Monday, December 10, 2001

Army's Distance-Education Project Seeks More Colleges as Participants By MICHAEL ARNONE The United States Army's distance-learning endeavor, eArmyU, is looking for more colleges to provide online courses and degrees to enlisted personnel. PricewaterhouseCoopers, the consulting firm coordinating eArmyU, said last week that it will accept bids through December 20 from accredited institutions interested in providing academic content. The proposals themselves are due January 23, 2002. Since it opened in January, eArmyU has enrolled 12,000 soldiers at three Army bases: Fort Benning, in Georgia; Fort Campbell, in Kentucky; and Fort Hood, in Texas. PricewaterhouseCoopers secured a $453-million contract to run the operation, whose goal is to have 80,000 soldiers enrolled by 2005. So far, 23 colleges offer courses through the program. PricewaterhouseCoopers doesn't have a target for how many new institutions it wants to add to the eArmyU fold, said Barbara J. Lombardo, director of the program for the company. "We're really hoping for very broad participation," she said. PricewaterhouseCoopers is using the call for new participants to announce new standards for eArmyU content providers, Ms. Lombardo said. The new standards reflect lessons learned in eArmyU's first year of operation, and from suggestions made by its higher-education partners, she said. The 23 institutions currently participating will implement the changes when they renew their contracts at the end of March 2002, she said. "One of the things I heard is that we all need to have a clearer idea of standards," said A. Frank Mayadas, program director of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation's Asynchronous Learning Network. He is also chairman of the Council on Academic Management, an advisory group that PricewaterhouseCoopers created and asked the Sloan Foundation to run. The council monitors eArmyU and recommends improvements for it. Among other changes, eArmyU will require all institutions to offer online examinations, Ms. Lombardo said. Many degree programs in eArmyU require students to take paper exams in classrooms with proctors, which can be inconvenient for some students, she said. Another change the Council on Academic Management has suggested is allowing soldiers to earn parts of their degrees at different colleges in the eArmyU program. Currently, member institutions may provide full degree programs only. Splitting degrees among institutions won't be a problem because all current and new eArmyU members must join Servicemembers Opportunity Colleges, a consortium of colleges that accept transfers of academic credit with one another and grant credit for military training and experience. Soldiers would earn their final degree from the institution through which they earned at least half of their core course credits. eArmyU also wants to set pricing standards among its members, Mr. Mayadas said. Some colleges charge the Army in-state tuition rates for soldiers taking their classes, while others charge out-of-state rates, he said. The council has recommended that each institution set one "active-duty military price" it would charge per soldier. Courses from institutions chosen to join eArmyU will debut throughout 2002 and could appear as early as the spring term, starting in April. PricewaterhouseCoopers is trying to make the proposal process as cost-effective as possible for the Army, Ms. Lombardo said. The company will evaluate the proposed cost, the quality of the material, and the college's experience in distance education to see which applications best meet soldiers' education needs. The contracts won't necessarily go to the lowest bidders. But eArmyU must increase the number of participating institutions and degree programs if it's going to compete with traditional colleges and universities, Mr. Mayadas said. The program should have at least 70 members and offer at least 100 degrees, he said. Its 23 current members offer 90 degree programs. Background articles from The Chronicle: U.S. Army's Portal Is Up and Running (8/10/2001 ) Army Releases Details of Its Plan for Online Education for Soldiers (9/29/2000) Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

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