Following the last few years of uncertainty due to an unprecedented global pandemic, 2022 was a year of overcoming challenges as the Department of Defense (DoD) Voluntary Education (VolEd) enterprise adjusted to its new normal. Despite the challenges, DANTES continued to offer shared services to over 500,000 service members. These efforts contributed to attracting potential recruits, retaining those actively pursuing their education to advance their military careers, enriching readiness by growing critical thinking skills, and improving economic mobility prospects for those transitioning into the civilian labor market. The delivery of DANTES’ portfolio of shared services is made possible by our strategic partnerships across the VolEd community, Defense education institutional partners, national testing agencies, state departments of education, and postsecondary organizations. To our partners, thank you for your dedication, innovation, and diligence in supporting service members as they pursue their education and career goals. The following highlights some of our 2022 shared accomplishments as we:
• Fostered Defense education partnerships
• Enabled college and career planning
• Facilitated prior learning assessment
• Provided support to the Voluntry Education workforce
Through the DoD VolEd Partnership Memorandum of Understanding (DoD MOU), 2,494 educational institutions operating at 8,788 additional locations signed agreements that enable over 250,000 service members to use military Tuition Assistance (TA) to take more than 50,000 courses each year. In FY22, 1,909 colleges and universities completed annual tuition rate updates, representing 95% of all TA participants. Tuition rate updates enable Service TA systems to facilitate tuition payments accurately.
The MOU team provided technical guidance and support on more than 13,000 inquiries from colleges and universities. In addition to guiding tuition rate updates, the team’s support included technical assistance for 250 educational institutions selected for DoD’s VolEd Institutional Compliance Program (ICP). Providing support through the ICP process helped colleges and universities better understand how to comply with the DoD MOU and enabled institutional self-correction to improve the overall experience for military students.
The Contingency Area Education Support program offered over 290 onsite or synchronous live-streamed courses. It hosted 4,032 enrollments for service members in forward deployed areas within the Central Command (CENTCOM) and Africa Command (AFRICOM) areas of responsibility (AOR). These courses were offered in Kuwait (Camps Arifjan, Buehring, and Ali Al Salem Bases); Qatar (Al Udeid Air Base); Bahrain (Manama Naval Support Activity and Isa Air Base); Djibouti (Camp Lemonnier); Jordan (Muwaffaq Salti Air Base), Egypt (North and South Camps) and United Arab Emirates (Al Dhafra Air Base). Over 80 degrees were awarded down range. The region’s National Test Centers (NTC) administered 2,634 credits for examinations. NTCs located at Al Dhafra and Al Udeid received accolades and official recognition from CLEP due to being in the top 20 sites internationally for proctoring the highest numbers of exams and staying within the military pass rates averages.
Troops to Teachers (TTT) helped 7,530 service members and veterans with services and support to become certified K-12 teachers with individualized counseling on state-specific requirements, referrals to education programs, and employment facilitation. Throughout the pandemic, many school districts faced significant challenges in attracting and retaining teachers. TTT partnerships with state departments of education helped connect veterans to school districts experiencing teacher shortages in critical areas such as Special Education; Bilingual Education; Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM); Career and Technical Education, and Early Childhood Education.
The Academic Skills Training program enrolled nearly 19,000 users in the Online Academic Skills Course (OASC). Learners completed more than 115,000 lessons and learning modules to increase their English, math, and science skills. The program team developed new videos that helped learners earn course certificates, access free tutoring, and understand how to leverage course features and support services better.
As a College and Career Planning System, Kuder Journey enabled 10,491 service members to complete 74,455 career assessments that supported the development of education and career goals. The career assessments helped service members define what they like to do (interests), what they are confident doing (skills), and what is important to them in the workplace (work values).
The Kuder Journey team focused on equipping VolEd counselors to leverage the platform better as they help service members. The group offered several live sessions to include: the Kuder Journey
scholarship search tool, best practices to locate colleges and universities within the system, and to help students overcome the impacts of COVID-19 on their education journey. The fireside chat training format enabled VolEd professionals to speak directly to the roadblocks they face on a day-to-day basis, as well as arm them with the confidence that input from VolEd field professionals results in programmatic changes.
In collaboration with the Contingency Area Education Support Program, Kuder Journey provided training, marketing materials, and assistance to two new overseas education offices.
TA DECIDE is a decision support tool that helped 25,000 users research and compared more than 2,494 colleges and universities based on degree programs, costs, military and veterans student outcomes, and more. The compilation of federal data helped service members determine the college or university that best fits their educational needs. The tool is available to service members, VolEd professionals, military family members, and the general public.
During FY22, 23,842 DANTES-funded candidates took 35,587 College Level Examination Program (CLEP) and DSST exams, earning 86,653 potential college credits, resulting in up to $18M in DoD tuition assistance cost avoidance. The Credit by Exam (CBE) program enabled DoD to evaluate, document, and translate prior learning into college credit recommendations.
The CBE team decommissioned the legacy DoD Voluntary Education System (DoDVES) Defense Business System (DBS) to improve program operations. It migrated the DANTES Academic Information Management System (DAIMS) portion of DoDVES to the Academic Institution (AI) Portal managed by the U.S. Air Force to support credit-by-exam score reporting. This effort reduced cyber risk while retaining key functionality to help service members.
Through a contract with the American Council on
Education, the Military Training Evaluation Program (MTEP) reviewed 244 military courses and occupations for college credit equivalency, generating 3,562 college credit recommendations, documented on the Joint Services Transcript (JST). Over 325,000 JSTs were sent to educational institutions on behalf of service members and veterans to help them apply college credit recommendations they earned for knowledge gained through military education, training, and occupational experiences toward college degree requirements.
The MTEP team continued to update and enhance the modernized Military Guide. Since the new Military Guide launch in April of 2021, more than 954 academic institutions registered for new accounts. The new Military Guide offered institutions an interactive web application that facilitates the award of academic credit to students based on their military learning experience. This effort aimed to increase the credit award process’s transparency and acceptance of college credit recommendations on the JST.
The Voluntary Education Support (VES) team provided outreach resources, digital information, virtual customer support, and development opportunities for the VolEd workforce. These activities supported the VolEd enterprise to:
• Increase service member awareness of education programs and benefits through digital resources such as promotional videos, the MilEd Benefits mobile app, Virtual Help Desk, Digital publications and job aids, the DANTES Information Bulletin (DIB), education program fact sheets, infographics foster current knowledge on counseling tools and resources, and a social media presence.
• Increase counselor proficiency to deliver education support services through professional development opportunities include webinars on DANTES-sponsored programs and the VolEd Professional Development Institute that provide counselors and education center managers with industry best practices.
The VES team worked with the VolEd community to provide webinar logistic support for 15 Webinars, three DCSNs, four DSCC Town Halls with a DSCC Director’s video message update, five Virtual PDI seminars, five Exhibit Booths, and nine In-Person Engagements, which include CCME and CAEL with over 10,467 in attendance.
Join our webinars as part of DANTES’ commitment to the Voluntary Education (VolEd) community, Military Services, and service members. Quality customer service and keeping you informed is an important part of our mission. Our webinars are offered monthly and range from a variety of education program topics. Visit the DANTES Webinar page frequently to see what is being offered. https://www. dantes.doded.mil/Webinars/index.html
As of 2022, the DoD has streamlined how MWR provides online library services to military members and their families. Members can now search for library materials and no-cost education programs; learn a new language; find a tutor; and check out digital and audio books; all just a few of the services available in the new one-stop library site found at: https://www.dodmwrlibraries.org/
DANTES encourages service members to visit this site and to register for an account following the simple instructions. Then they can go to the “Continuing Education” section, https://www.dodmwrlibraries.org/continuing-education , and select the “EBSCO Learning Express” option to verify eligibility and receive “DSST DoD Test Prep” materials for free. There’s a whole lot more too, but this will get members started and help them prepare for their DANTES-funded “Credit-by-Exam” and provide a better opportunity at passing. It’s a win-win! DANTES pays for the exam. Members get free study material, and they can save time and money towards completing their college degree program. Check it out today! https://www.dodmwrlibraries.org/
DANTES continues to collaborate with Military One Source as a way to let our valued customers know about the no-cost DoD education programs, benefits, and services that we provide to all eligible military members throughout the Military Services. Military One Source has posted podcasts on DVIDS, also known as the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service, for many years, but it began posting more regularly in 2022. These podcasts are available free via the DVIDS website and streamed for downloading on Spotify, Stitcher Google, Apple, and Amazon podcasts.
DANTES has recorded two podcasts for your listening enjoyment. The first provides an overview of our education programs and the second provides an update on the Troops to Teachers program. Take a moment to download them and hear about the latest program updates. Visit the DVIDS website here: https://www.dvidshub.net/podcast/520/ military-onesource-podcast
