A school without borders

Whether stationed inWashington or deployed in theMiddle East, students at theNational Defense Universityneed class times that are flexibleand courses that can bedelivered anywhere.Online learning is the onlysolution for the university'smission, and it is a big reasonNDU is a trailblazer with thetechnology, which it has usedsince 1994.Now, rather than focusing ononline distance learning, theuniversity is moving to a blendedlearning model that supplementsor replaces traditionalclassroom instruction by usinga Web-based solution fromWashington-based BlackboardInc."For the last three or fouryears, the resident studentshave enjoyed using Blackboardto access our online libraryresources," said Michael Miller,NDU's chief information offi-cer. "Now all the resident coursesare going to move into havingonline course sites, not just tosupport the classroom teachingbut in the case of a continuity-of-operations situation. When,for whatever reasons, studentsmight not be able to come to theuniversity, we would use theonline system to continue tosupport learning."Blackboard is an e-learningtechnology that focuses oncourse management, contentdistribution and community.Organizations use it to putcourses online,measure outcomes,and manage massiveamounts of thecontent typical in any kind oflearning environment.Online learning has beenavailable for years, but thenewer versions of the technologybetter integrate with a widerarray of file formats, such asstreaming video, interactive 3-Dmodeling and gaming technology.Blackboard manages thatcontent, so much of it is off-lineand does not clog an institution'sservers.NDU is a graduate institutionthat is part of the DefenseDepartment. Its students covera spectrum of the federal government,including both DODmilitary and civilianemployees, as well as studentsfrom other federalagencies, countries and theprivate sector.As is the case at mostuniversities, the coursesand curriculum at NDUhave focused on classroomlearning for years. To meetthe needs of its students, theorganization is quickly shiftingfrom its physical classroomfocus."The federal government hasseen it makes a lot more sense todeliver that instruction, thatcertification, that training viacourses online," said Tim Hill,Blackboard's president of professionaleducation solutions."So our technology allows theinstructor to puther syllabus,course content,tests, discussionboards, projects, streamingmedia and all kinds of othercontent online."Blackboard enables studentsto work at their own pace, withinthe prescribed limits of theinstructor.Various DOD entities areusing it for officer training, warstrategy training and trainingfor specific pieces of equipment,for example.Blackboard is Web-based forboth instructors and students.When an instructor builds anonline course, it's all done with adrag-and-drop interface."It can be a syllabus inMicrosoft Word, photographsof charts in Adobe Photoshop,or you could author somethingyourself right on the system,"Hill said. "Instructors can dragin a streaming video clip fromthe DOD, or you can alsoincorporate textbook contentthat you would use to teach aclass if you were in front ofstudents."Military and intelligenceagencies continue to adopt thetechnology because it allowsthem to augment the classroomexperience with an online component.That is especially helpfulfor people in the armedforces and intelligence officials,because their jobs do not allowthem to be in a classroom 100percent of the time."A good example is if somebodyis stationed in Iraq andshe's an officer continuing hertraining, she can still continuethat coursework while they're inthe field serving the countrybecause they can do it online,"Hill said. "And then when shecomes back to her regular post inthe United States, she can goright back to the classroom."Blackboard offers onlinelearning technology via anapplication service providerplatform. The company will alsohost the applications, or institutionscan host it themselves."Some prefer to host it themselvesbecause they get betterintegration with their back-officesystems," Hill said."Others don't want to be in theIT business, so they'd ratherhave someone else host it."NDU's Information ResourcesManagement College and theJoint Forces Staff College aretwo of the major adopters ofonline learning. In both of thosecases, there are many studentswho cannot come to theWashington area for classes.Some students are civiliansassigned worldwide or servicemembers who are inreserve units living in theirhome areas. Others aredeployed soldiers."We have people that cannotcome to the campus whoneed the benefit of the educationalexperiences that weprovide," Miller said. "Somestudents have taken the entireprogram for the ChiefInformation Officer and informationassurance [certificates]and they have never had to stepfoot in the university. They'vebeen able to do that online."The biggest challenge in makingthe transition to onlinelearning has been determiningwhat elements make for a goodcourse."The online learning wave haschallenged us to examine ourteaching and learning model,and it's helping us improvewhat's in the classroom as wellas what's online," Miller said. "Sointroducing this at the universityhas really made us sit backand [ask], 'What does qualityteaching and learning mean,regardless of where it is?'"