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Crossroads of the Marine Corps

New 'Blended Seminar Program' will give officers resident experience

20 Jun 2014 | Ameesha Felton Marine Corps Base Quantico

The Corps’ new hybrid professional military courses will meet commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. James F. Amos’ goal of offering captains and majors a greater opportunity to experience a residential learning environment. Additionally, it will allow Marines to finish the courses in less time and near their home station.

Previously, majors enrolled in Command and Staff College and captains enrolled in Expeditionary Warfare School either attended the resident course aboard Marine Corps Base Quantico or enrolled in the distance education version online. However, capacity limitations in the classrooms and budget restraints hindered the number of officers who could attend the resident courses, said John Hemleben, dean of academics at the College of Distance Education Training, Training and Education Command.

The “Blended Seminar Program” approach allows both, EWS and CSC to make the best use of practical application with a shorter residential section and self-study with the online portion.

“We’ve blended what we do online well and what we do well in the resident course,” Hemleben said. “For example, the spontaneity of a discussion is hard to replicate in an asynchronous environment online, so our resident portion allows for [unscripted learning], practical application and tactical exercises. The online portion allows for [self-study], deeper thought and more processing.”

The hybrid PME courses will be phased in over the next two years at four installation campuses including Quantico; Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Calif.; Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, N.C.; and Marine Corps Base Camp Smedley D. Butler, Okinawa. At Quantico, the first CSC course will begin Monday and the first EWS course, Oct. 9.

Both courses will be delivered in three stages, which include several weeks in a resident period at the beginning and end, and an online portion at the course mid-point. With the initial period being residential, Hemleben said, students will have an opportunity to build camaraderie with other classmates and get to know instructors, which will enhance the virtual portion.

This initiative, outlined in Marine Administrative Message 257/14, is to “enable students to gain a greater depth of educational experience, while minimizing family turbulence by allowing them to remain [relatively close to their home] station throughout the program.

”Expanding officer and enlisted PME by creating more resident opportunities has been a high priority for Amos since the beginning of his tenure in 2010, Hemleben said. “Yet, it was a challenge for PME schools given that simply enrolling more students would not have solved the problem.

“Unfortunately, if we tried to double one of the school houses right now, there will be ripple effects,” Hemleben said. “[We would] need larger facilities [to accommodate] more students or we would have to reduce the course duration because we’d be rotating more students. Also, there’s the issue of base housing. If we bring officers in on a non-Permanent Change of Station move or a Temporary Additional Duty that puts the burden back on their families, leaving them separated again.”

The blended seminar will alleviate those setbacks.

Amos has always had a high opinion of what education can do for the force, but particularly now, after more than a decade of war, he wants Marines to be re-trained, Hemleben said. 

“[Amos] envisions this is an inter-war period like we experienced between World War I and World War II, where we are thinking about what the next war will be like and we’re starting to educate, process and develop a doctrine,” Hemleben said.  “I think he sees that, coming out of a decade of war, we need to re-package our education and get it as robust as we can for our enlisted and officers and now is the time to do that.”

— Writer: afelton@quanticosentryonline.com

 


Marine Corps Base Quantico