








































Journal of Teaching and Learning with Technology, Vol. 10, Special Issue, pp. 80-87. 
doi: 10.14434/jotlt.v9i2.31409 

Residence to Online: Collaboration During the Pandemic 

Jacqueline L. Cahill 
Air University 

jacqueline.cahill@au.af.edu 

Kristopher J. Kripchak 
Air University 

Gaylon L. McAlpine 
Air University 

Abstract: When 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) arrived with vengeance, face-to-face colleges 
were 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 the 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 to effectively teach online. In order to best meet the students’ needs for in-residence 
ACSC, the 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 in the pandemic 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 

Introduction 

In March 2020, Air Command and Staff College (ACSC), the United States Air Force’s Intermediate 
Developmental Education (IDE) graduate college, was facing the real possibility that Air University’s 
in-residence schools would suspend classes due to 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19). This is the 
same concern that overcame most (if not all) in-residence civilian universities. Air University, a major 
component of the Air Force’s Air Education and Training Command and lead agent for Air Force 
education, is headquartered at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama. Air University was 
beginning to implement base-wide health protection measures and was signaling to its co-located 
residence schools to plan for the possible shutdown of their academic operations. However, with only 
one core course remaining for the academic year for these students and over 500 learners already 
having spent seven months away from their operational jobs and duty stations, finishing the 2020 
academic year on time was necessary. This is the same concept at civilian universities where students 
were already three-fourths of the way through their academic school year. As faculty conversed about 
various options, a recommendation was made to leverage the distance learning faculty expertise and 



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Journal of Teaching and Learning with Technology, Vol. 10, Special Issue, jotlt.indiana.edu 

distance learning ACSC curriculum from the eSchool of Graduate Professional Military Education 
(eSchool) to finish the semester from a distance.  

The eSchool and Air Force Officer Professional Military Education 

The eSchool is the only non-resident arm in the dynamic system that is Air Force officer career 
education. This would be similar to a civilian graduate college having one college that focused on the 
online learning modality. As a military institution with an academic mission, Officer Professional 
Military Education (OPME) institutions of Squadron Officer School (SOS), Air Command and Staff 
College (ACSC), and Air War College (AWC) are the keystones of Maxwell Air Force Base’s ‘Academic 
Circle.’ Selected officers from across the services (and eligible federal government civilian equivalents 
and international officers) attend in-residence to receive their primary (SOS), intermediate (ACSC), 
and senior level (AWC) OPME. Students whose lifestyles do not support relocating to Maxwell Air 
Force Base for the required time or those who were not selected to attend in-residence earn their 
OPME via distance learning by enrolling in the respective eSchool program (SOS, ACSC, AWC, or 
the Master’s Degree). The eSchool teaches approximately 13,000 globally-dispersed learners per year. 
The programs are designed to meet OPME requirements as established by the Air Force and the 
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and to foster life-long learning habits to support the profession 
of arms. ACSC, both in-residence and distance learning, are Joint Professional Military Education 
(JPME) Phase I accredited, and Air University (as a whole–similar to civilian universities) is regionally 
accredited through Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges 
(SACSCOC). 

The eSchool serves predominantly captains through colonels and federal government civilian 
equivalents. The Online Master’s Program (OLMP), one of four eSchool programs, is what we focused 
on in this situation. It is designed to produce more effective Air Force majors and lieutenant colonels 
serving in operational-level command or staff positions. It covers topics such as contemporary Air 
and Space Force operations, national security, leadership, and joint warfare. The program consists of 
asynchronous, instructor-facilitated courses that are each eight weeks in length and take approximately 
18 months to complete. This is a common set-up for an online master’s degree at civilian universities, 
where courses are eight weeks and students focus on taking two courses at a time. Upon successful 
completion of the program, learners are awarded a Master’s of Military Operational Art and Science 
Degree (MMOS). The OLMP is offered with an option of four concentrations, although some are 
only options if the learner is a prior graduate of two other Air Force education programs. The four 
concentrations are: (a) joint warfare concentration (awards both the MMOS degree and JPME Phase 
I credit), (b) leadership concentration (awards the MMOS degree and is for captains only), (c) 
operational warfare concentration (awards the MMOS degree and is available only to Air Force 
weapons instructor course graduates), and (d) the nuclear weapons concentration (awards the MMOS 
degree and is available only to Air Force nuclear weapons effects, policy, and proliferation certificate 
program graduates). This is a similar concept to civilian universities where graduate degrees are offered 
with an emphasis or a minor. 

Air Command and Staff College 

The ACSC resident curriculum is a 10-month graduate-level program taught through small group 
seminars and engaging lectures. The curriculum covers topics that include the profession of arms, war 
theory, leadership and ethics, joint warfighting, airpower, and the international security environment. 
Additionally, learners have the opportunity to conduct research and participate in elective courses that 

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Journal of Teaching and Learning with Technology, Vol. 10, Special Issue, jotlt.indiana.edu 

explore different topics relevant to the nation’s defense. Successful completion of the ACSC resident 
program are awarded JPME Phase I credit and an MMOS degree. 

Description 

With in-residence ACSC’s decision to seek assistance from the eSchool, the respective leadership of 
both colleges met within a day to discuss the scope of the challenge and the most effective and efficient 
way to proceed. This would be similar at a civilian university for the deans and leadership teams of 
two colleges, one being focused on online learning, to meet to discuss this same concept. Gaining the 
eSchool’s agreement to assist was immediate, with the first discussions and the brainstorming sessions 
that followed being fairly straightforward and productive given the already established close 
relationships with some of the individuals of both colleges. Such collaboration at the start was 
straightforward as both colleges reported to the ACSC Commander (i.e., the Dean’s supervisor at a 
civilian college), and both of the intermediate developmental education programs share similarities 
since the programs are to meet the same OPME requirements. This would be similar at a civilian 
university to having degrees or courses that had similar program outcomes, but one was taught online 
and another was taught face-to-face. In addition, some eSchool professors teach courses for in-
residence ACSC, so they are familiar with the in-residence curriculum and were accustomed to 
working collaboratively with the faculty. Seeing this in action supported the importance of soft skills. 
Emotional intelligence is incredibly important for instructors and adult learners to develop or improve, 
which includes teamwork (Majeski, Stover, Valais, & Ronch, 2017). These pre-established 
relationships proved critical when addressing the challenge before them and bridged the connections 
for those who had not yet met.  

The Team 

As with any team tackling a problem, the members—with their different skillsets, attitudes, 
backgrounds, experiences, and motivations—had a strong impact on team dynamics and overall 
effectiveness. In this situation, a positive team dynamic was established almost immediately given the 
trust and sense of accountability many members already had for each other due to established working 
relationships and the mutual respect each had for the other’s organization given their shared missions. 
In addition, two to three eSchool professors volunteer every year to teach this last in-residence course 
for ACSC. As part of their preparations, the eSchool faculty members participate in and sometimes 
lead resident faculty development sessions. This experience built mutual trust and knowledge in the 
content and delivery of similarly-themed courses in both institutions. At a civilian university, there are 
various methods to cross-collaborate across colleges or modalities, but someone usually needs to 
initiate it as it is rarely required.     

The shared experience and comradery made for a solution-focused team that trusted the 
expertise each brought to bear on the problem. Furthermore, both ACSC’s and the eSchool’s Deans 
included their respective personnel with the best knowledge, skills, and experience in the initial 
discussions on determining the scope of the effort. This inclusive approach created an open 
environment for everyone’s input from the beginning of brainstorming, and it resulted in inherent 
buy-in for the selected solution as those who would execute it were the ones responsible for the 
development. From the eSchool, these included course directors (i.e., subject matter experts)—who 
were responsible for eSchool courses that addressed similar outcomes and covered similar materials 
as the course remaining for ACSC resident faculty to deliver—a curriculum designer, learning 
management system (LMS) administrators, and leadership. From ACSC, this included the department 

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Journal of Teaching and Learning with Technology, Vol. 10, Special Issue, jotlt.indiana.edu 

chair, course director (subject matter experts), deputy course director for the last resident course, 
learning management system administrators, and leadership. 

The Learning Challenge 

The eSchool and resident ACSC faculty and staff met several times over the course of three days to 
brainstorm potential courses of action for online delivery of the last resident course. The first 
considered possibility was using Air University’s Microsoft Teams account to deliver the resident 
course as it was designed—synchronously, but online instead of in-person. This is an option that many 
civilian universities incorporated. However, accounts were not fully provisioned at that time, so using 
it was not a viable option. Next, the team considered the synchronous delivery of the resident 
curriculum using video conferencing tools such as Zoom. The idea was still to replicate some sense 
of the in-person experience that both learners and instructors were comfortable with overall. 
However, with so many learners quarantined at home with their families (with childcare being a key 
concern given the closing of daycares due to the pandemic), synchronous options quickly fell out of 
favor (although early on during execution, some faculty did add optional synchronous sessions via 
Zoom to facilitate group discussion). In the end, these early brainstorming sessions resulted in all 
parties agreeing that they could not move the last resident course online. Not only did the available 
technology not support such delivery, but the impact on the learning experience due to stressful life 
situations thrust upon their learners was a serious concern. Therefore, it was determined that 
leveraging the asynchronous design inherent in the eSchool’s OLMP program was the best course of 
action. Online education increases the opportunity to have more frequent interactions between 
students and with the professor, albeit less intense interactions than face-to-face learning (Holley, 
2017). With COVID-19 risks, it was allowing interactions to still occur between the student and 
instructor and amongst other students, which is best practices. 

In making this decision, the question that needed to be answered before any further progress 
could take place was which OLMP course or course(s) would best serve as a replacement for the 
resident course, which was six credit hours delivered over 10 weeks. Two OLMP courses providing 
six hours of credit each and together covering similar concepts and objectives as the resident course 
were immediately considered.  

The first option explored included the possibility of having the learners take both of these 
OLMP courses but on an accelerated timeline to meet all six credit hours of material covered in the 
resident course. However, after discussing the merits of such a plan, concern grew again over how 
effective an accelerated approach would be given that learners would be taking the courses while 
hastily adjusting to life in the ‘new normal’ of being at home (often with family members who were 
also attending school and working from home) learning online instead of what they were accustomed 
to, which was face-to-face learning. Research, reflection, and evaluation supports that first-time online 
students need scaffolding (Ainsa, 2017). With concern about the effectiveness of the learning and the 
wellbeing of the learners, this option was rejected. Furthermore, there was a concern for the resident 
faculty. They were not trained to facilitate online learning, nor were they familiar with the structure or 
curriculum of the OLMP courses. As such, the idea of having them teach an accelerated curriculum 
starting immediately and without any prior experience was clearly problematic. 

Our Solution 

As a result of these brainstorming sessions, a second option coalesced that addressed these concerns: 
(1) Have learners complete one of the OLMP courses as designed with a few minor assignment
modifications to more closely replicate the in-resident experience to which they were accustomed; (2)

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Address key concepts required by the resident course that were not covered in the OLMP course 
where learners would also conduct a self-study on select course material from the resident course and 
write short essay responses to prompts that would have otherwise driven in-person discussion; and 
(3) Learners would develop and be evaluated on small group case study presentations from the resident
course, with individual contributions being more heavily weighted than if in the residence class.

The first action was coordinating the move of a copy of the OLMP course from the eSchool’s 
LMS sub-account to the ACSC resident’s sub-account. These are details that LMS administrators 
manage in a civilian university, as well. On successful transfer, the eSchool’s course designer and LMS 
administrators collaborated with the ACSC LMS administrators to configure and ensure the quality of 
the transferred course, which included making it a template course that would be used to create each 
of the 36 course seminars. As ACSC predominantly uses the LMS only for course content sharing, 
message/announcement boards, and the gradebook, this collaboration was rather critical so that no 
time needed to be spent on training the resident course LMS administrators on features not used in 
resident courses. After all setup actions were complete, the resident course director and deputy 
director were able to share the course and discuss its structure and curriculum with their course 
development team. This led to a number of discussions with the eSchool’s course designer and its 
course director on what was possible in regards to quickly and easily adjusting the course without 
impacting the curriculum so much that it would ruin the design. 

In accordance with the previously published resident class schedule, learners would spend the 
first nine days of the course doing the self-study reading assignments and submitting their daily written 
responses to lesson prompts (designed by the resident course team) via email to their instructor. Other 
changes to the OLMP course included the removal of the requirement for submitting assignments 
through a student work similarity checking tool and the adjusting of assignment due dates to 
accommodate the inclusion of the resident course case study assignments, as both course calendars 
overlapped with certain assignments. In addition, adjustments of due dates were incorporated to give 
faculty inexperienced with facilitating online learning some welcomed breathing room so that they 
could adjust their teaching practices to the new environment. The end result was curriculum that met 
the intended outcomes of the resident course and was approximately the same length but was able to 
be delivered 100% asynchronously online. 

Faculty Development and Support 

To prepare the resident faculty for teaching the OLMP course, eSchool personnel developed a 
multipronged training and support approach. This included conducting synchronous faculty 
development webinars prior to execution; distributing weekly guidance, best practices, and 
recommendations during execution; and providing just-in-time advice during execution, as requested. 
As they graded and provided daily feedback to the learners’ daily self-study submissions, these first 
nine days of the course also served as the learning space during which the resident faculty who had 
previously prepared to teach the resident course would spend time reading and reviewing the lesson 
materials for the OLMP course they were now going to teach. 

Unfortunately, there was not enough time for the resident faculty to take the eSchool’s seven-
week Instructor Orientation and Certification Course (eIOC) that would have prepared them to be 
facilitators of online learning and familiarized them with eSchool courseware. This is a similar practice 
at many civilian universities that offer online courses or degrees; new online instructors must take an 
online faculty development course to learn best practices in teaching online and to practice the 
requirements of that particular university as a student and an instructor. In place of the eIOC and 
given the restrictions on gathering in groups due to the pandemic, the OLMP course director and a 
curriculum designer conducted three, two-hour webinars via Adobe Connect. These webinars— 

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Journal of Teaching and Learning with Technology, Vol. 10, Special Issue, jotlt.indiana.edu 

attended by all 36 resident faculty, the resident course director, and the deputy course director— 
provided familiarization with and lesson-by-lesson ‘how to’ training on the OLMP course they would 
teach. In addition, materials were extracted from the eIOC course and made available to the resident 
faculty via a module in the course that only they could access. This resource included guidance and 
best practices on facilitating online discussions, establishing and maintaining presence, making course 
announcements, providing effective feedback, and grading with a rubric. 

For management and communication, the resident faculty were divided into three teams of 10 
to 12 personnel. The eSchool had the three faculty who were also assigned to teach the resident course 
spread across each of those teams in order to more easily answer any resident faculty questions or 
requests for assistance that could arise as they taught the course. Additionally, the eSchool provided 
each team with two (six total) of its most experienced contract instructors who could provide 
additional faculty support and advice on the details of OLMP course delivery. Moreover, the OLMP 
course director conducted weekly ‘just-in-time’ faculty development for the current and following 
week’s lessons, provided copies of the announcements he used in his own course seminar, and made 
himself available for any direct questions on a broader basis. One form of beneficial professional 
development for new online instructors is to have an experienced instructor to directly support the 
new instructor (Holland, Sherman, & Harris, 2018). 

Evaluation 

One may expect that hastily shifting from a planned resident graduate course to an online graduate 
course in a quarantine environment during the early months of a global pandemic would negatively 
impact faculty and learner surveys of their experience. However, even with these challenges, both the 
faculty and learners generally gave positive feedback on the curriculum, and learners praised faculty 
members’ efforts. Both also offered thoughtful and constructive comments for consideration in future 
courses. In addition, many expressed great appreciation for the asynchronous approach as it allowed 
them maximum flexibility in supporting their individual and family efforts in adjusting to the ‘new 
normal.’ Consistent predictors of academic success in online courses is high self-efficacy and positive 
self-regulatory behaviors (Bradley, Browne, & Kelley, 2017). 

The most significant takeaways from this experience that are applicable to a military or civilian 
university setting include the following: 

● Previously established collaboration built by the eSchool faculty teaching the resident
course facilitated a high degree of trust between the resident and eSchool team members.

● Communicating clear expectations to learners and faculty early and often eased tensions
and calmed concerns.

● It is helpful to have the online course team share best practices and offer prewritten course
announcements to lessen the learning curve for faculty inexperienced in online delivery.

● Continuing to support the faculty for the duration of the event and frequent faculty
development sessions were worth the investment.

● To ensure inclusion of a potentially diverse set of students, be prepared to support non-
native speakers that now find themselves in an environment that relies heavily on written
communication.

● Give resident faculty the opportunity to see what they will experience and do so guided by
a seasoned online instructor and/or course subject matter expert/developer and designer.

● Establish and maintain resident and online college relationships, from the senior
leadership to the faculty levels.

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Journal of Teaching and Learning with Technology, Vol. 10, Special Issue, jotlt.indiana.edu 

● Include instructional designers and education technologists early in the discussion. It is
important to know beforehand what is technologically possible, what resources are already
available, and what could be quickly built as you are brainstorming possible solutions, not
after decisions are finalized.

Conclusion 

The cliché, ‘cooperate and graduate,’ is frequently heard in professional military education institutions. 
Although there are different ways to interpret that phrase, in our experience, cooperation between 
and amongst students, faculty, and support staff is what makes the positive impact. This was especially 
evident in the ‘emergency’ change of plans required to address the sudden quarantine of in-resident 
academics at Air University. While the situation created an environment where many faculty and staff 
had to leave their comfort zones to perform duties and tasks they normally would not do, no one 
involved ever stated that what was thrust upon him/her was ‘not their job.’ In addition, the positive 
impacts of pre-existing relationships that the in-resident and online colleges had with one another, 
from the senior leadership level down, cannot be understated. These relationships, both personal and 
professional, drove highly productive and efficient brainstorming sessions that made the pivoting of 
instruction during the pandemic and the sharing of resources and expertise seem completely natural. 
Furthermore, constant open communication, agile thinking, and a willingness to adapt as the situation 
unfolded allowed the team to not only resolve and implement solutions, but to also make just-in-time 
adjustments to execution when they were required. As a result, ACSC in-residence students were able 
to complete their master’s degrees online in a manner that followed significantly more best practices 
than if collaboration between the online and residence colleges had not occurred. Most importantly, 
the students recognized how important their learning experience was to the faculty, which is a 
testament to the professionalism and determination of all of those who were involved. 

Epilogue 

The unforeseen canceling of resident instruction in spring of 2020, due to COVID-19, necessitated 
collaborative efforts between the resident college, Air Command and Staff College (ACSC), and the 
online college, eSchool of Graduate Professional Military Education (eSchool), at Air University. 
Given the requirements and the swift execution of our efforts, we collectively traveled united along 
unchartered paths during our collaboration. At that time, it was unknown if our shared efforts would 
benefit the greater Air University going forward. Other resident colleges, possibly encouraged and 
informed by our example, shed trepidations about moving some of their curriculum online, and 
despite an enduring pandemic, are continuing to support their students via a distance. In fact, shortly 
after the ACSC effort was underway, Air University’s six-week resident Squadron Officer’s School 
(SOS) pursued asynchronous, remote delivery of their resident program for summer 2020. Just as with 
ACSC, the eSchool assisted SOS in developing a plan and preparing their instructors to facilitate 
eSchool courses. Not only did this afford the opportunity to apply lessons learned from the ACSC 
effort while still fresh in our minds, but this time, SOS resident instructors took the eSchool’s 
Instructor Orientation and Certification Course (eIOC) as part of their preparations, which provided 
additional lessons learned. It is our sincerest hope that the COVID-19 experience not only raises a 
flag signaling how we must be proactive in preparing for disruptive events in the future, but it also 
illuminates the art of the possible when high functioning teams come together with a common purpose 
– to do what is best for their students.

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Acknowledgements 

The authors would like to thank Dr. Christopher Weimar and Lt Col Travis Eastbourne at the Air 
Command and Staff College, as well as Dr. Jay Varuolo and Mr. Mark Burge at the eSchool, who were 
instrumental in making this effort a success. 

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students. Education, 138(1), 1. 
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Bradley, R. L., Browne, B. L., & Kelley, H. M. (2017). Examining the influence of self-efficacy and 
self-regulation in online learning. College Student Journal, 51(4), 518. 
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Holland, T., Sherman, S. B., & Harris, S. (2018). Paired teaching: A professional development  
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Majeski, R. A., Stover, M., Valais, T., & Ronch, J. (2017). Fostering emotional intelligence in  
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