The webinar featured Mr. Dennis E. Frye, Chief Historian at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park and past president of a national battlefield preservation organization (today known as the Civil War Preservation Trust).  Mr. Frye has written six books and authored more than 70 articles about the Civil War.  He also served as the Associate Producer for the acclaimed film Gods and Generals.  Mr. Frye is an expert on the topic of the Civil War in Jefferson County.

Situated on the border of the north and south, Jefferson County was a critical position for both sides.  At the time of the war’s beginning, Jefferson County was part of the state of Virginia.  Following John Brown’s assault on the US Armory and arsenal at Harpers Ferry, the citizens of Harpers Ferry formed militia, uncertain whether Brown acted alone or whether they should expect another such attack.  It was these militiamen who initiated the first attempts to protect Harpers Ferry from the north. 

Frye compared the fear of the citizens of Harpers Ferry in those days to the fears that most Americans felt in the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.  In the midst of  an unprecedented attack by an enemy  yet to be identified, many Americans began taking precautions to be prepared in the event that another attack would follow.  The citizens of Harpers Ferry had similar motivations when they began arming militias to defend their town after John Brown’s attack. 

Robert E. Lee was appointed to develop the military strategy that would be required to defend Virginia, and Lee understood quite well the strategic importance of Jefferson County and the Shenandoah Valley.  Lee assigned Thomas Jonathan (later known as “Stonewall”) Jackson to Harpers Ferry.  Frye explained  that these two men worked tirelessly to develop a sound strategy for defending the area which sits at the confluence of the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers.  He quoted extensively from letters written between the two men and provided the audience with the first-hand accounts of these illustrious soldiers as they strategized on how best to hold their position. 

He applauded Jackson’s ingenuity at manipulating the Baltimore & Ohio (B&O) Railroad’s operating hours.  Restricting the railroad’s movement through Harpers Ferry to only two hours each day, Jackson was able to position his men so that when the train came through, his forces were able to take control of the railroad quite easily, seizing several hundred cars containing equipment, arms, and ammunition intended for the north.  Known as Jackson’s “Great Railroad Robbery,” Frye posits this action with allowing the South to maintain control of the area and gain an advantage over their much better armed and trained Northern counterparts. 

APUS makes its headquarters in an area steeped in American history. Charles Town is named after its founder, Charles Washington, George Washington’s brother.  Many of the early plantations in the area were owned by Washington family members.  During the Civil War, there were dozens of battles and engagements in this county between the two armies. Mr. Frye’s focus on military strategy in the area during the opening days and months of the Civil War was of particular interest to me as well as many of our military history students and others.  I encourage you to find time to attend some of the webinars that the APUS Interactive Marketing Team is offering twice each month.  Through the end of 2012, at least once each quarter, they will offer a webinar focused on the Civil War in Jefferson County.   I hope to be able to attend these as well.  Past webinars can be viewed on-demand from the archive section of the CivilWarScholars.com blog which is sponsored by American Public University (APU). 

There have been numerous studies about the difficulties that adult students encounter in completing their college degrees while working, raising a family, being a caregiver, etc.  Graduates attending the reception the night before the ceremony shared some of their stories with each other, the faculty and staff members in attendance, and with me.  Their stories are inspiring.  The faculty, staff, and I are proud of our students and our graduates for their professional, personal, and academic accomplishments and wish all of our graduates the very best in their future endeavors.

At the age of 17, only a year after the United States entered World War I, Buckles lied about his age and joined the US Army.  Buckles volunteered as an ambulance driver and was sent to France where he found the suffering of the French people disturbing.  In a 2001 interview for the Library of Congress’ Veterans History Project, Buckles said, “’The little French children were hungry….To me, that was a pretty sad sight,’” demonstrating his compassion for those living in the midst of the Great War.  During his time in France, he also escorted German prisoners of war back to their homeland after the signing of the Armistice. 

After the war, Buckles held various positions with shipping and steamship companies and was assigned to locations throughout the world.  During World War II, he was working as a civilian in Manila and was captured by the Japanese and held for 39 months in a prisoner of war camp.  In the mid-1950s, Buckles settled in Charles Town, West Virginia where he owned and ran a cattle farm.  Buckles remained quite active until his death.  Aside from maintaining his farm (he continued to drive his tractor until the age of 106), he advocated for a suitable memorial in Washington, DC to commemorate the sacrifices of those with whom he served in World War I.

In March 2008, Buckles visited the nation’s capital and was disturbed by the condition in which he found the World War I memorial.  The monument was dedicated in 1931 as a memorial to the 499 residents of the District of Columbia who gave their lives during World War I.  At the time of Buckles’ visit, no national memorial was in place for all World War I veterans.  Buckles made it his personal mission to change this.  After gaining the support of Senators John D. Rockefeller (D-WV), Jim Webb (D-VA), and John Thune (D-SD), Buckles testified before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on National Parks in December 2009 in support of Senate Bill 2097, the Frank Buckles World War I Memorial Act.  The act was passed and work began at a furious rate in hopes of completing the restoration project before Buckles’ death (Buckles was 108 when the bill was passed). 

Though the restoration continues and Buckles will not be able to see the product of his work to memorialize the efforts of World War I veterans, his efforts will not soon be forgotten by the descendents of those who served in The Great War.  Frank Buckles lived a long and remarkable life.  Even as he approached 100 years old, he continued to make public appearances in an attempt to keep the memory of those who sacrificed everything during World War I alive in the minds of a generation who may otherwise never have a firsthand account of that time.   To read about Frank Buckles’ life in his own words, visit his website.  Frank Buckles was a humble man, typical of many who risked their lives or sacrificed their lives to enhance our freedoms.  We will try to do our part to follow his initiatives to recognize the veterans of World War I. 

Student retention has been an issue in higher education since the late 1800’s.  Some of the early research in the area began in the 1930’s but the volume of research studies increased substantially in the 1960’s through the present era.  Early research focused on psychological reasons for students to drop out of college but most of the literature since the late 1970’s have focused on sociological issues.

While there are many significant contributors to the research of student retention (William Spady, Alexander Astin,  Vincent Tinto, John M. Braxton, George Kuh, Ernest Pascarella, etc.), Vincent Tinto’s Leaving College: Rethinking the Causes and Cures of Student Attrition provides a fairly thorough overview of many research studies (note:  the second edition of this book was published in 1994 and new copies are difficult to find).

Tinto is given credit for developing the first theoretical construct of predicting student retention.  Three major areas of his theory involve the importance of the background characteristics of college students, the social integration of students with their college, and the academic integration of students with their professors and programs.  Subsequent research studies have focused on some of these areas and/or attempted to prove or disprove the original construct.  Colleges and universities use some of the studies as the basis for their internal retention research or external explanations of their graduation rate.

Continually, studies contribute to the theory that background characteristics of students are most influential for their persistence in college.  Among the data included in background characteristics studies are SAT and ACT scores, high school Grade Point Average, educational background of parents, and socioeconomic status of the student’s family.  Students with above average profiles in all of these areas usually graduate from college while students with profiles below the averages are less likely to attend or graduate from college.

At American Military University (AMU) and American Public University (APU), our students are primarily working adults with an average age of 30.  While there were notable studies of student retention at adult-serving institutions, I found very few that studied persistence at online universities or studied students who completed their programs entirely online.  While we knew the relative percentage of our students who graduate, we had not analyzed our student database for characteristics that may be significant indicators for a student’s graduation success.

Whenever institutions examine student retention, the analysis has to include the outcomes for students over a certain period of time.  Given that graduate students have already obtained an undergraduate degree, we eliminated them from the analysis.  We also needed to cover a reasonable period of time that would allow students to graduate, remain active, or disenroll from school.  We decided to examine statistics from approximately 20,500 students who were pursuing an undergraduate degree and who completed at least one course in 2007.  The students were grouped into three groups based on their academic standing as of December 31, 2009.  Those groupings were:  students who graduated, students who were still actively taking at least one course per year, and students who had disenrolled as of the end of 2009.

The analysis was fruitful in that it provided me with results that I could convey to our executive team for future studies and continued analysis.  One important finding was that the average length of time it took a student from that group to earn a bachelor’s degree at AMU or APU was 6.7 years.  We already knew that most of our students were engaged full-time with their military or civilian careers, so the length of time to complete a four-year degree would take longer than someone who was enrolled as a full-time student.  However, more than 85 percent of our students transfer in academic credits from a previously attended institution or from workplace training where the learning had been evaluated for academic credit.  Factoring in the average number of credit hours transferred in to our institution with the average number of courses taken in a year, the study results indicate that many successful adult students complete their academic journey over a period of time approaching 10 years.  That 10-year period may be longer if career or family obligations interrupt the flow of taking classes.

We utilized a forward regression model to determine if there were independent variables that might predict whether an individual student would disenroll from either AMU or APU.   It was not all too surprising that students from the group who transferred no credits were most likely to disenroll (our paper was listed as 31084 and will be available as part of the Printed Proceedings book available at www.digital-factory.net/aace).  Given that 121 credit hours (40 courses) are required for most bachelor’s programs and the average student at AMU/APU takes 12 credits (4 courses) per year, a 10-year commitment may be easier to walk away from in the early stages than after a substantial amount of credits have been earned.  Supporting this regression analysis outcome is the fact that 40.3 percent of the students in the group who disenrolled did so after taking only 2 classes and 65.3 percent disenrolled after taking 4 or fewer classes.  Decreasing the percentage of students who disenroll early has been a focus at American Public University System (APUS) for nearly a decade and continues.  Many on-ground programs have similar issues with new students leaving early and have programs dedicated to the first year student experience in order to improve the student experience and more fully integrate them into the social and academic culture.  Social and academic integration in online learning environments is more difficult, but not impossible and we will continue to investigate ways in which we can meet the needs of new students in their first classes.

Academic institutions like APUS that participate in the Federal Student Aid program are required to submit vast quantities of student data to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) through the Institutional Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS).  That data is made available to the public and to researchers.  The Department of Education reports an institution’s official graduate rate as the number of first-time, full-time freshmen students who graduate within 150 percent of the normal time to complete a degree program (three years for a two year degree and six years for a four year degree).  If an institution does not have any first-time, full-time freshmen, it will have a graduation rate of zero.  Many institutions that serve a large population of adult students will have very low numbers of first-time, full-time freshmen.  A useful source of data to determine the relative percentage of part-time students at an institution is to divide the FTE (full-time equivalent) students reported in a given year by the unduplicated headcount reported by the institution for the same year.  The lower the decimal calculated, the higher the number of part-time students will be who attend that institution.  If the majority of an institution’s students are part-time, the Department collects data on completions, but does not collect data about the length of time it took to complete a degree or the year in which the students who completed a degree matriculated at the institution.

Enrollments at colleges and universities that offer online programs have soared in recent years for many reasons, one of which is the convenience of working online from work or home versus commuting to a physical location for a class that may be held at times inconvenient for a working adult.  However, the consumer-friendly data that is collected by NCES relates to students who plan to be first-time, full-time freshmen and does not reflect the success rates of adult-students who matriculate and graduate from these programs.  Given that the department tracks unduplicated student headcounts and completions each year, adding two fields relating to unduplicated new students and drops for each year would provide a cohort-tracking system that could provide an aggregate completion/graduation rate for part-time students.  Many institutions serving part-time students allow seven years for those students to complete a two-year degree and up to ten years for a four-year degree.  The pace at which students complete those degrees varies based upon professional and family requirements that may conflict at times with the number of courses that a student can take.  One of the desired outcomes of our research was to provide a benchmark for similar studies as well as a suggested guideline for tracking persistence in adult-serving online degree programs.  As more and more adults return to college to complete their degrees online, finding a consistent system for measuring and reporting their progress will become more important.

The “myths” that AMU or APU are diploma mills or unaccredited are invalid.  In most cases, the myths are more than likely disseminated by individuals who do not care for online colleges and universities.  Faculty and staff members of accredited institutions that operate partially online or totally online have heard the negative perceptions about online education for years and have worked hard to demonstrate the evidence that supports learning in online programs.  A May 2009 study published by the U.S. Department of Education entitled Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning:  A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies stated that students learn better in online programs than in face-to-face programs .  The researchers examined over 1,000 published research papers involving online and face-to-face learners.

The FACTS about AMU’s existence and accreditation are irrefutable.  AMU is one of two universities that form the American Public University System (APUS).  APUS is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association (NCA), one of eight regional accrediting bodies in the United States and the largest regional accrediting body in terms of the number of colleges that it accredits.  You can find our name, accreditation status, and other pertinent information listed on its website at:   http://hlcommission.org/component/option,com_directory/Action,ShowBasic/Itemid,184/instid,2853/lang,en/.     Among the 1,000 plus colleges and universities accredited by NCA are the University of Chicago, the University of Notre Dame, and Northwestern University.  The accreditation process is lengthy and complex and includes many visits by very well educated academics.  A diploma mill would not survive such a review process.  The American Public University System has also been accredited by the Accrediting Commission of the Distance Education and Training Council since 1995.  The link for AMU is at this address:  http://detc.org/school_details.php?id=169.  APUS is licensed in West Virginia and Virginia which are the two states where we have offices with our administrative and academics leadership and staff.  We have over 60,000 students and over 10,000 alumni.  Two-thirds of our students are active duty military personnel.  The Department of Defense requires all colleges and universities that participate in its tuition assistance program to be accredited and licensed by a recognized accrediting body.

Additionally, APUS has over 1200 faculty members whose names and credentials are listed on our website.  These professionals would not stake their reputation by working for a diploma mill or unaccredited institution.  Our faculty and staff present at many conferences each year and proudly list their affiliation.  Most, if not all, of these conferences would not accept presenters from unaccredited institutions. 

Lastly, whenever anyone has a concern about a statement that is made about our accreditation, please do not hesitate to contact our Office of Institutional Advancement at accreditation@apus.edu.  They will be glad to help you set the record straight.

When I completed my MBA from Tulane’s Freeman School of Business in 1978, I thought I had completed all of my formal academic studies.  After graduation from Tulane, I sat for and passed the CPA (Certified Public Accountant) exam, the CMA (Certified Management Accountant), and the Fellow exam for the Healthcare Financial Management Association.  Maintaining those certifications required annual continuing education hours, but not academic credits.  Usually, I could earn 40 hours of credit per year by attending a couple of two day seminars along with a single day seminar.

Enrolling in Penn’s doctoral program in Higher Education Management put me in a position not too dissimilar from many of the students we serve at the American Public University System (APUS).  I was working full-time, married, raising two children, and trying to balance those responsibilities with my class assignments.  I couldn’t put class first by any means, but I also couldn’t neglect it unless I wanted to fail or drop out.   I developed a system whereby I allocated time on weekends and evenings for completing assignments.  This worked great as long as I didn’t have to change my work schedule or my class assignments.  Whether it was a special project at work that caused me to work evenings and weekends to complete or a team assignment at school that couldn’t be completed during the times that I had open, those adjustments to my schedule created a temporary crisis in my patterns for completing my studies on time.  Generally, the professors in the program at Penn were accommodating and I was able to stay on track.  My wife was also understanding and allowed me to miss some of our family events in order to meet academic deadlines.

When I reflect on the circumstances that allowed me to complete my degree on time, I think of the wonderful support that I received from my professors, my wife, and my coworkers.  Not all adult students are that fortunate.  Some may be single parents and cannot ask a spouse to review the children’s homework while they’re in another room completing a paper or reading an assignment.  Others may have a boss who is not supportive of them leaving work early to attend class or finish a paper that must be submitted at midnight.  Students serving in the military may have to deploy or while deployed, leave on a several week mission that provides no down time for communicating with family much less working on college homework.  Completing a degree at any level while you are working full time and raising a family is a major accomplishment; unfortunately, many of our nation’s policy makers completed their degrees as full time students and can’t appreciate the difficulties and the sacrifices that working adults who are part-time students have to make in order to progress toward graduation.

President Obama has stated that America needs to increase its percentage of college graduates.  His initial focus has been to increase funding to community colleges.  Those efforts won’t be enough.  The federal student aid system has been designed primarily for full-time students.  Better funding mechanisms for part-time students should be provided as well.  The primary tracking system for federal student aid tracks the institutional graduation rates of first time, full-time students within a regular period of time (typically four years) and within 150 percent of that time and 200 percent of that time.  Transfer students are not tracked at all.  Part-time students carrying a course load of four courses per year will take 10 years to earn a baccalaureate degree if they never take a break from attending school.  Very few people can go through a decade of life without some major event occurring that could interrupt their studies.  Moreover, many people complete a couple years of college, drop out for various reasons, and then pick it back up again years later when they realize the importance of the degree for promotions and/or job opportunities.  As a country, we are not tracking the successes of our part time, working adult students nor are we finding ways to improve those successes.  Given the shrinking numbers of high school graduates who graduate from college in six years, I think it’s time that we examine ways in which we can enhance the educational success of our working adults.

Aside from these specific requirements, there are several others which are more flexible, allowing schools to be creative in how they implement them.  One such requirement is that of public engagement and education.  To implement the requirements of the commitment, APUS has established a Sustainability Committee.  This group, comprised of interested employees, is tasked with researching and proposing strategies to fulfill APUS’ requirements.  The group has already brought several well-researched and worthwhile proposals to our leadership team for review and consideration.  Most recently, the Sustainability Committee established a Sustainability blog which will help provide some public outreach and education on issues related to sustainability.

Committee members will provide articles for the blog and from time to time, the Committee may publish articles from guest authors.  Focusing on issues of sustainability in higher education, APUS actions related to sustainability, and issues of sustainability in general, the blog is intended to create an engaging and meaningful dialogue about the topics.  I encourage you to take a look at APUS’ latest blog and I know that the Committee will appreciate any comments and suggestions that you may have.

Several years ago, I heard about a doctorate program at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education that was designed for people who were employed full-time in higher education.  The doctorate was in higher education management.  With an ongoing interest in learning (what else is lifelong learning), I engaged in a dialogue with the Board of Trustees of the American Public University System (APUS) and the Board of Directors of American Public Education, Inc. (APEI) about the merits of enrolling in this program if I were accepted.  Both of the boards were supportive of my interest.  The primary question was related to timing.  I applied and was accepted.  There were several doctoral programs around the country designed for people working full-time, but the program at UPenn was the one that I wanted to attend.

I started the program in August 2008, a member of a cohort of 22.  Part of the uniqueness of the program is that we had to submit five suggestions for dissertation topics at the start of our program.  As the months progressed, we tackled courses with subjects like Qualitative Methods, Public Policy in Higher Education, Quantitative Methods, Institutional Governance in Higher Education, Strategic Management in Higher Education, History of Higher Education, Community Colleges, International Higher Education, Enrollment Management, and Small Colleges.  At the same time, we continued to progress toward our development of a topic and ultimately a proposal for our dissertations.

I successfully defended my dissertation proposal in May.  Courses have continued through the fall and will conclude in February.  Meanwhile, the chapters of my dissertation continue to take shape, along with data collection and analysis.  As those who have gone through this process know, the last few months are the most intense, requiring a lot of writing and rewriting.  Mixing a more casual style of writing into my more structured research writing has been more difficult than I had imagined.

I am not sure how often I will submit articles for the blog.  I may find a guest author or two.  I might even post a few videos of professors and students at APUS; a project that we have been developing over the past few months.

Meanwhile, I can relate to the challenges of going back to school for a degree when you have a full-time job and a family.  My family has been very supportive and I thank them.  I look forward to being able to spend more time with them, but the most important activity in my spare time will be finishing this dissertation and defending it successfully, sometime this spring.  The opportunity to do this has been wonderful.  I have enjoyed the program, the faculty, and my cohort classmates.  I think I know how an American Military University (AMU) or American Public University (APU) student feels when the finish line is in sight.

Few events generate as much excitement, pride or sense of accomplishment as a university graduation ceremony.  Our students hail from all 50 U.S. states and 135 countries worldwide.  They include active duty servicemen and servicewomen; dedicated public servants; and accomplished professionals engaged in a range of technical, analytic, and management positions.  They are also wives and husbands, mothers and fathers, daughters and sons.  Their accomplishments are outstanding!

As impressive as the graduating class of 2009’s numbers and statistics are, the stories, the accomplishments, the hopes and the dreams of individual American Military University (AMU) and American Public University (APU) graduates are equally as fascinating.  I appreciated having the opportunity to catch up with many of the graduates who attended our ceremonies.  What they said about their experience with APUS was certainly of interest to me and offers insight and inspiration to us all.  I have summarized a few of them.

Kim Beyers received a B.A. in Homeland Security from AMU last weekend, thrilled that her parents and family members could be on hand to help mark her accomplishment, and is looking forward to another AMU graduation ceremony in the not-so-distant future, when she earns her AMU Master’s degree in Homeland Security.  Ms. Beyers, an information systems specialist, is on active duty with the U.S. Army, and plans to retire in 2010 – but she has no plans to stop working.  She was posted in Turkey when the national tragedy of September 11, 2001 occurred, and she vowed shortly thereafter that she would continue her public service beyond her military career by contributing to the nation’s security – which she hopes to do in an analyst position with the Department of Homeland Security or the Defense Intelligence Agency following her retirement.  

Charles Russo currently works as an analyst with a large defense contractor and received a B.A. in Intelligence Studies with AMU last year.  Charles plans to pursue an M.A. in Intelligence Studies with AMU beginning next year.  Mr. Russo attended the APUS graduation ceremonies as one of our alumni ambassadors, there to congratulate a new class of alumni.  He says his degree program with AMU has given him perspective and insight which complements his more than 14 years of intelligence experience.

Susan Wadehul received a Master’s degree in Public Health with a concentration in Emergency & Disaster Management from APU (as well as a stellar 4.0 GPA and “Outstanding Graduate Student Award” for the School of Public Safety and Health), in what was the culmination of a self-imposed challenge – and likely the start of an exciting new phase in her life and career.  In September, 2004, the registered nurse and emergency medical technician was diagnosed with viral meningitis, and told it could take up to three years to fully recover.   Unable to lift heavy objects or to work, but otherwise healthy, Susan decided to pursue a master’s degree in “something broader” than a traditional nursing program.  She found in APU what she calls “the perfect combination:” an online master’s degree program in public health, with a concentration in emergency management.  Now fully recovered and back at work full time at Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Newton, MA, Susan hopes her newly minted degree will allow her to realize another dream:  to teach other aspiring healthcare providers in nursing, public health and/or emergency management.

Clearly, these and all of our APUS graduates are already making their mark in a range of fields crucial to our nation’s military, government, social and economic success.  I believe their education and experience with AMU and APU will not only make them more successful in their individual careers – but that they will make life a little better for all of us in their ongoing service to our country.

Congratulations to the AMU and APU graduating classes of 2009, and all the best from the administration and faculty of APUS!