Soldiers have the commitment and self-discipline that’s needed to experience success with online college courses. For members of the military, online college programs offer flexibility that can provide stability: Studies can be conducted anywhere and without transfers and deployments interrupting them. In the military, online college classes, like their more conventional counterparts, are taken while solders are off-duty. Continuing education in the military is voluntary, often free, and experts cite several positives associated with it.
Lori Popp, an Education Technician with the Lifelong Learning section of Marine and Family Services aboard Camp Lejeune, in July 2009 told the Jacksonville Daily News that voluntary education programs help improve mission performance, prepare for greater responsibility and enhance personal and professional potential.
Anyone who served in uniform in 1944 began to have the opportunity to obtain a college scholarship as part of the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act, more commonly known as the GI Bill. Nearly half of all college students in the nation by 1947 were veterans, according to a Time Magazine article.
Members of the military can gain academic credit for military training and experience. The U.S. Army reportedly partners with more than 1,900 community colleges and universities that accept military training credits from soldiers pursuing a college education during or after service.
Many soldiers benefit from online college 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. Students enrolled in online classes access most or all of their course content online, according to the Sloan Consortium.
Online classes and online degree programs are particularly popular among students who otherwise might not be able to attend a traditional campus, and their popularity has been steadily increasing. The Consortium is made up of a group of organizations and institutions that are dedicated to quality online education. The recently released results of a study, “Learning on Demand: Online Education in the United States,” showed that 4.6 million students enrolled in online classes for the fall 2008 semester, a 17 percent increase over fall 2007.
Taking advantage of tuition assistance these days are more than 1,000 deployed marines and sailors, Popp said. Online courses, according to an October article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, are a “boon for soldiers who want to participate in college despite geographic displacement.” The Chronicle article told the story of a professor and National Guardsman whose deployment to Iraq didn’t interfere with her ability to teach online classes in economics. Soldiers between the chaos keep busy by working, reading, exercising, playing video games and watching movies, the article noted. Many also enroll in online college classes while they’re deployed, according to The Chronicle.
U.S. Marines Corporal Dakota Berg, featured in the July 2009 Jacksonville Daily News article, is among them. After graduating high school in 2006, he joined the service so that his schools online and online degree would be paid for. The military’s tuition assistance program alleviated a lot of financial and mental stress, Berg told the Daily News. He’s taking advantage of this assistance by pursuing an online degree in accounting that he began work on in Parris Island, S.C., and is now continuing in Iraq.