Active military learners enjoy online education due to the
ability to complete their functions in the military and move forward with their
career goals that would not be possible in ground-based school settings. David
Starr-Glass completes a phenomenological study of military learners and how
instructors can help them engage with their classmates more and raise their
learning levels (2013). The findings have implications for both online and
off-line schools.
Active military members in college are 1% while veterans are
3% of all students in higher education (Radford & Weko, 2011). Military
students have similarities with the general population but also remarkable
differences. These differences require additional effort by instructors to
ensure that the learning environment is conducive to student development.
Military students live in a hierarchical world of chains of
command. They deal with hot situations and cold situations while bouncing
between them. Hot situations are combat related where survival and achievement
of objectives is important and the cold situations exist in the barracks where
socialization and daily life take precedence. The student could be jumping
between these two extremes.
Instructors are not often aware of the hesitancy of military
students to explain their situations. They may have just left a combat
situation, had a media blackout, or were engage in heavy exercise leading to
late work. Professors will need to be aware that the civilian world of open,
egalitarian, and normal daily stress may not exist at the same level for
active duty members and this may impact their learning.
The report offers some tips for effectively encouraging
military students and very well may apply to other students.
Encouraging the
Presence: Instructors need to be engaged in the classroom and may need to
gently coax military students to engage more because they come from a world where
information is on a need-to-know basis and can be verbally restrictive.
Awareness of the Said
and Unsaid: Military students may be dealing with various hot and cold situations
that the instructor may not be aware of.
Withhold Judgment:
All students are facing difficult situations. Adding on top of normal stressors
are more profound stressors faced in combative situations.
Being Accepting: Military students live in a different world
and have differences in experiences and it is not the professor’s place to
judge.
Be Flexible and
Responsive: Situations change for military students and lateness may be a
function of duty and not procrastination. Be flexible in the educational
approach and timeframes depending on circumstance.
Be Empathetic:
Understand that the student has rights to full integrity and should be treated
as an individual.
Starr-Glass, D. (2013). Experiences with military online
learners: toward mindful practice. Journal
of Online Learning & Teaching, 9 (3).
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