U.S. Army and U.S. Navy Staff Officer Distance Education Programs

In a recent copy of Army, the magazine of the Association of the United States Army, Lieutenant General (Retired) James M. Dubik paints a grim picture of the education needs of Army’s officers. Dubik warns that, “The current leader-to-led ratio is too low for what the Army is being asked to do now and in the future” (Dubik, 2010, p. 22).America’s continual and increasing involvement in areas such as Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kuwait is creating a demand for a particular type of officer, the staff officer. Within these areas of operation, America’s military forces are molded into “joint forces” to meet combat, intelligence, logistics, and civil affairs requirements in these countries. Additionally, U.S. military forces are engaged with the forces of other countries creating multinational headquarters. Even more demand is created by reorganizing large units into numerous smaller units. These units are represented by the brigade combat team, which consists of approximately 4,000 personnel (Brigade, n.d.).Dubik notes that the leader-to-led ratio in the Army alone has steadily risen over the past 20 years. The interaction of America’s four military branches, interaction of their forces with the military of other countries, and a greater quantity of smaller units has created a need for more officers. He advises that well educated and experienced leaders are presently required. To meet these needs, Dubik further identifies the need for these officers to attend the necessary military schools to be prepared to perform as leaders and staff officers.Staff officers plan and control military operations as well as provide administrative, intelligence, and logistic support. An historical statistic from Desert Storm suggests that the staff officers of the United States military can be quite effective. Realizing that political issues and operational concerns are not exactly parallel, the comparison is nevertheless provocative. From 1963 to 1964, the U.S. military transported only 184,000 personnel to Vietnam. As a contrast, in preparation for Desert Storm, 184,000 personnel were moved into Saudi Arabia in less than 90 days (Swain, 1994).One may find staff officers of many different ranks ranging from lieutenant to colonel. The level of staff officer of particular concern is at the O-4 field grade rank. In the Army, the O-4 field grade officers are majors and the Navy’s O-4 field grade is lieutenant commander. These officers are also referred to as middle grade officers.The examination of the Army and Navy officer education program for these officers presents an interesting contrast based on their operations. As is seen in various media, Army operations are conducted on and above land and the Navy’s operations that are principally conducted on the seas and oceans of the world. Regardless of the geographic location, the work of field grade staff officers is an integral component.The Army’s field grade staff officer education program is the Command and General Staff College and is located at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The Navy’s field grade officer program is the College of Naval Command and Staff and is taught at the Naval War College located in Newport, Rhode Island.The Joint Chiefs of Staff’s Office of Professional Military Education Programs determines the curriculum of both colleges, as well as the Marine and Air Force colleges. The Joint Chiefs of Staff prescribe policies, guidelines, and procedures, which are followed by each service. As the college of each branch of service teaches a common curriculum, the graduates of the Joint Military Education Program Phase I are imbued with the same knowledge.The Joint Military Professional Education curriculum is required by the Goldwater-Nichols Defense Reorganization Act of 1986 and established by the Skelton Committee on Armed Services in 1989. The Goldwater-Nichols legislation stressed the interoperability of the services. The completion of the Command and General Staff College or the College of Naval Command grants an officer a Joint Military Professional Education Phase I diploma. (Joint Professional Military Education, n.d.).Both colleges strictly follow the Joint Military Education Program curriculum and undergo accreditation reviews by the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Additionally, each college presents the curriculum from their service’s point of view. Regardless of approach, both colleges educate and train officers to be adaptive leaders, capable of critical thinking, and prepared to plan and conduct operations within their service, other services, governmental agencies, and multinational environments (J. Hickey, personal communication, July 20, 2010; T. Kallman, personal communication, July 26, 2010).Approximately 950 active officers are chosen per year to attend the resident courses at Fort Leavenworth or the Naval War College. However, many more field grade officers compose the ranks of the Army and Navy. As Dubik indicates, officers should be afforded the education that will allow them to be effective staff officers in many different types of assignments.To reach all field grade officers, both colleges project a demanding and vibrant non-resident distance education program to the balance of the Army and Navy personnel. Active, Reserve, and National Guard officers as well as officers of sister branches and senior Federal employees can earn the Joint Military Education Program Phase I diploma through these distance education programs. As an example, the Command and General Staff College extends their program to approximately 6,000 officers each year who are at duty locations around the world (Command and General Staff School Mission, 2010).The Command and General Staff College organizes the Joint Military Education Program Phase I curriculum into the Intermediate Level Education Core and the Advanced Operations and Warfighting Course. The Intermediate Level Education Core course is composed of six components, which account for approximately 300 hours of classroom instruction with a focus on the spectrum of operations which the Army currently accomplishes along with warfighting. Instruction begins with the foundations component. Topics range from creative thinking and problem solving to topics as international security environment, leader development, operational law, and civil-military relations. The strategic environment component follows and addresses topics as strategic concepts, national security, national strategies, strategic communications, and strategic logistics. The doctrine component provides instruction in Joint Operations with operational design, operational art, and battle command. Joint operations instruction continues with Joint Functions component, which studies topics as the command and control of forces from sister services when they operate together. The planning component specializes in the understanding of the joint operations planning process and its application.The Command and General Staff Advanced Operations Course is adapted to the officer’s functional area as Infantry or Communications. The instruction is divided into components over a period of four months (Command and General Staff School Mission, July 2010).The College of Naval Command and Staff Joint Military Education Program Phase I curriculum is organized into three core courses. Instruction begins with the National Security and Decision Making course. Instruction provides an insight into command and staff decision-making. Topics include political science, leadership, psychology, management, anthropology, and other related disciplines. Strategy and War is the next course. It is an analytical study of war, which focuses on the methods to achieve global and multi-national interactions, strategic and political interests, and goals. The Joint Military Operations course addresses the Joint Operational Planning Process to plan the employment of U.S. military forces across the range of joint and combined military operations, prepare military officers to participate in joint operational planning and to advise senior commanders (Academics, n.d.).The Army and Navy nonresident Joint Military Education Programs provide face-to-face classes, online, and compact disk instructional formats. They represent a tremendous effort to provide high quality instruction to officers across the United States as well locations around the world. The Army and Navy nonresident programs also fulfill Dubik’s concern for developing and maintaining welleducated officers.The Total Army School System is the overarching administrative organization for the Army. The Total Army School System prescribes and supports all levels of education for recruits to general officers provided by the Army (Army Regulation 350-18, 2007). The Command and General Staff College is included in the Total Army School System.The Army projects face-to-face instruction to nonresident students in six regions of the United States. A training division serves each region. A seventh training division provides support to personnel in Germany, Japan, Korea, and Puerto Rico. The administrative personnel and instructors of the divisions include active and reserve military and Federal civilian employees.A professional development brigade is assigned to each division. A battalion in each brigade is dedicated to the Command and General Staff College instruction. The Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth is responsible for the curriculum taught by the instructors. The Command and General Staff College is also responsible for the training and certification of the instructors in the battalion who teach the Joint Military Education Program curriculum.The face-to-face program taught by the battalions consists of three phases. The instruction may take place during active duty for training or inactive duty for training formats. Instruction is based on a ratio of one instructor to eight students. Additionally, a portion of the instruction is completed online. Students are required to comply with a strict attendance policy.An 18-month web-based nonresident course is also offered to students. Much support is provided to the students throughout their instruction. As an example, students are assigned a counselor during their enrollment. Students interact with each other as they participate through Blackboard and SharePoint asynchronously. While students and their counselor or an instructor may meet synchronously in a chat room, instruction is asynchronous due to the many time zones in which the students reside. Weekly assignments, threaded discussions, and instruction through Blackboard are enriched with Flash files of video instruction. Notably, the distance education staff is attempting to expand this type of instruction with Adobe Flash Mobile so the instruction may be seen on Android type cell phones and soon on iPhones.The third format is designed for officers who are assigned to remote locations and do not have access to the Internet. These officers are provided the program courseware on compact disks. The compact disks include activities and instruction of the web-based format. (CGSC Circular 350-3 dated 1 December 2005; T. Kallman, personal communication, July 26, 2010; D. Ward, personal communication, July 26, July 28, and August 2, 2010).The Fleet Seminar Program of the Navy provides similar coverage across the United States. The program is administered by the Naval War College’s College of Distance Education. The program is offered at 20 locations in and around the United States. Norfolk, Virginia, Jacksonville, Florida, New Orleans, Louisiana, San Diego, California, and Everett, Washington represent locations along the east, south, and west coasts of the United States. Inland locations include Great Lakes, Illinois, Millington, Tennessee, and Fort Worth, Texas. The Fleet Seminar Program is also offered at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.Each Fleet Seminar location offers one to all three of the Navy’s core courses. Students enroll each year for a particular course. Courses begin in September and meet 34 weeks for 3 hours until the following May.One unique location offering the Fleet Seminar Program is the Naval Post Graduate School at Monterey, California. The Naval War College at Monterey offers the three core courses in a class format. To attain their Joint Military Education Program diploma, students complete four courses (Naval War College Monterey, n.d.).The Web-Enabled Program is available to officers who have Internet connectivity. When students are enrolled they are assigned to online cohort groups. Students are also assigned a Naval War College faculty member who assists the student as a tutor.Interaction among students and their advisors is typically asynchronous. Synchronous interaction is inhibited due to the numerous time zones in which the students reside. Academic requirements include readings, an active requirement each week, threaded discussions online, and responses.The Web-Enabled Program is designed to be completed in about 18-24 months. The Naval War College recognizes that student success is predicated on the amount of time dedicated to coursework. As a result, when students enroll they accept a commitment to dedicate a minimum of two study periods of 3 or more hours each week.Officers of all services may apply to the Fleet Seminar Program and Web-Enabled Program. Eligibility is extended to all senior lieutenant to captain sea service officers who are active and reserve, and defense-related civilians. Army and Air Force officers majors and above are also eligible.The Naval War College also extends the Joint Military Education Program instruction to officers who cannot attend the Fleet Seminar Program or do not have Internet access. The CD-ROM program is composed of video lectures by Naval War College professors and audio presentations, student activities, and self-assessment exercises to broaden and emphasize the content. The program is designed for officers on sea duty or assigned to remote or isolated locations. The student is expected to complete the CD-ROM program in 18 months (Naval War College Provides JPME I to the Fleet, 2004).The distance education staff of each college is composed of experts in instructional design and distance education. Each staff possesses the expertise to create their own courseware. Both colleges follow a similar distance education course instructional design process.A central concern in the course design is to maintain their accreditation by the Joint Chiefs of Staff. To do so, instruction adapted for distance delivery is based on the essential content that is presented in the classroom. To ensure alignment of the classroom format and distance education format the colleges follow a rigid development process. As an example, the Command and Staff College distance education developers form a working group for each course.A unique quality control element of course development is the inclusion of the author of the resident course in the process. The resident author is a member of the distance education course development group. To ensure equivalency of the resident and distance education courses, the resident author takes ownership of the content. With the essential content is identified, the distance education staff selects or develops appropriate media to deliver the instruction. While the Dick, Carey, and Carey (2005) model of instructional design is not specifically used, the distance education course developers in the staffs at each college speak in those terms and elements of the design process are used (D. McGill, personal communication, July 28, and August 5, 2010; D. Ward, personal communication, July 26, 28, and August 2, 2010).Both colleges recognize that the quality of the instructors is a critical component of the nonresident education process. Distance education instructors for the web-based programs are typically retired military and are specifically trained to facilitate the online courses (J. Hickey, personal communication, July 20, 2010; T. Kallman, personal communication, July 26, 2010).A significant indicator of the course design success is the end-of-course assessment. As an example, assessment is highly regarded by the Naval War College distance education department. Student cannot continue on to the next instruction until they have submitted their assessment of the completed course. Data from the required assessments is anonymous and reviewed by the distance education faculty (J. Hickey, personal communication, July 20, 2010).The administration and support of online students in the Army’s Web-Based course or the Navy’s Web-Enabled Program is similar to online schools in the public sector. The descriptions of the Command and General Staff College and Naval War College online programs indicate a significant connection to each student as well as support. Students who enroll in these programs realize that their continued career progression is dependent on the successful completion of the Joint Military Education Program Phase I instruction. As a result, they are quite motivated (J. Hickey, personal communication, July 20, 2010).The descriptions of the programs suggest a student-centered support paradigm. The student is surrounded by components that support their academic success. Students may converse with instructors and other students through the threaded discussions on Blackboard. Chat rooms are available for students to converse with counselors and instructors. Students may contact their instructors and counselors by telephone and e-mail. Students of both services have full online access to their college’s libraries. Counselors play a key role, as students must be aware of the requirements placed upon them to graduate and that they must complete the requirements within a specific amount of time (T. Kallman, personal communication, July 26, 2010).From an overall perspective, America’s military has two general components. One component is referred to as the generating force and the other is the operating force. The active and reserve faculty members and resident students of each college are part of the generating force. As Dubik (2010) indicates, fewer military personnel are being assigned to the generating force, which suggests that each college has a reduced faculty. It appears that the web-based programs serve as an educational multiplier by being able continue high-level support and expert instruction to officers in operational duty assignments.The online distance education program of today’s military, particularly the Army and Navy, appear to be as contemporary as leading online schools. Both colleges are adapting current technology to virtually place the online line student in the resident classrooms. One example is the use of MilBook, which is the Department of Defense’s combined version of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Wiki (D. Ward, personal communication, July 26, 28, August 2, 2010).Just over a decade ago, the Joint Military Education Program for the Command and General Staff College distance education program was the exchange of printed course materials between an instructor at the college and the student (T. Kallman, personal communication, July 26, 2010). This relationship is almost reminiscent of the late 1880s University of Wisconsin correspondence course for farmers (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2009).Since those days, the distance education departments at both colleges have become as current as any online university. As an example, distance education experts of the Naval War College attend the University of Wisconsin’s yearly Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning. This year, distance education faculty of the Naval War College presented a workshop on “Best Practices in Military Distance Learning” (D. McGill, personal communication, July 28 and August 5, 2010).During the Sister Service College conference in January of 2010, Lieutenant General Caldwell, the commandant of the Command and General Staff College, aptly described the education mission of the all the services Joint Military Education Programs. He noted that all the colleges are composed of world-class faculties that develop, administer, and teach. The courses at the colleges are designed to create adaptive leaders with command, control, and support skills to succeed in complex missions during operations (Caldwell, 2009). The students of these colleges, resident and nonresident, receive common instruction specified by the Joints Chief Staff. They compose the core of a formidable force, as they are equally capable to be staff officers and leaders in their respective assignments.The distance education faculties of the Command and General Staff College and of the Naval War College are answering Dubik’s (2010) call for more leaders and staff officers. The nonresident programs of these colleges are a dynamic part of meeting the need for well educated officers.

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