United States Distance Learning Association

attended a residential version of the
course) these Marines simply did not stack
up. Comprehending what they were supposed
to be learning and then effectively
employing that learning on the job was
consistently observed as less than
expected. Even when the box of books was
augmented with seminars, there remained
a distinct difference between the two
groups. But, the supplementary seminar
presentations were voluntary and the format
was more or less a lecture at a distance
that may or may not have been relevant to
the individual student; they were still, by
their very nature, not equal to the residential
program.
Enter the U. S. Marine Corps’ Son of
Seminar. It hit the ground running in
October 2007. Based on the Socratic
method, this new delivery format will be
centered on highly seasoned instructors
positing well-directed questions and limiting
their lecture time in deference to the
facilitation of student-to-student discussion.
The program will consist of eight
courses to be delivered over a reduced 2-
year construct. Active student participation
is a requirement in the seminars that
will be offered both on-site and online.
Rubrics will be used to assess student contributions,
writing, speaking and performance
in exercises.
One of the people heading up this
transformation in Marine Corps distance
education is James I. Van Zummeren, dean
of academics, Marine Corps College of
Continuing Education, Training and Education
Command (TECOM). In a recent
interview, he gave his views on the direction
of distance e in the Marine Corps.
PERSONAL EXPERIENCE WITH
DISTANCE EDUCATION IN THE
MARINE CORPS
PROMMASIT: What experience did you
have with distance education as a Marine
officer
VAN ZUMMEREN: I did two nonresident
courses. I did the Amphibious Warfare
School for captains. I did the
traditional box of books, nonresident; we
call it Independent Guided Studies, IGS. I
did that as a lieutenant, and then as a captain
went to the resident school. I also did
the Naval War College, what they call the
off-campus program. It’s a nonresident,
seminar-based 3-year construct. I did that,
but then I also went to the Marine Corps
Command Staff resident experience. So I
did two nonres and two resident of similar
courses.
ORNDORFF: Can you expound a little
bit on what your view of the difference is
between education and training, and how
that relates to what you’re doing with the
Marine Corps distance education program
VAN ZUMMEREN: You know it’s
always fun, because when we get into conferences
or meetings, at a training and
education command or anywhere really in
the world of academics, there’s always a
conversation on whether that’s really
training or that’s really education. Some of
us have a perspective that there isn’t all
education and/or all training. It’s really a
combination. In some there is going to be a
little bit more emphasis on critical thinking
and creative thinking, and some is going to
be a little bit more emphasis on a process of
doing something within an approved set
of procedures.
So the training and education to me is
somewhat blurred. For example, our Command
Staff College Distance Program is
more about education because it deals
more about thinking about things, learning
about strategic thought, and coming
up with solutions that not only are critical
based on doctrine and constructs, but also
creative. That’s the whole point—bring in
your own perspective to solve or provide a
solution to some kind of emerging issue.
The training aspect is more like our Expeditionary
Warfare School, School of Captains,
in which we are looking for them to
88 Distance Learning Volume 4, Issue 4