AMU Military Veterans

Managing PTSD in the Classroom: How Online Education Can Help

By Phil McNair and  Dr. John Moore and Fred Stielow

With the U.S. troop drawdown in Afghanistan, education, training and jobs for veterans will become increasingly important.

At its peak, U.S. involvement in the war in Afghanistan was more than 100,000 strong. This year, about a third of that total will leave the provinces, and America is scheduled to fully withdraw from the country by the end of 2014.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is increasingly prevalent among our returning soldiers, with formal studies suggesting it affects one in five. The challenge in treating these individuals is that the same research has shown that soldiers do not often disclose any disabilities in their work or educational environment, whether physical or mental.

Since our core mission at American Military University (AMU) is educating those who serve, we felt that addressing the ramifications of this sensitive subject as our nation celebrated Veterans Day was critically important.

As a veteran myself, who was present at the Pentagon on 9/11, I have seen many cases of mental trauma and PTSD. I have friends who suffer from it, and have seen first-hand how some deal with it well and others simply can’t.

The cause of helping veterans overcome the challenges of PTSD in the virtual classroom is one I chose to take on with my AMU colleagues and fellow veterans, Dr. John Moore and Fred Stielow, because it is so personal; nobody prompted us to undertake this initiative.

In 2011, we undertook a survey to better ascertain the PTSD-related challenges experienced by both our active-duty and veteran students:

1. Of 2,000-plus students responding to the survey, 50 percent said they would recommend online over face-to-face classes to students with PTSD.

2. This divided response clearly shows us that since all cases of PTSD are different, so are the potential solutions for each person.

3. Online classes are not a “cure” or “therapy” for PTSD, but they may be a great way for some PTSD sufferers who feel less comfortable in a face-to-face environment to start the re-socialization process.

As a result of this ground-breaking study, we have created a special workshop for our AMU faculty to help them understand what PTSD is, the possible symptoms that could show-up in an online classroom, and what instructors can do about it.

They are made aware of the resources available to them as online educators, with a big emphasis on using resources provided by the Veterans Administration. For example, The VA and DoD have developed an excellent iPhone application providing a variety of PTSD-related information resources.

We know that interacting with students directly in a traditional classroom setting can be a challenge for veterans during their transition back to civilian life.

Going to school online can therefore help veterans minimize or avoid many of these challenges. Our focus at AMU is on helping our geographically dispersed faculty develop tools and resources to better deal with classroom issues and disruptions that may be caused by PTSD, not to “treat” PTSD itself.

We have conducted three faculty training workshops so far in 2012, with another scheduled before the end of the year.

This workshop is now part of the AMU faculty professional development program. More importantly, we have an ongoing institutional commitment to share our knowledge and best practices beyond AMU in order to benefit the academic community overall.

Based on our presentations and outreach, the Sloan Consortium approached us to start related faculty training for other schools.

Nearly three years ago, we also launched a PTSD and Online Education Web 2.0 discussion group at. In addition, Fred Stielow recently collaborated with me to publish, “Finding Success as a Returning Veteran or Military Student,” as yet another outgrowth of this larger commitment.

Ultimately, we seek to help students achieve their academic goals by providing a learning environment where all students in a class can have a safe, non-threatening place to learn.

About the authors

Phil McNair is a retired Army colonel with more than 26 years of active military service who currently serves as the Vice President for Strategic Initiatives at American Military University (AMU). He has been with AMU since his military retirement in 2002, and has previously served as the Vice President for Programs and Marketing, Student Retention, and Academic Services.

Dr. John D. Moore is a faculty member for Sports & Health Sciences at AMU. Moore is co-founder of 2nd Story Consultants, a Chicago based wellness firm. Graduating with honors, he received his Ph.D. in Human Psychology from the School of Behavioral Science at Northcentral University.

Fred Stielow, vice president and dean of libraries and course materials for AMU, is the son of a disabled WWII veteran, and volunteered for the US Army during Vietnam, serving in Germany as an NCO. Using the GI Bill from his service as a data processing specialist in the U.S. Army, Stielow went on to earn a bachelor and master’s degree in History along with a dual doctorate in History & American Studies from Indiana University — as well as an MLS from the University of Rhode Island.

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