COURTESY JAY LEWIS Master Sgt. Jay Lewis, based in Forward Operating Base Salerno in eastern Afghanistan, is continuing to work toward his degree, even though he is deployed in a war zone, by taking online classes offered by Hawaii Pacific University.

Online college courses
follow soldiers to war

Isle-based personnel in Afghanistan
and Iraq find time to work
on college degrees

Except for the occasional rocket attack, taking online college classes while deployed in Afghanistan is not that much different from anyone else's college experience, says Master Sgt. Jay Lewis, who is with the 25th Infantry Division from Schofield Barracks.

"Thankfully, those rockets are extremely inaccurate," Lewis wrote in an e-mail interview from Forward Operating Base Salerno in eastern Afghanistan.

"The last time it happened, I was sitting in my tent doing homework, so I dropped everything and dashed into the nearby bunker," he wrote. "I haven't as yet been able to think fast enough to actually grab my textbook on the way out, but someday I'll make the best use of that time in the bunker and actually do some homework from in there."

Lewis, who is working toward a degree in computer science, is one of about six students in Afghanistan and four in Iraq taking classes through Hawaii Pacific University while in a war zone, said Bob Cyboron, the director of HPU's Military Campus Program.

Chaminade University, which also offers classes on military bases here, has about a dozen online military students in Afghanistan and Iraq, said Skip Lee, director of Accelerated Undergraduate Programs at Chaminade.

Online classes have become increasingly popular for military personnel. Hawaii Pacific University first offered two online classes for about 25 military students in 2000. This fall, there are about 700 students taking 63 online courses, Cyboron said.

The people who take classes on base range from active-duty personnel to family members and some civilian defense employees.

Both schools said enrollment at their military campuses dropped significantly last year when the soldiers were deployed from Schofield.

Langley Frissell, HPU's director of distance learning, said convenience is the main reason for the increase in online registrations.

But for military personnel, online learning means that if they are deployed or reassigned from Hawaii, they can still finish their degrees with professors they are familiar with.

"If they begin with us, they can go anywhere in the world and finish with us," he said.

Lewis, an information management officer with Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, Division Artillery, has access to the Internet and does his school work after his shifts in Afghanistan.

It can be difficult to balance his duties and homework, he admits. "But I am always willing to spend my free time or sacrifice a little sleep to pursue my education goals."

Lewis hopes to complete his degree in computer science just before he becomes eligible to retire from the military in May 2006, so he can start a second career.

Lewis said he hopes to take one or two more classes online while in Afghanistan and expects to be about three semesters away from graduation when he returns.

When he gets back, he will likely take a mixture of online and in-person classes.

The online classes, Lewis said, are "just as challenging" as other classes.

His professors post lessons and assignments online. Students interact through postings on computer bulletin boards.

Frissell of HPU said a speech class offered this fall had students from Afghanistan, Europe, Asia and the U.S. mainland.

The students posted messages to each other in different time zones to come up with proposals and then videotaped themselves giving a speech.

The speeches were posted online so they could be critiqued, and "the students were able to see each other for the first time," he said.