Residence to Online: Collaboration During the Pandemic

• Main Authors: Jacqueline L. Cahill, Kristopher J. Kripchak, Gaylon L. McAlpine
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Indiana University Office of Scholarly Publishing 2021-04-01
• Series: Journal of Teaching and Learning with Technology
• Online Access: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/jotlt/article/view/31409

Abstract: When COVID-19 arrived with vengeance, face-to-face colleges were naturally scrambling to brainstorm and problem-solve how to best deliver the curriculum in a physically safe manner to complete the semester. At Air University, the intellectual and leadership development center of the Air Force, eSchool of Graduate Professional Military Education (eSchool) is an online graduate college, which offers Squadron Officer School (SOS), Air Command and Staff College (ACSC), Air War College (AWC), and Online Master’s Program (OLMP).  SOS, ACSC, and AWC all have residence colleges too. At the fully in-residence graduate college, Air Command and Staff College, adult learners, who are airmen, geographically move to attend the college. The instruction has always been fully face-to-face, so they did not have online curriculum nor are their professors trained in how to effectively teach online. In order to best meet the students’ needs for in-residence ACSC, eSchool was asked to help. This is when brainstorming sessions started as to how to pivot instruction during the pandemic, followed with sharing of resources, expertise, and faculty training. As a result, ACSC in-residence students received the second half of their semester courseware online, which followed significantly more best practices than if a collaboration of the online and residence colleges had not occurred. Perhaps there was a silver lining that may bring about additional educational options in the future.   Keywords: pandemic teaching, professional military education, online learning, online teaching, collaboration, teamwork, residence to online, adult learners