Ten sergeant majors stationed in Fort Bliss, Texas, have joined the Syracuse University community this semester through a fellowship program for military-connected students.

SU’s School of Education partnered with the Institute for Veterans and Military Families and University College to create the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy Fellowship Program. The one-year program includes a 30-credit master’s degree in instructional design, development and evaluation offered online through the School of Education.  

The U.S. Sergeants Major Academy was seeking an online master’s degree program for its instructors and found that SU was already offering the degree, said Michael Frasciello, dean of University College. At the time, SU was in the process of offering its instructional design, development and evaluation degree online, he said. 

The degree provides students with the expertise to design, implement and evaluate non-technology and technology supported instructional solutions. It was the degree program’s quality that drew the Army’s academy to SU, said Mike Haynie, vice chancellor for strategic initiatives and innovation and founder and executive director of the IVMF. 

“Over the years, we have been focused on serving the educational needs of veterans and their families,” Haynie said. “As a consequence of that good work that we do on a professional scale, Syracuse University has really earned a lot of good will in that particular community.”

SU’s online master’s degree is beneficial for the sergeant majors at Fort Bliss because they are unable to be residential students, said Joanna Masingila, dean of the School of Education. The fellowship program is a catalyst for online education at SU, she added. 

Frasciello and Masingila both said that establishing more online degree programs will allow more students to access the university’s educational offerings. University College and the School of Education are also planning to market the program to non-military students. 

“The IDD&E degree is market sensitive and prepares individuals across industries,” Frasciello said. “It makes sense for the School of Ed to target non-military students.” 

Haynie said these programs are important to SU’s strategy to target post-traditional students seeking a degree in a non-residential way. 

“What this partnership does is demonstrate an opportunity,” he said. “This opportunity sets the conditions for us to take degrees and expand them to both a residential and non-place-based delivery model, leveraging technology and online platform.”

 The partnership is the first venture for the School of Education, but more programs are in the works, Masingila said. 

 Programs like the Fellowship help the university learn how to design and develop the infrastructure of online programs as well as make decisions about what degrees the university might want to bring online, Haynie said.

“It gives us flexibility, maybe a little more autonomy, as it relates to the future of the non-residential enterprises at the university,” he said.

Published on September 24, 2019 at 10:52 pm

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