AMU in the news

AP news item related to American Military University's online courses, including its homeland security certificate, is at http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20011018_1123.html . No mention of DETC...

 

Frederick Community College working with FEMA offer something similiar and it RA.

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This could be a defining moment for AMU.
Until a month ago, "homeland security" was a peripheral niche subject. Suddenly on the morning of 9-11, it become the hottest subject in American higher education. Air attacks, bio-terrorism and whatever else is inevitably coming, are suddenly dominating America's attention.

There are tens of thousands of police, fire, EMS, public health, national guard, corporate security and similar personnel that are suddenly expected to respond to unfamiliar threats. I'm sure that the market for education on terrorism, security and emergency management is going to be huge.

I don't think that the DETC issue is very important here. These prospective students already have security-related jobs and are looking for information on the kinds of threats they suddenly face and on how best to deal with them. If they get new positions based on their AMU study, most will probably be promotional.

What will be important is that these courses be available on a flexible schedule wherever the students are located, nationwide. That's a prescription for distance education.

As the article suggested, the biggest bottleneck limiting program growth will be finding enough qualified instructors on short notice. But there will certainly be more than enough students.

Whatever happens, this has the potential to put AMU, and indirectly distance education, on the map.