Many members of the military have the commitment and self-discipline it takes to succeed with online college courses. In the case of the military, online college offerings allow flexibility that can translate to stability, allowing studies to continue uninterrupted even in instances of transfers and deployments. College studies are conducted during off-duty time. Continuing education is not mandatory, but is often free, and military experts see several advantages to it as a bit of schools online research will demonstrate.
Voluntary education programs help improve mission performance, prepare for greater responsibility and enhance personal and professional potential, according to Lori Popp, an Education Technician with the Lifelong Learning section of Marine and Family Services aboard Camp Lejeune in North Carolina who addressed the topic as part of a July 2009 Jacksonville Daily News article.
U.S. Congress in 1944 passed the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act. Also known as the GI Bill, the law provided anyone who served in uniform the opportunity to obtain a college scholarship. By 1947, nearly 50 percent of all college students in America were veterans, according to a Time Magazine article. A Post 9/11 GI Bill has since made as much as full tuition money for graduate and undergraduate degrees and vocational or technical training as well as book and housing stipends available to service members on active duty after Sept. 10, 2001.
Military training and experience can translate to academic credits, and more than 1,900 community colleges and universities that have reportedly partnered with the U.S. Army accept these credits from soldiers during or after service. Many bases are said to include satellite campuses of local accredited universities. Many soldiers benefit from accredited degree online offerings as well. Technological advances in distance learning opportunities make it easier for deployed service members to continue their education, Popp told the Jacksonville Daily News.
With online classes, students access between 80 and 100 percent of their course content online, according to the Sloan Consortium that is comprised of organizations and institutions committed to quality online education. Students who otherwise might not be able to attend classes at a traditional campus are often drawn to online classes and online degree programs-and enrollment numbers continue to increase. The results of a recently released “Learning on Demand: Online Education in the United States” study showed that the fall 2008 semester saw a 17 percent increase in online students compared to fall 2007, bringing the total number of online class enrollees to 4.6 million.
More than 1,000 deployed Marines and sailors are benefiting from tuition assistance, Popp told the Daily News. And an October article in The Chronicle of Higher Education described online courses as a “boon for soldiers who want to participate in college despite geographic displacement.” The story, about a professor and National Guardsman who continued teaching online classes in economics during a tour of duty in Iraq, reported that soldiers keep occupied during stretches down time by working, reading, exercising, playing video games and watching movies. Many soldiers and other members of the military also enroll in online college or graduate school courses during deployment, The Chronicle piece noted.
Corporal Dakota Berg was reportedly doing just this when the Jacksonville Daily News told his story in July. Berg graduated high school in 2006 and joined the U.S. Marines for the tuition benefits. The military’s tuition assistance program alleviated a lot of financial and mental stress, Berg told the Daily News. He’s using them to pursue an online degree in accounting-an endeavor that his deployment from Parris Island, S.C., to Iraq hasn’t interrupted.
Preparation is a big part of being in the service and what our service men and women are doing with distance learning course education is preparing for their future. Be it in the service or in the civilian sector, the time spent participating in colleges online is time well spent on their future career path.
