President Obama signed Executive Order #13607 in direct response to the rapid attendance increase of veteran students, using education benefits, at for profit online colleges. In general for profit colleges have little or no admission standards, if a student is willing to attend their institution, a for-profit college will admit them. Transitioning veteran students have been out of high school for over five year, in which time some of their academic skills have diminished due to lack of use or need. They might not reach the admission standards of their preferred four year college, or then don't understand all of the requirements necessary to complete the application form or don't want to wait until the following fall semester to enroll at the four year college. The G.I. Bill is not considered Title IV funds, which means that schools don't have to limit the percentage of veteran students who attend. All of these factors, and others, have created a predatory culture for veteran students. The Principles of Excellence is a step toward development of more restrictions, regulations and oversight toward G.I. Bill spending, student usage, and services provided by colleges. It will be interesting to continue to follow reactions to the Principles of Excellence. In general, many schools don't really know what its purpose is, and veteran students would have little to no awareness that it even exists.

Sander's article provides an opportunity to see the G.I. Bill from different perspectives. Paul Szoldra provides his first hand perspective of the difficulties he had understanding how to use his benefits because he was college illiterate. None of his family had gone to college, nor had his direct military leadership. He was left to do research on his own, through Google. From the military's perspective, a culture that prides itself on duty, honor and respect doesn't translate to support those who are planning to leave the military. It's kind of like quitting a team, teammates become former teammates, they aren't responsible for taking care of you anymore. The DOD provides an overview week of training that covers important topics: health insurance, benefits, resume writing, and various other categories. From an economic standpoint, many colleges have targeted veteran student because of their education benefits provide guaranteed tuition and fees. Student veterans are very familiar with online schools due to being targeting while in the service. Online education is prevalent for military members because of its flexibility during training missions and deployments. Transitioning veterans are also in need of flexibility due need for job searches, health-care appointments, and other adult responsibilities.

Sec. Shinseki provides interesting remarks during the 4th annual student veterans conference. He makes specific reference to degree attainment and career selection of WWII veterans. Of the 16 million WWII veterans, 7.8 million of them received college degrees. This number is considered a success, but a graduation rate of less than 50 percent would not be considered a success by today's standards or expectations. In context, WWII veterans attending higher education was a great experiment, there was no precedent for educating adults in the U.S. Shinseki specified they became engineers, accountants, teachers, scientists, doctors, and dentists. This generation of veteran students are living in a very different culture and time. It will be interesting to look back on the money that is being invested into better access and services for veterans. Veterans in WWII left and returned to a country largely similar. Many current era veterans have returned to a country driven by technology. Veterans who are or will be attending college in the near future will have to successfully bridge the technology gap to have a better chance of being successful in the 21st Century classroom. Final note, I found it interesting that Shinseki mentioned WWII veterans but did not mention Vietnam veterans.

Adelstein's article reports that wireless industry is growing rapidly and projected to develop over 1 million jobs in the next five years, not exactly earth shattering news. Within the boom is a movement to provide technical and degree training programs for veterans. Warriors4Wireless is a nonprofit organization that has partnerships with the V.A. and wireless companies. The Warriors4Wireless organization has established training programs at Aiken Technical College in South Carolina and Virginia State University, an historically black university. Within their first few months, over 200 veterans have already been placed in jobs in the wireless industry. I found this article very interesting, because this is the first piece of news I have heard regarding veterans in connection with the STEM movement. There is significant emphasis in education about pushing students towards STEM, and I have often wondered what will happen to adult learners who are thinking about transitioning careers.

This report provides an update from the 2009 initial report on programs, services, and policies at colleges for student veterans. The purpose of this update was to capture potential institutional policy updates based on experience, updates in legislation and possible enrollment increases. This report starts by providing a summary of key findings, mostly through data comparisons to the previous report. For example 71 percent of all universities provide programs and/or services for veteran students, compared to 57 percent in 2009. This data is reported in a positive light, but it's also important to recognize that all of this information is self-reported by institution with no outside verification. The updated report was coordinated by the same authors, with some new and modified questions. The distribution of the survey was also modified from sending general inquiries to college presidents to directly to student service administrators. This survey had a 24 percent response rate, which included 19 percent repeat participants from the previous survey. The structure of the report is identical as the 2009 report.

Woll provides a booklet of introductory information directed at professionals who work in higher education. The booklets intention is to provide compelling information about the potential value veterans can add to colleges. Assuming that colleges are interested in attracting student veterans, Woll provides a linear path of development of well rounded services for veterans: recruitment, centralized information, be relevant, education of faculty and staff, streamline enrollment, provision of accommodations, and get your message out. The booklet concludes by encouraging others to see educating veterans as a social justice issue. Woll, and similar publications, provides valuable foundational information that would be very helpful for college administrators to review before deciding to move forward with providing comprehensive services exclusively for veteran students.

Street, Vogt, and Dutra provide a review of empirical literature and emerging issues relevant to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in women veterans. The authors first review pertinent literature concerning PTSD and women veterans from past conflicts, highlighting their roles from the Revolutionary War and forward. The review then moves forward to highlight women's' roles in Iraq and Afghanistan (OIF, OEF). The review did not specifically quantify but did insinuate that women veterans experienced more combat (direct gunfire) and dangerous environments (indirect explosions) than in previous eras. In addition to exposure to trauma, a significant number of women veterans also experienced sexual assault and harassment during their military service. The review concludes by expressing the lack of quality research data about women veterans. It is especially important for colleges and universities to recognize the unique and complex identity of women veterans, in past conflicts, they were not recognized as fully being veterans. On the other hand some women do not wish to be identified for their military service. Despite the identity challenge, research on women veteran higher education attendance, retention and completion should be done.

Perryman provides a depth-psychological inquiry based thesis on PTSD through examination of C.G. Jung's written works. Perryman's thesis covers the history and overview of PTSD, identity, language, and memory. I found a couple of not-so-obvious connections to my topic, which might become value to me down the road. Within Perryman's "Identity" section, he talks about pre and post deployment screening and psychological types. Within his online survey over 80 percent of veteran respondents stated to be introverted, intuitive, thinking, and judgement (INTJ) oriented. Perryman questions whether individuals held the same identity prior to their military service. This is the major point, prior to entering the military everyone takes a standardized exam, the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB). This test was developed in the 1970s to measure intellectual capacity and aptitude. Currently, this test is not given to those exiting the military. This type of pre and post testing would provide great baseline data, show any signs of changed intellectual capacity and aptitude. The use of technology, a database containing ASVAB pre and post score comparisons would be very valuable in the development of: awarding college credit for military experience, potential early indications of brain injuries, as well as more targeted support for TAP counselors.

Faurer, Rogers-Brodersen, and Bailie developed a report on the current efficiency and effectiveness of the Transition Assistance Program (TAP). The TAP program was developed to support active duty military members who are exiting from military service due to retirement or satisfaction of contract. This report discusses the history of TAP programming and contextual information regarding Department of Defense (DOD) budgeting during wartime and peacetime. Research about TAP is useful for increasing awareness for the need to integrate technology along with content. TAP is the only program developed for service-members becoming civilians. Veterans should be able to interact with TAP content after they have separated from the military, from a variety of locations. Developing a website with content would significantly increase veterans' ability to interact with content, as well as access information more than once. Currently, TAP presentations are performed by V.A. or D.O.D. employees in classroom format. This content could easily be developed into online "courses", where content could be used and rated based on effectiveness. Hosting online training would also significantly reduce costs and increase flexibility of the training.

This report was done in partnership between Rand Corporation and American Council on Education (ACE) and the Lumina Foundation. Research contains a year long study of student veterans experiences using the newly implemented Post-9/11 G.I. Bill. The purpose of this report is to positively impact university administrators - decision makers for each campuses' budgets; state policy-makers - decision makers in control of state budgets and policy; and federal policy-makers - decision makers who can modify existing legislation or develop new legislation based upon evidence, advocacy, and awareness. Research gathered student veteran feedback from March - August 2010, capturing the Spring and Summer semesters directly after the passing of the new G.I. Bill. This study sought to address five research questions: "1.What are the experiences of veterans and eligible dependents in using the Post-9/11 GI Bill, and how do these experiences vary by the type of educational institution in which they are enrolled? 2. What are the experiences of veterans in transferring military training to academic credits, and how do these experiences vary by the institution type in which they are enrolled? 3. What are veterans' experiences in transitioning from military services to life as students on college campuses? 4. What, if any, factors prevent eligible veterans from taking advantage of their Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits? 5. How are institutions adapting to the administrative requirements of the Post-9/11 GI Bill?" To collect answers to these questions, 22 student focus groups were done at 13 higher education institutions across 3 states. Their report came up with a number of interesting findings about the usage of the benefit, ability to transfer military credits, and institutional efforts to support the GI Bill. One major problem with this new education benefit was recognized right away, receiving and processing the payment. Many colleges reported significant difficulty in understanding what they were receiving payment for, and how to apply it to a student veterans account. This problem caused significant frustration for the student and the administration. The Veterans Administration (VA) choose to develop their own electronic system of payment, instead of utilizing a current, effective and efficient system. The Department of Education's (DOE) Office of Financial Aid is charged with the responsibility of operating student financial aid (Title IV funding) and all of their applications. Federal departments should develop better practices for sharing databases, software platforms, especially within the same context. Using technology with intention and intelligence would save time, money, confusion, and heart-ache for most (if not all) involved.

Miller's dissertation is an adapted organizational microethnographic study of the roles of graduate-level academic advisors for military and veteran students. Miller set out to gather first-person role perceptions from academic advisors through individual and focus group interviews. The introduction contains part of Miller's rationale for completing this research, less than half of reporting institutions on a national survey offer any type of academic advising nor plans for developing academic advising for student veterans. This study addresses the complexities of the perceived roles and responsibilities of being an academic advisor for veteran/military students from a social constructivism standpoint. For my purposes, Miller's study is valuable for expressing the unique needs of student veterans, the current lack of structured support nationwide, as well as the potential costs for developing a structured approach at every institution. The field of academic advising is already wrestling with how to provide their services through other mediums (chat, email, video, etc). The specialized field of academic advising for student veterans should also think about developing comprehensive academic advising systems that take advantage of technology.

Post-traumatic Stress Disorder: Tips for Campus Faculty and Staff. Retrieved from
http://www.acenet.edu/news-room/Documents/Accommodating-Student-Veterans-with-Traumatic-Brain-Injury-and-Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder.pdf
The American Council on Education (ACE) developed this report of best practices on accommodations for student veterans with traumatic brain injuries (TBI) or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) for higher education administration, faculty and staff. ACE partnered with the Association of Higher Education and Disability (AHEAD) to develop this report as a response to the overwhelming number of questions surrounding the topic of accommodations for veterans during a 2010 national webinar (Success Jam). This report first provides definition of terms TBI and PTSD, explains why this type of injury is so prevalent in the current conflicts, and how these types of injuries can affect learning, memory, concentration, and cognition. The report continues on by addressing general transitional difficulties that many veteran face when entering higher education and highlights that these stressors can trigger issues for those with "hidden injuries". These mindful practices are beneficial, especially for adult learners who do not necessarily spend alot of time on-campus building relationships with faculty, staff and administration. This report doesn't overtly address colleges with non-traditional learning platforms (online, hybrid, flipped classes, MOOCs, etc). It would be interesting to interview online colleges to see what type of accommodations they provide for individuals with learning disabilities, and specifically what type of programming they have in place for veterans. Currently, veterans who receive a diagnosis of a TBI or suffer from PTSD don't necessarily disclose this information to college staff or faculty. Their diagnosis is provided by the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), whose forms and function is very different from a diagnosis that might be provided with a diagnosis at primary care, and especially from pediatric care. The availability of adaptive technology (hardware and software) is encouraging, now support systems need to become more comprehensive and integrated to ensure individuals who need them are offered them.

Anderson performed a qualitative study for her Master's thesis focused on transitional experiences of veterans as they transitioned into higher education from the military. Incorporated in this qualitative study was observations of student-veteran organizations (student clubs), and focus group interviews of veteran who were attending a large public university. Anderson's research concluded that there were two specific areas that posed challenges for transitioning veterans - social class and military service. Social class is a major motivation why many people join the military, they are looking to finance college, or find gainful employment. Statistics show that military members tend to come from low to middle income households. As individuals transition out of the military, they are again faced with the challenges of their social class. It is common for student veterans (adult learners) to have families to support, and work in addition to going to school. This study goes into more depth about the complex difficulty of better integrating student veterans into the general population of students: lack of time, seen as monolithic culture, health issues, and cultural disconnect. Military culture and higher education culture are very divergent to say the least. The study highlights one of the subtle differences that carries significant implications. Currently higher education emphasizes the use of technology: computer labs, wifi on campus, online courses, technology equipped classrooms, and more. In contract, military culture does not encourage use of technology (in general). At basic training, service members are basically removed from society: no smart phones, computers or internet. The emphasis on things other than technology use continues throughout the lives of most military members. The age of technology has significantly widened the transitioning gap for veterans.

Popescu, Buluc, Costea, and Tomescu provide an interesting case study of the National Defense University in Bucharest, Romania. The study hopes to provide answers to the question, "How does technology-enhanced-learning (TEL) and eLearning, answer the military students' training needs when it comes to foreign language acquisition?". The military has a long history of developing foreign language skills for the purposes of completing cross cultural missions on a global scale. Analysis has shown that current foreign language education and training is good but there are gaps in its capability. Language mastery always involves cultural context; learning vocabulary, grammar, and syntax doesn't always allow for effective communication. The case study experiments with the efficiency of face-to-face versus TEL to compare results. Until recently, individuals earmarked as essential for the need to learn a foreign language were sent to the Defense Language Institute (DLI). DLI provides traditional classroom based instruction for all of their languages at one centralized campus in southern California. The traditional teaching format significantly reduces the amount of annual participants, and maintains a high cost per student ratio due to location of campus, campus facilities, and full-time staffing. The study looks at shifting to an online learning format through an andragogical approach. Andragogy is a learning theory specifically developed for adult learners. For the case study, students were divided into two groups: non-intensive online students and intensive face-to-face students. At the end of the courses each student completed the same assessment and were scored on the same rubric. The conclusions showed that TEL was the best for attaining procedural knowledge and affective skills, but face-to-face learning was best for declarative knowledge. This case study provides positive indicators that TEL instruction, through andragogical formatting, is a cost effective, and efficient way to train and retrain foreign language skills for deployable individuals.

Madaus breaks down the history of disability services in higher education into four sections: early efforts, early to mid-twentieth century, 1970s - 2000, and the current landscape. The article states the foundation of disability services was a bill signed into law by President Lincoln in 1864 to establish the Columbia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb. Expansion of federal support continues in 1918 with the passing of the Vocational Rehabilitation Act which provided educational assistance for veterans from World War I with disabilities. The Serviceman's Readjustment Act of 1944 provided an immediate impact on college campuses with the influx of students with disabilities as well as the funding for additional disability services on college campuses. The civil rights movement of the 1970s was the next catalyst for education legislation review and reform. For example, the term "learning disability" was first used by Dr. Kirk during the 1960s and designated as a category of disability by federal government in 1968. Our current landscape has been established with the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act of 2009, which addressed some of the limitations in the original ADA.

This study focuses on the relationship between demographics, social presence and learning satisfaction in higher education distance learning. Technological advances has expanded the "classroom" to occur anywhere and anytime. Distance education opportunities has significantly increased opportunities for adults to complete a degree or continue their education. While increased opportunities to engage in higher education is a good thing, there is still a long way to go. Retention rates of online courses is significantly lower than traditional courses, and the lack of social interaction continues to be a significant hurdle. The quality of online course content has significantly improved, but there is only so much improvement in content that can be accomplished. Isolation and disconnectedness often cause individuals to lose interest and drop out.
Distance education is very popular for veteran and military students. While attending flexible degree programs might allow them to attend programs while working, isolation and disconnectedness are already prevalent problems for transitioning veterans.

Hansmann's article starts by questioning, "What kind of a good is higher education?". This is not a new line of questioning, but it's becoming more of an issue. The main points of the article are focused on addressing the economics of higher education by looking at the current landscape, how it came to be this way, and where it potentially is heading. Discussion surrounding the public versus private good contains the landmark Morrill Act of 1862 and the original G.I. Bill of Rights from 1944. These pieces of legislation have had far reaching impacts and implications over the economy of higher education up until this point. Presently, over 10 percent of higher education is made up of proprietary institutions, which in its nature is contradictory to previous beliefs, governance, and economic support. The article goes on to discuss the supply and demand of government subsidies to pay for higher education, and the disproportionate reliance on Title IV funding by proprietary institutions. Hansmann draws a comparison between the current state of higher education and health care. Specifically, through highlighting the growth of demand for public hospital care (Hill-Burton Grants) and the growth of proprietary hospitals.

This is a collection of articles from the U.S. Department of Defense, Office of the Secretary of Defense, Office of Naval Research, Air Force Research Lab, Army Research Laboratory, and Army Research Institute. This is a comprehensive three volume set of handbooks with over 200 contributing authors, covering research and developments in virtual education and training platforms for military members. Volume one focuses on learning theories, requirements definition, and performance measurement. Foundational learning issues associated with the use of simulation for education and training such as: Volume two covers virtual environment components and training technologies. Chapters include examples of learning theory application specifically to simulation. Volume three addresses integrated systems, training evaluations, and future directions.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) research gives evidence of 11 percent of students attending higher education in 2008 claimed a disability, which is a significant increase. Changes to legislation (the Higher Education Opportunity Act and the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008) have both had a hand in the statistical increase and diversity of this population. GAO was asked to research the following questions: "what is known about the population of postsecondary students with disabilities; how postsecondary schools are supporting students with disabilities; what challenges, if any, schools face in supporting these students; and how the Department of Education is assisting schools in supporting these students."
In reference to technology, many states and school districts are having difficulty teaching their faculty and staff about how to use adaptive technology, as well as how to incorporate it into their lectures and curriculum. The study references that California has developed a High Technology Center Training Unit with the sole purpose of improving faculties skills related to assistive technology, media creation, and web accessibility.

Ryu provides research from an overview perspective of prior learning assessment, awarding, common approaches, and policy. This overview begins with the historical background of prior learning assessment and compares that to what prior learning looks like currently. Currently, prior learning assessment and crediting is a hot topic because of the large number of adult learners who are reentering the classroom to complete a degree or work on an advanced degree in their field. Military and veteran students make up a large percentage of this adult learner population. This research discusses the various types of assessments that are currently available for military and veteran students. The Defense Activity for Non-traditional Education Support (DANTES), College-Level Examination Program (CLEP), and the American Council on Education (ACE) military transcripts are all potential options for receiving college credit for prior knowledge, learning and experience. All of these options are widely accepted in post secondary education, but typically are only applied as an elective credit. Prior learning assessments also have their weaknesses and limitations, students completing an ACE survey expressed a lack of consistency and much confusion around credits awarded for prior learning. Adult workers expressed a lack of desire to take advantage of professional development money offered by their employer due to their lack of time and current workload. If assessments were designed to take into consideration the learning, knowledge and experience of an individual, as well as the actual necessary skills for certain occupations, and more prior learning credits might be awarded. If prior learning assessment tests were more readily available (online), and more transferable instead of only useful at the host institution, its likely that more adult learners would consider completing a degree program.