iPods Viable for Military Education

Written by Erin Flynn Jay

iPods will play a pivotal role in militaryeducation in the future, as colleges and universities seek new ways for students to learn material in remote locations. Online and distance learning is enabling more military personnel to earn college degrees without entering a classroom setting.

Dallas TeleCollege students are using iPods in three locations with the Navy as part of a pilot program. These students are under the Navy College Program for Afloat College Education (NCPACE), which gives sailors the opportunity to experience a college education while on duty at sea throughout the world.

“We came to this point of having iPod courses as a result of hearing more from various people about how difficult it was to access a small number of computers onboard a ship to get their coursework,” said Jim Picquet, vice president of instruction at Dallas TeleCollege. The college discovered the Navy would like to have some type of alternative to the computer shortage.

About a year and a half ago, Dallas TeleCollege did a pilot project where several of their courses were loaded in a PDA format with some courses from Central Texas Community College and Coastline Community College. That was the college’s first effort at smaller devices.

After further discussion with the Navy, the college thought they might have course opportunities on other types of portable devices. Mary Elizabeth Parra, dean, Distance Learning Planning & Communication had already created a business course with iPod being the focal activity for students. Since that evolved well, Dallas TeleCollege started moving other courses onto the iPod. Picquet said they would wait to see the Navy’s results with the iPod program; if that is running up to standards, they’ll probably have pilots with other locations.

CD courses are an integral part of Dallas TeleCollege. CDs are preloaded on ship computers. Students can load course material into their own computer via CD-ROM. The college also mails course material to the ship which is taken on board before departure. Students may stay in a course for three months to a year and a half depending on how long they are at sea and how much free time they have to work on the course.

“In most cases, they’re finishing within a 15 to 16 week period of time just like a regular student and sending the materials back to us once they get to the next port,” Picquet said. The ship’s officer, normally the second in command on the ship, hands tests out to the students at the appropriate time.

Dallas TeleCollege averages about 1,500 students on a rotating basis at any given time of the year. Dallas TeleLearning, which produces educational telecommunications and distance learning products, has 14 courses available; eight of those are offered through the Navy College Afloat program. NCPACE courses are provided by regionally accredited colleges and are offered almost exclusively through CD-ROM format.

DALLAS TELELEARNING.

Dallas TeleLearning utilizes multimedia to deliver an academically sound, broadcastquality course for institution educational programs. Courses combine video, a textbook, a student course guide, a faculty manual, testbank and online learning activities to provide a comprehensive course to be delivered at the convenience of students.

Dallas TeleLearning courseware is offered by institutions for college credit to distance learning students and students seeking a technology based learning environment. The courses are taught by the institution’s faculty, who guide the students through the learning experience. The course videos are available in a multitude of ways for student convenience: broadcast over a local public station, cablecast, videostream, DVD, CDROM or VHS.

IPODS IN USE AT NDU

National Defense University’s Information Resources Management (IRM) College also has an iPod pilot program in effect.

IRM College bought video iPods this year; they have about 30 students using them. “We’re doing this is stages. The first stage has been to familiarize senior leaders with iPods because many of them don’t understand them,” said Paulette Robinson, assistant dean for Teaching and Learning at IRM College. “The second thing is to be able to give audio-related papers or books and video clips to our students where they are appropriate. There are a lot of relevant podcasts out on the web to different topics that we teach so they’ve been putting those on the video iPods.”

The college is going to expand the pilot this coming Fall to include calendar downloads. The calendar for the academic year—when papers are due, when important meetings are set—will be downloaded onto students’ iPods so they have it with them all the time. IRM College has an iTunes U space so faculty will be putting up materials there that students can download into their iPods.

Robinson said the third piece of the pilot is Tegrity. Tegrity is a software the college has purchased that captures professors’ lectures and guest speakers. This will be an option for all classes in the fall. Tegrity will capture the PowerPoint, audio, video and what professors write on their PowerPoints. Once it captures the images, it will upload into Blackboard for easy use. There’s a button that can download content into students’ video iPods. Students will get access to lectures that they can relisten to. Robinson said that’s extremely helpful for international military students because of language; they get a chance to hear it a second time.

Tegrity also gives students the possibility of downloading it onto phones. Currently, you can only download onto the Razr, but Tegrity is going to expand the models of phones you can put into the iPod. The college also purchased microphones for the video iPods so students can record their interviews with CIOs of different organizations. Robinson said they’re seeing the iPod not only as an information delivery device but also as a student production device. She’s more interested in helping the faculty use it as a student production device so students can create things for their courses.

PORTABLE COURSES

Olympic College (OC) has been working on its Portable Courses Pilot Program for three years. OC is in Bremerton, Wash., where Naval Base Kitsap is located. This is an exciting way of releasing education and allowing students to study whenever and wherever their work or personal lives take them, according to Wendy Miles, director of military education and training at OC.

The college’s Education Released (or Portable Course) is delivered to students on a DVD or USB drive format and designed to be used on a PC or laptop. Students may take the courses wherever they are and can study whenever it is convenient to them. Unlike typical online courses, OC’s Portable Courses do not require an Internet connection to download course assignments, quizzes, etc.

Instructors are available via e-mail; however, there is no required course chat room time or bulletin board postings. Classes are structured to be completed in eight weeks, but extensions for special circumstances may be possible from the instructor. Quizzes and tests must be proctored. Each instructor will provide testing instructions, so students must check their course materials packet for these details. Students have to return course work to OC for evaluation. Grades cannot be given until all required course work is returned.

Military students who cannot depend on an Internet connection benefit from this course delivery format. Enrolled students are active duty and civilians. “Portable Courses were designed with the submariner in mind who may be undersea for 60 to 90 days with no Internet connection,” Miles said. “How can those students continue learning? Standalone course solutions were needed.”

OC launched this pilot program in September 2006 with seven courses. They had 45 enrollments for fall quarter, 50 enrollments for winter quarter and 124 enrollments for spring quarter. “Clearly, there is increasing interest in this course format,” Miles said.

New courses are coming online this summer and fall. Miles expects to deliver new courses each term.

The pilot included testing DVD and USB drive formats. “We found that USB drives are better as they are interactive. Students can enter their coursework into the course software where it is saved [on a USB drive],” Miles said. “Students return the USB drive with all their coursework in it back to OC for evaluation and grade.”

All Education Released or Portable Courses have an instructor who prefers to have regular contact with students via email or phone. Students who have Internet access are encouraged to communicate with their instructor, and possibly supply their coursework to the instructor during the course, rather than waiting until the end to get any feedback.

Miles said OC’s Electronics 200 course is unique. “Students enroll with permission from the instructor, which is based on prior learning (probably through the military),” she said. “ELECT 200 is a survey course of four 100-level courses required for our two year degree. Students who successfully complete this course are granted credits for the first year courses, plus two credits for ELECT 200.” The remaining ELECT courses are in development for Portable Course format.

REMOTE PROCTOR LAUNCH

Securexam Remote Proctor is a hardware and software solution that Troy University will be using to authenticate the identity of a distance learning test taker and simultaneously monitor their exam environment. The launch date for Securexam Remote Proctor is in late May.

“A distance learning student at Troy is in the same situation as if they had to come to campus for a proctored exam environment in terms of ensuring equal academic integrity,” said Douglas Winneg, President of Software Secure, an educational testing software development firm and the creator of Securexam.

Securexam has been predominately used in the in-class proctored exam environment. Schools bought the product because they didn’t have to provide dedicated testing equipment—students could walk into a classroom with their own computers and take a test. Securexam Remote Proctor was the natural extension to that technology, said Winneg.

“The biggest value proposition of Securexam Remote Proctor for Troy University is that they will no longer have to require students to go to a proctored testing center,” Winneg said. “Alternatively, those students that have been in remote locations where there were no authorized testing centers had to find a proctor that met certain criteria established by Troy. They won’t have to do that either.”

Securexam Remote Proctor was an extension of the software that locked down computers and dealt with the administrative hurdles schools were trying to overcome by pursuing computer-based testing programs.

INDEPENDENT STUDY COURSES

As a charter member of NCPACE, the University of Oklahoma Outreach has established a program of independent study courses designed to challenge and prepare sailors in their academic pursuits. At the University of Oklahoma, there are more than 1,100 deployed service members taking courses through NCPACE with many working toward undergraduate and graduate courses in the College of Liberal Studies, part of University Outreach.

Desire2Learn is a course management system employed by Advanced Programs, part of University Outreach, which has served the educational needs of the U.S. military since 1964. According to Robert Dougherty, IT director for the OU College of Liberal Studies, Desire2Learn provides a course management system for basic interface— anything faculty might need such as chat room, discussion boards, course content and curriculum, PDFs, class roster, grade book, and drop boxes for assignments.

The system offers a multimedia component for pedagogy. Dougherty said customized Websites can be created for each course and employ multiple teaching mechanisms such as sound, video, podcasting, interactive testing and other virtual components. In addition, there is real-time education not available in the classroom or in textbooks. For example, a course on environmental engineering might include links to companies that are investing in making plants that emit less pollution.

ONLINE AND DISTANCE LEARNING

American Sentinel University uses a variety of technologies to make educational goals readily attainable for military students who are subject to deployments, stressful conditions, and changing work schedules. “One of the most important aspects of our programs is a balance between online and distant learning presentation,” said Paul Capicik, vice president military programs at American Sentinel University. “The concept is a blending of all that technology can offer and old fashion self-study when that technology is limited or not available—often the case when deployed to remote locations.”

The technologies that can be used with American Sentinel programs include PCs, notebook computers, and PDAs (including Smartphones) that have access to the Internet.

The structured independent study courses are specifically designed for Internet delivery and supported by faculty and staff. University courses are delivered by Moodle, an open source academic presentation application. The online courses lead students through each course with directions on what to do next and contain faculty lecture notes to explain difficult concepts. They include self tests and practice exercises to help students prepare for graded exams and use textbooks written by academic and industry experts to form the basis of each course. The courses provide study tips to help students create a manageable schedule that permits time for work, family and other activities. ITrelated courses include professional software so students learn on the same software used in the industry.

Students’ academic experience centers around the American Sentinel University online campus, where students have access to their grades and courses and are able to communicate with faculty and fellow students. Each course contains an array of specific services that support students as they work toward their degree.

American Sentinel’s Microsoft, Cisco and other certification programs use a total online experience. The university partnered with McGraw-Hill and Pearson to provide a learning experience including:

• Assessments

• Self-paced online training

• vLabs (control and configure real equipment in real-time using virtual labs)

• Reference materials (books, articles, and proprietary documents)

• Instructor-led training

“In particular the online vLabs provide invaluable training and experience using real hardware and software that can be set up, manipulated, broken, fixed, etc., all from the student’s remote location,” Capicik said. “This is particularly valuable to military students that are deployed or are moved.” The university recently acquired an online meeting/Webinar capability. “This allows us to interface real-time with one or 1,000 people to provide training, discussion, and/ or collaboration on a spur-of-the-moment or scheduled basis,” Capicik said. “These sessions can also be recorded and made available online for anyone that couldn’t attend the live session.”

As the military services move many of their education administrative services online, university faculty are working to integrate with those systems. This technology helps the military members apply for and transfer required records for both military and civilian university programs from their deployed locations and at non-duty hours.

AMU’S DISTANCE LEARNING

American Military University (AMU) is a regionally and nationally accredited distance learning institution that serves about 20,000 military and civilian students worldwide. The University’s degree programs include homeland security, national security and intelligence.

Because the university is entirely online, it makes use of such Internet tools as chat rooms and a blog. Students log in to an online “classroom” where the professor posts lectures and other materials.

AMU also offers students an online library with research librarians. Students have access to thousands of electronic books and more than 12,000 leading journals and databases as well as research tutorials. Academicdepartmentportalsprovidetailored links to advanced research sites and other information.

AMU courses are completely online.

“Students never have to attend or visit a campus to fulfill any course requirements. Courses have no specific login or class meeting times,” said Dr. Frank McCluskey, AMU provost. “AMU courses start monthly— some offer eight- or 16-week sessions, making it easier for students to schedule classes around upcoming work or family commitments. There are no minimum class sizes—which means no dropped courses due to low enrollment. Undergraduate book grants cover all textbook costs for those seeking academic credit.”

Students can login to AMU’s academic community through a secure online campus at any time of day. The student home page allows them to review lecture notes and class assignments, conduct research, take tests, participate in course “online chats” or group projects and set up a personalized degree path profile to track academic progress, according to McCluskey.

The student home page provides resources including registration deadlines and access to important forms such as credit transfers. ♦

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