Bringing the Classroom to the Field
Army's SOCAD leads the way in providing opportunities for
Soldiers to pursue their education goals - anytime and anywhere.
by Judith Loomer
The Servicemembers Opportunity Colleges (SOC) degree program for the Army (SOCAD) is part of the SOC Degree Network System. SOCAD institutions are those that have been selected by the Army to offer associate and bachelor’s degrees to soldiers—and their spouses and adult family members—worldwide. The militaryfriendly colleges participating in SOCAD implement policies that allow mobile soldiers and their families to complete college degrees without suffering a loss of credit. Together, SOCAD institutions offer a breadth of choice—in types of degrees offered, in delivery method, in locations— within a network of colleges committed to providing education opportunities for soldiers and their families.
HISTORY OF SOCAD
To understand the history of SOCAD and its key role in the development of the SOC Degree Network System, it helps to step back and consider the founding of SOC 36 years ago.
SOC as an organization was created to help address the education needs of servicemembers during the Viet Nam era as they transitioned into our nation’s colleges and universities. During those early years, SOC helped colleges and universities understand the issues and concerns brought to campus by their military students and helped the military community understand the world of higher education. SOC helped develop and articulate the military-friendly policies that are endorsed today by over 1,700 higher education institutions that are part of the SOC Consortium.
For ten years, the SOC Consortium was the only organization within SOC. But at the end of SOC’s first decade, the Degree Network System was established—and it started at the request of the Army Continuing Education System (ACES). ACES leaders felt soldiers needed something more than the broad, military-friendly policies of SOC Consortium member institutions— something that would help soldiers complete their degrees, even as they moved from one Army post to another. What SOC developed was a network of colleges—on or near Army installations—with guaranteed transferability articulation agreements. With those in place, soldiers could confidently pursue their chosen degrees, knowing that course transfer had been pre-negotiated for specific courses. There would be no need to start over each time a soldier moved during his or her Army career.
Begun with colleges offering associate degrees, SOCAD soon encompassed colleges offering bachelor’s degrees. Army’s success with a network of colleges committed to providing education opportunities for its soldiers served as a model, and the SOC Degree Network System expanded with degree programs for the Navy (SOCNAV), the Marine Corps (SOCMAR) and the Coast Guard (SOCCOAST).
SOCAD TODAY
SOCAD institutions have been selected by the Army to meet education needs of its soldiers through a needs-assessment process conducted at the installation level for traditional delivery and at ACES headquarters level for non-traditional and distance delivery institutions. Today, there are 106 SOCAD member institutions—on or near Army installations or designated by the Army to offer degrees via distance learning to soldiers wherever they are.
ARMY-FRIENDLY POLICIES
All SOCAD institutions have adopted flexible and military-friendly policies that help soldiers complete their degrees, anytime and anywhere. First, all of these schools agree to be a soldier’s “home college”—the college from which the soldier is seeking a degree. The home college agrees to limit academic residency to no more than 25 percent of the degree—30 percent if the degree is available totally on line. With a SOCAD home college, soldiers do not have to start a degree anew each and every time the Army moves them.
SOCAD colleges also agree to award credit for military experience and training, where appropriate to the degree being sought. based on American Council on Education (ACE) recommendations. SOCAD institutions also award credit for nationally recognized testing programs, such as CLEP and DSST. These policies are critical in helping soldiers reach their education goals.
Another key feature of SOCAD is the detailed degree plan that is issued by the home college to the degree-seeking student after the student has completed six semester hours toward the degree. The SOCAD student agreement is a formal evaluation of the student’s prior learning and a clear delineation of remaining degree requirements.
The SOCAD student agreement serves as “contract for degree” between the college and the student, and remains in effect even if the soldier relocates during a military career or leaves the military. With a student agreement, the servicemember can stay on track, avoid taking unnecessary courses, and know that, once degree requirements and academic residency are met, the home college will award the degree as promised.
Ninety percent of SOCAD colleges are “core” member institutions, and they participate in the two-way guaranteed transferability system of course articulations that is an important component of the SOC Degree Network System. Based on a peer-review process managed by SOC staff, courses in specific degree programs are mapped to SOC Course Category Codes and are guaranteed to transfer from one college within the Degree Network System to another when codes are shared between the institutions. This prenegotiated articulation system of key courses allows a soldier to enroll in needed courses no matter where or how offered, knowing that they will transfer to the soldier’s home college and fulfill a degree requirement listed on the student agreement. (The remaining 10 percent of SOCAD institutions are “Affiliate” institutions offering highly specialized degrees, often linked to military occupations, that do not participate in the course articulation system.)
So—with a network of colleges, with credit awards for military training and experience, with credit derived from national tests, with the student agreement, and with widespread two-way guaranteed transferability— SOCAD is helping soldiers complete their undergraduate degrees, even in these challenging times.
And it’s important to know that the advantages of SOCAD—and of the student agreement in particular—are available not only to active-duty soldiers but also to reservists, Army National Guard soldiers, and adult family members. SOCAD colleges write and honor student agreements for all of these military students—it’s one of the ways SOCAD institutions demonstrate their understanding of the demanding lifestyle of the military community.
SOCAD DEGREE CHOICES
There are over 420 associate degrees and 260 bachelor’s degrees within SOCAD. All of these degrees are offered by colleges to all students—civilian and military—and are drawn from the colleges’ catalogs. Some SOCAD degree options are very specialized and others are in popular or traditional academic subject areas. What is important to know is that soldiers have a wide range of choice within SOCAD.
The degrees most frequently sought by Soldiers are general studies degrees at the associate degree level and business and management degrees at the bachelor’s level. Criminal justice and computer science are also popular. Many of the SOCAD institutions offer these sorts of degrees at Army installations or via distance learning, along with other degrees that ACES has identified as meeting the education needs of soldiers.
SOCAD also offers soldiers the opportunity to pursue degrees that are closely aligned with their military occupational specialty or MOS through the Army Career Degree Program. Developed by SOC in partnership with ACES, the Army Career Degree Program matches degrees available via distance learning from SOCAD schools to MOS and career management fields. Participating colleges review American Council on Education credit recommendations for military experience and training and determine upfront what credit will be awarded toward the degree. Detailed degree plans outline credit awards and remaining degree requirements. For soldiers interested in pursuing degrees that draw on their military training and experience, Army Career Degrees offer options that can shorten the time to degree completion.
DISTANCE LEARNING
ACES reports that approximately 75 percent of college classes taken by active duty soldiers during the past year were distance learning classes. Clearly, distance education is an important part of military voluntary education, and SOCAD is addressing this by ensuring that distance learning options are available in all degree areas.
It is essential that SOCAD continue to offer soldiers options: for degrees offered by traditional, brick and mortal institutions; for degrees from the growing numbers of online components of these colleges; and for degrees from distance learning institutions. Students should also be able to blend learning types—to mix and match—by choosing on-line classes when it makes sense for them to do so and to choose face-to-face instruction when appropriate. Right now, all of those options are available within SOCAD and its member institutions. And it is important that SOCAD maintain this balance.
GOARMYED
The tempo of deployments and garrison operations, as well as changes in Army Education Center staffing, has been a challenge for ACES and led, at least in part, to the implementation of the GoArmyEd portal—Army’s “virtual gateway” for active-duty soldiers seeking to use tuition assistance for courses that advance them to completing their education goals. The majority of SOCAD colleges are active participants in the GoArmyEd portal. Their participation in GoArmyEd—the virtual education center for ACES—allows schools to work with their soldier-students no matter where or in what time zone. And SOCAD supports the GoArmyEd initiative by serving as the academic facilitator for ACES, with SOCAD staff working with colleges on the academic issues that are integral to the success of GoArmyEd.
PRESENT AND FUTURE CHALLENGES FOR SOCAD
Maintaining relevancy is the primary challenge facing SOCAD and the SOC Degree Network System. It remains important that SOCAD continue to maintain a balance between distance learning and traditional classroom providers. SOCAD needs to include colleges on or near Army installations, as well as those that offer degrees at a distance, worldwide. It must continue to give soldiers and their family members options that allow them broad choice in degrees. SOC needs to continue to support and expand the two-way guaranteed transferability in key courses that enable servicemembers to start and complete their degrees with one college during their military careers. We need to ensure that the Degree Network System remains dynamic and able to expand into new academic areas—such as homeland security—as they become viable degree areas within higher education and prove of interest to servicemembers.
SOCAD also supports SOC initiatives, particularly in defining the rights of military students and assisting in the transition of military students back to the classroom. The experiences of SOCAD institutions will help SOC in facilitating discussions and sharing best practices in these areas across the SOC Consortium. And, of course, we’ll be paying close attention to the post 9-11 G.I. Bill.
Expanding postsecondary education opportunities for soldiers remains central to the SOCAD mission. Facilitating the collaboration between our nation’s colleges and ACES continues to be an important and valued role for SOCAD staff. Our soldiers and their family members deserve no less, and SOCAD is proud to serve and support them as they pursue their education goals. ♦