eArmyU Wants You!
by Evelyn Beck
Because most of the students in her on-line algebra class are soldiers, Sharon Davis takes it in stride when someone disappears temporarily.
“If they’re going to Afghanistan, there may be a gap in participation,” says Davis, an adjunct math instructor and the director of instructional development at Central Texas College in Killeen. “We try to work with them; we understand they’re probably not going to stay in one location long.”
Though she recommends that her students complete a lesson each week, Davis allows students to pace themselves. And while she assigns a group project, the deadline is determined by deployment schedules.
Elizabeth Nass, the Program Coordinator for eArmyU, the U.S. Army’s on-line education program, echoes the importance of such flexibility.
“In addition to the challenges many adult learners face—balancing work, family, and school responsibilities, and learning the ins and outs of on-line learning—soldiers face uncertainties and must be prepared to adapt to new duty stations and missions,” she says. “They may end up at great distance from their families and their brick-and-mortar colleges/universities.”
According to the Army, nearly 4,000 of the 30,800 students enrolled in the two-year-old eArmyU program have been reassigned while taking classes and “have transported their virtual classroom to installations around the world.” But it is such facts of the military life that make on-line education especially appealing for soldiers.
At Central Texas, most of Davis’s military students are enrolled through eArmyU. Central Texas, in fact, is the home institution for 40 percent of eArmyU’s students, who currently take on-line courses from 21 colleges and universities, including Kansas State University, Pennsylvania State University, and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. They can earn certificates as well as associate’s, bachelor’s, and master’s degrees in 116 programs, with business, computer science, and criminal justice especially popular.
“eArmyU is the next big leap in Army education since the GI Bill,” says Nass.
Like soldier-students in all Army Continuing Education System programs, eArmyU students receive tuition assistance of up to $250 per semester hour and up to $4,500 per year. But in addition, eArmyU students receive a “technology package” that includes a laptop computer, printer, Internet access, and 24-hour technical support. They can also take advantage of resources such as the University of Georgia’s virtual library and on-line tutoring.
Plans to implement the program Army-wide in 2003 seem to have been put on hold, but the program is still one of the Army’s top recruiting tools. Eligibility, in fact, depends on a military commitment of at least three more years, and almost 20 percent of eArmyU students extended their enlistment or signed up for another tour of duty in order to participate in the program.
eArmyU got its start in 2001 at three sites—Fort Benning, Ga.; Fort Campbell, Ky.; and Fort Hood, Texas—after the Army signed a $453 million deal with Pricewaterhouse-Coopers to develop the program. Since then it has expanded to additional bases from Alaska and Hawaii to Germany and Korea, though the way the Army figures it, eArmyU has reached soldier-students in 36 countries, four U.S. territories, and 47 U.S. states. So far, 84 students have completed their degrees.
Of particular interest to on-line educators is this statistic: more than one-fourth of eArmyU students have never taken a college course before. This means extended opportunities for higher education, but it also suggests that not all eArmyU students may be ready for the challenges of postsecondary learning. They may need developmental work and technology assistance. Though the Army offers an appropriately named “boot camp” tutorial that explains computer basics, Davis finds that some of her students at Central Texas need additional help.
“They get very little orientation with respect to computer skills,” she says. “They’re given a laptop and a printer, but instructors do often spend some time acquainting students with the computer and how to send attachments. And we don’t give assignments that require a lot of technical skills.”
For an instructor, a class full of military personnel may offer some special challenges, but it also has advantages.
“They have such widespread experiences,” says Davis, who marvels at what she has learned through on-line exchanges on her classroom discussion board.
For institutions, eArmyU means an influx of students. At Central Texas, for example, the number of distinct on-line courses has ballooned to over 130, according to Davis, and the college has hired additional adjunct faculty. And according to the Journal of Higher Education, six historically black colleges have banded together in a consortium to offer courses to eArmyU students. But perhaps the greatest benefits are for the Army itself, which is hoping that this recruiting and retention tool will ultimately mean better educated and more technologically proficient soldiers.
