Contact: Maridith Geuder
An agreement between the U.S. Marine Corps and two Mississippi educational institutions is providing undergraduate and graduate-level classes to 17 Marine bases in the United States and Asia.
Hinds Community College and Mississippi State University will use "real-time" video technology to deliver courses by satellite to Marines on bases from the East Coast to California. Instruction also will be offered in Okinawa. Satellite technology will allow the Marine Corps students and their Mississippi State and Hinds instructors to see and hear each other.
Hinds Community College will offer associate's degrees in general studies/liberal arts and in criminal justice. Mississippi State will offer a bachelor's degree in business and a master's in business administration.
Courses that originate at the two campuses will be taught live over the Marine Corps Satellite Education Network to service members and, when space is available, to qualified reservists or civilian employees. The Marine Corps will pay 75 percent of the tuition of participating active duty students.
The Marine Corps started offering distance education to its members on a small scale in 1994. The new venture with Hinds and Mississippi State is expected to enroll up to 1,000 students during its first year and eventually up to 5,000 students. The first courses will be offered this summer. Courses will be taught in eight-week sequences, rather than in traditional college semesters.
Other branches of the armed forces have shown interest in participating in the program, said Hinds Community College president Clyde Muse.
"The two-way interactive network capabilities will make education convenient and accessible to Marines no matter where they are stationed," Muse said. "We know of no other programs like this that deliver entire degree programs to multiple sites in an interactive mode."
Classes taught by Mississippi faculty members will be relayed to Quantico, Va., for East Coast sites, to San Diego for West Coast sites. Among Marine bases where the instruction will be available are Parris Island, S.C., Cherry Point, N.C., Albany, Ga., Camp Lejeune, N.C., Camp Pendleton, Calif., Yuma, Ariz., and Camp Butler, Camp Schwab, and Camp Hansen in Okinawa.
"The program will offer quality instruction from faculty members at both institutions. Service members will be able to continue to work on their degrees even if they are transferred in the middle of a course," said Garry Smith, acting dean of MSU's College of Business and Industry.
"A significant aspect of this venture is that it will help us put into place a very sophisticated distance education system that has enormous potential for learners in all kinds of settings right here in Mississippi," said Mississippi State President Malcolm Portera. "This technology will increase our ability to offer specialized education for business and to provide more assistance to public schools across the state."
The expansion of the Marine's distance learning education program "was a serious decision for us to make," said Greg Shields, program coordinator for the Marine Corps Satellite Education Network. "We're happy to be working with committed partners such as Hinds and Mississippi State."
"The agreement establishes Mississippi State and Hinds Community College as 'virtual' universities," said Bob Mullins, dean of HCC Resource and Coordinating Unit for Economic Development. "Students from around the world will be able to earn degrees from our institutions thanks to electronic technologies."