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As the Corps tries to find innovative ways to cut the costs of fielding an educated force on the modern battlefield, distance learning provides interactive products and Marine-centered services by leveraging technology.
The Marine Corps Institute (MCI) _provides_ training and education to 160,000 Marines worldwide at each student's convenience. MCI's courses and programs allow self-study to Marines who are not selected to, or who choose not to, attend resident instruction. MCI's courseware provides professional military education (PME) for all enlisted Marines and most officers. The future demands the deployment of smarter warriors and distance learning will give them the skills to achieve greater excellence.
Training and Education Initiative
In 1996, the Marine Corps Combat Development Command's (MCCDC's) Training and Education Division developed and introduced the Training and Education Modernization Initiative (TEMI). The objective of this initiative was to maximize the Corps' limited training and educational resources by restructuring current institutional training, improving our training management processes, introducing technology into classrooms, and capitalizing on modern distance learning (DL) technologies. Implementing this initiative means Marines can learn when and where learning is most needed, a 'Just-intime" model. This concept is called the "Learning Marine." A Learning Marine is expected to spend an entire career growing both technically and professionally. Distance learning that addresses military occupational specialty (MOS) skills and PME will help a Marine mature as he or she progresses through the rank structure. Contrary to the current model of separating tours of duty with an occasional resident school, a Learning Marine can receive refresher training and education via continuous DL. This new learning continuum, which will be embedded in a Marine's career, supports the operational readiness of the total force Marine to intellectually meet the challenges of tomorrow.
Crucial to the Learning Marine is the premise that learning is an active, not passive, experience. This indudes two critical learning issues:
(1) Education and training take place beyond the four walls of the traditional classroom. The core of the Learning Marine concept includes just-in-time learning, delivered anywhere that Marines are deployed or stationed.
(2) Marines take responsibility for their own learning. Units no longer receive an MCI completion percentage. The incentive for learning is self-improvement and increased promotional opportunity.
Various educational products offered to Learning Marines...