, either civilian universities or service institutions such as the United States Army War College, to develop special qualifications, tend to be disruptive to the most efficient use of available personnel (Murray, 2000).
The most recent educational initiative launched by the United States Army, however, is a $600 million program announced in August 2000 that will enable any soldier who so desires to take distance-education courses on the Internet at little or no cost to themselves (Carr, 2000). This initiative follows earlier moves by the Army to apply distance education to routine training activities, as an alternative to sending soldiers to military schools on temporary duty (Abell, 2000).
The distance education initiative for soldiers to pursue college degrees through civilian colleges and universities while on active duty and at Army expense, however, represents a paradigm shift in Army educational policy. One of the motivations for adoption of the distance learning model was a recognition that traditional classroom instructional models and on-campus attendance do not mesh well with the demands placed on active duty soldiers (emergency deployment, routine transfer, temporary duty, and the everyday demands of military duty). Distance education holds out a promise to ameliorate some of these difficulties (The, 1999). Nevertheless, both advantages and disadvantages characterize distance learning, and these advantages and disadvantages must be consi
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