Building an Accelerated Online Graduate Program for Military Officers

Abstract

Because of the intense and unique nature of their military life, military officers face stresses that other students do not need to be concerned about when taking courses online. An institution's ability to understand these military officer students, design online programs to meet their unique learning needs and deliver valuable online curricula to advance their learning is instrumental to the long-term success of both the military student and the institution. Reflecting on our more than twenty years of experience teaching and mentoring military officer students, this article tells the story behind the development of an accelerated online program and shares the challenges brought along with having military officers in our online classes, including unpredictable deployment schedules, unannounced military exercises, security concerns and military values and culture. How our faculty creatively and pedagogically addresses these issues while still maintaining the rigor of our academic program is also discussed.

Assessing the Efficacy of Online Learning in Disparate Business Subjects: Lessons from Distributed Practice and Social Learning Theory

“…Of course, even if the results only hold for accelerated classes, our studies would still constitute a contribution. Accelerated courses have become quite popular in universities across the United States, and especially so for business students who are often working and/or nontraditional (R. A. Collins et al, 2014; Marques, 2012; Tatum, 2019).…”

Facilitative communication mediated by technology

“…Text‐based responses in discussion boards are the go‐to mode of responses for learners and teachers (Ertmer et al., 2011), but think about giving learners choices to expand beyond standard questions and responses. In peer‐led discussions with students as the facilitator, work with facilitators to think about meaningful ways their group members may wish to participate (Chan et al., 2009; Collins et al., 2015). If non‐text‐based postings are out of the comfort zone, give participants a choice to respond in text‐based responses or choose another way of responding.…”

“…Formal online learning environments involve learner and educator participation in and facilitation of discussions, including those with learning management systems as well as embedded remote learning. Learning to teach and learn in discussion based virtual spaces is like navigating a new culture (Collins et al., 2015), and educator modeling may differ from face‐to‐face classrooms (Conceição & Howles, 2021). Even though the culture of learning may change within an online learning environment, authentic discussion can be robust (McDougall, 2015).…”