Helping veterans transition into unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and geospatial technologies (GST) education programs
At this year’s National Science Foundation Advanced Technological Education Principal Investigator conference in Washington D.C., I attended a session called “Resources for Veterans Transitioning into Civilian Higher Education”. The speaker, Rodney Jackson, from the GeoTech Center introduced a variety of resources, that can not only be used by veterans to see how their military training translates into academic credits, but can also help faculty develop pathways for veterans into their UAS and GST programs.
Although the American Council on Education’s Military Guide (https://www.acenet.edu/Programs-Services/Pages/Credit-Transcripts/Military-Guide-Online.aspx) does not capture every course or every occupation in the military, I found it to be a valuable resource since I have little to no experience in evaluating military courses or occupations. In a nutshell, the Military Guide allows you to get detail information (i.e. objective, learning outcome, and recommendation of credits to be awarded) for specific military courses using the Course Search tool (sample report for the UAS Common Core course: https://www3.acenet.edu/militaryguide/ShowAceCourses.cfm?ACEID=1325076). Alternatively, one can get detail information about a military occupation and the suggested credits to award using the Occupation Search tool (sample report for the UAS Operator occupation: https://www3.acenet.edu/militaryguide/ShowAceOccupations.cfm?ACEID=MOS-15W-002).
For anyone who is interested in UAS and GST, they can take advantage of the crosswalks that have already been completed by the GeoTech Center. Theses crosswalks, which were authored by Rodney Jackson, already identified military courses that are related to GST and UAS, thus simplifying the process for educators who may want to start developing military to academic pathways in these areas. For more information about the crosswalks, please visit: Geospatial Technology Crosswalk (http://www.geotechcenter.org/geospatial-technology-coursesschools.html) and Unmanned Aircraft System Crosswalk (http://www.geotechcenter.org/unmanned-aerial-systems-coursesschools.html).
Wing Cheung, PhD
Principal Investigator, UASTEP
Wing Cheung is the Principal Investigator of the UASTEP project. He is a Professor of Geography and the Chairman of the Earth, Space and Environmental Sciences department at Palomar College. He is also the Coordinator of the Geographic Information Science as well as the Environmental Studies programs. In addition to hosting outreach events and UAS workshops for high school students, he develops UAS curriculum and oversees the creation of the UAS Associate’s Degree at Palomar College.