The distance education programs of the Air War College (AWC), Air Command and Staff College (ACSC), and Squadron Officer College (SOC) are undergoing a transformational effort that will revolutionize Officer Professional Military Education (OPME) in the near future. The strategic imperative is to meet the most recent CSAF vision for education that states,
| "Education and training are the foundation of our airpower advantage... We will maximize our Airmen's potential by refining our development programs to move beyond classroom-based instruction and incorporating leading-edge educational concepts." |
Additionally, the USAF Strategic Master Plan, May 2014 reads,
| "The Air Force will develop Airmen who are critical and creative thinkers by implementing an agile, individually tailored approach to life-long education, and eliminating superfluous demands from already encumbered schedules." |
Our core objective in meeting this visionary guidance will be to deliver high quality, precision distance learning professional education to the "Total Force"--officers and civilian equivalents. The future of OPME will be a continuum of education--a career-long journey for officers and civilian equivalents.
To make this possible Air University stood-up the “eSchool of Graduate PME” on 1 October 2015. The eSchool is committed to developing critically thinking, innovative, and adaptive leaders by delivering the right education to the right person at the right time. Bringing the distance education programs of the Air War College, Air Command and Staff College, and Squadron Officer College together into a cohesive team enables us to better focus on current issues and problem solving, and value our Airman’s time by eliminating redundancies.
So, what does this mean for you? In the near term, it remains business as usual; we will be developing and implementing a four phase plan to make this vision a reality with full operational capability by October 2017.
We look forward to bringing you updates on this transformational effort as we move forward in the coming year. Welcome to the eSchool of Graduate PME!
Dr. BART R. KESSLER
Dean, eSchool of Graduate PME