military spouses, who often follow their partners from base to base and cannot enroll in classes at a traditional college campus. Under the new Post-9/11 G.I. Bill, which took effect last August, service members can transfer benefits to a spouse if they have served at least six years and are still on active duty or in the selected reserve (on drill status).

"There's a big push to enable spouses to have an opportunity to have an education because they are the ones who follow military members around the world," says Joe Shapiro, dean of the San Diego State University College of Extended Studies, which offers several online degree programs. "They have lots of opportunities to get a portable career wherever they go and get a better possibility of getting a job."

Another group that is drawn to distance learning is wounded veterans who may come back from deployment and have to spend years in medical facilities. Some veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder may have short-term memory loss and like the ability to replay course material online.

"They're 18 or 19 or 20 years old, and they're wounded and they don't want to be sitting in a classroom being stared at," says Hendrickson, of Colorado Technical University, which serves about 14,000 military students.

One veteran at his university who was enrolled in an online program had been severely burned in a bomb blast during his deployment. "His face was pretty distracting and he knew it," Hendrickson said. "He knew he liked being online where he knew he was just Joe."

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