United States Distance Learning Association

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and this is significant, the Corps has had the patience to allow us to build. We’ve been building this … for three years now. We have done a little bit of validation, and we will start full up this coming October. Our school year goes October to June. And our program is a two year construct. Because they allowed us that patience, we have really focused in the most important part, and that is building the courseware that matches this, and more importantly, a faculty development program so our instructors can lead seminars and not sit there and try to lecture, which is key. LIMITATIONS OF DISTANCE EDUCATION PROMMASIT: You acknowledge that there are limitations to a distance course, and that the Marine Corps also understands that and does not expect it to be equal. That’s significant. Quite often people think the results should be exactly the same.There has to be some understanding that it is a different environment. VAN ZUMMEREN: You’re exactly right. What we do is we sit down with the Marine Corps University and the colleges specifically, and we say, “All right, list your core competencies, the outcomes, the expectations of the graduates, and they do. Then we sit down and honestly say, “Can we meet some of it or all of it Based on that, what are the learning objectives that support that How do you get to those outcomes” We really home in on what’s most critical. The seminar experience allows us to hone in on leadership, writing, and speaking, along with the learning outcomes or objectives of strategic thought. THE CHALLENGE PROMMASIT: What has been the biggest challenge for you so far in the changeover process VAN ZUMMEREN: A very loaded question—the whole thing has been very challenging. I think dealing with the unknown. In my graduate studies, I did two hybrid online courses at George Mason—hybrid in the sense you took, of a 16-week semester, you took four lessons on campus and 12 lessons from your home. They were great learning experiences. Some of my course directors are online instructors, or were students of online. So many of us bring a lot of experience doing online type stuff. All of us have been engaged in our nonresident seminar programs. We bring all that experience. The biggest change is [the exam]. Because the seminar program, up to today, has been an option, students still took the multiple-choice exam, which was the same exam that the box of books students took. Everything was really based off of what that exam was going to be. So the instructors really ended up teaching the exam. Not a good way of doing business, but that’s how it matured. This changed to a seminar, or to a Socratic learning method in which the students, theoretically, are the ones who are teaching each other, and the instructor is really a facilitator. That we see as the long pole in the tent. That is where the challenge is—to get the seminar leaders to be a little bit more quiet and to orchestrate or coordinate the conversations to make sure that everybody participates. That’s what we’ve been doing with our faculty development sessions and practicing for the last two years. To me, it was, it is, and it’s going to be always a challenge for us. CONCLUSION The changeover process is admittedly a challenge. The Socratic learning method forces students to be active in class sessions. More important than accumulation of knowledge, the main focus is on teaching Marine officers how to respond to situations by applying creative critical- Volume 4, Issue 4 Distance Learning 91
thinking techniques. At the command level, Marine officers are often called upon to make critical decisions in a short amount of time. With this new nonresident program in place, more Marines are able to reap the benefits of first-rate command training, once reserved for the top 20%. As noted in his interview, Van Zummeren concedes that no distance education program can fully replicate the experience of the resident program. However, the staff has worked diligently to select the most important skills and to address those areas in the nonresident program. A cadre of dedicated instructors prepares and delivers instruction through online courseware. Not only has funding been provided for the changeover process, but the call has gone out to commanding officers to facilitate training by allowing participants time during the work day to prepare for classes and practice what they have learned. By establishing an atmosphere that encourages students instead of hindering them, the chances of a student successfully completing the program are much higher. By applying interactive forms of distance education, the Marine Corps can build an organization of well-trained professionals who are able to perform jobs with greater skill and efficiency. Thanks in part to the enthusiasm and hard work of the CCE staff, the Marine Corps is committed to upgrading the education provided to all Marines. With the advent of the new Command Staff College program in October 2007, the Corps is on their way to accomplishing that goal. JAMES I. VAN ZUMMEREN IS DEAN OF ACADEMICS, MARINE CORPS COLLEGE OF CONTINUING EDUCATION, TRAINING AND EDUCATION COMMAND (TECOM). 92 Distance Learning Volume 4, Issue 4
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DISTANCE LEARNING FEATURED ARTICLES
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DISTANCE LEARNING MAGAZINE SPONSORE
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SPOTLIGHT ARTICLE Barriers and the
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THE EMERGENCE OF A NEW ECONOMY A de
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Table 4. Rank Order of the 10 Facto
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ORGANIZATIONAL PERSPECTIVE STRATEGI
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Table 5. Solutions to Barriers to D
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Table 5. Continued Social Interacti
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management. In L. Lau (Ed.) Distanc
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compensation, incentives and releas
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Pedagogy --Course Development --Cou
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Quality in Distance Education A Tri
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ability to understand and apply tec
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CONSTITUENCIES IN DISTANCE EDUCATIO
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control and responsibility for the
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Kirtley, K. E. (2002). A study of s
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Distance Education in the Public Hi
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distance education courses and Inte
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need, in a distance education class
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Using IT-Based Distance Education f
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to participate and share and exchan
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to a teacher and get to get filled
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Page 78 and 79: Learning Objects What Are They, and
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Page 84 and 85: INTERVIEW The Perils and Promise of
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Page 92 and 93: INTERVIEW Here Come the Marines! An
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