United States Distance Learning Association

demonstrate, within a set of procedures
and policies, certain actions. Like how you
would tactically move forces to achieve a
mission. And we would think that’s more
training.
So when you look at our programs,
which are basically professional military
education, we look at it as a combination of
both; also, we look at the training aspect as
the doing part, the practical application.
You talk about building something that’s
great theoretically, and that’s all nice stuff.
Do it. So it’s that “do it” part that we see as
the training, because when they do it, we
provide feedback, and show them if
they’re really in error, show them a better
way or a different perspective to get them
to a solution. Because there’s no real solution,
other than a set of procedures to get
you to what we may think is a usable solution.
As a side note—I teach a course at
George Mason University for undergraduates.
It’s a 300 level, and it’s a writingintensive
speech communication course.
Most of them are not real clear on what
creative or critical thinking is, but more
importantly, they’re not real clear on what
a normal essay or paper construct is, like
with an introduction, a middle, and a conclusion.
So we spend a lot more time trying
to get them up to speed because, like
speaking, writing is one of the critical
skills.
And we see the same thing in our
Officer Corps and in our nonresident
courses, and that’s one reason why, as we
get to these questions, we’re moving to a
different type of nonresident, or distance
learning, model because we want them to
be able to demonstrate what they have
learned.
ORNDORFF: And that’s exactly it. It’s
a blend, really, the perfect storm of anybody’s
overall education and training. It’s
not just one or the other. It’s not just in person,
sitting in a classroom, sitting at a computer
taking an online course, or literally
going out and driving the newest version
of a vehicle around. It’s got to be the combination
of them all together, as I see it.
VAN ZUMMEREN: Absolutely! And
therein lies the complexity of nonresident
education. Because it is in trying to find a
balance between what you can do online
and what you want to do in some form of
collaboration. And then again, what’s the
topic If it’s business administration, it’s
one thing. If it’s tactics, it’s another. And if
it’s leadership, another whole different
dynamic of what kind of interaction you’re
actually going to have.
THE CHANGEOVER PROCESS
ORNDORFF: How do the experiences
that you have had with distance learning
in the Marine Corps compare with the
experiences that students have nowadays
with the distance education program
VAN ZUMMEREN: I think prior to
around 1997—that’s when the College of
Continuing Education stood up the seminar
program—the Marine Corps, just like
all the services, tried to do nonresident
education on the cheap. They looked at
those officers who they thought were very
competitive and needed the resident experience
to make them more competitive [for
promotion]; [they] went to the resident
program. And the throughput is sufficient
to sustain itself through our resident
schools to get people into the general
officer ranks.
The problem is, to the Marine Corps, it’s
20% of your population. Eighty percent of
your population does not get the resident
opportunities, so they have to do a nonresident.
As indicated earlier in the conversation,
a box of books with a multiple choice
assessment tool is about as cheap as you
can get. And it’s more of a check in the box.
It’s more about surface information. That’s
what we provided, until we started getting
to 1997, and into a seminar. The biggest
change—first of all, we had to convince the
Marine Corps—we did this in around
2004—is that if the institution is serious
Volume 4, Issue 4 Distance Learning 89