ACSC OLMP?

[likearock1515]

I just wrapped up the OLMP in December. I doubled up on two back to back semesters, which was kind of draining. I didn't know which classes were best to combine, so I'm glad you asked! I found these to be the easiest classes: Practice of Command (LC-5510), International Security Studies (NS-5510), Airpower Studies (AP-5510), and Leadership and Warfare (LW-5510). I had to take (and pass) three courses before I could sign up for two at one time, and I assume its the same now...if you want to double up on your fourth semester, you'll need to send a heads up to the student help desk folks, as your registration window will close before your 3rd course grade is submitted and your account can be "unlocked." It was easy to do this, just plan ahead!  They will make sure you are on track to pass and unlock your registration

I would definitely not recommend doubling up classes while taking the Joint Planning, Joint Forces, or Research 1 or 2 classes, but you'd still be able to manage passing scores if you need to. I'm not sure of the prerequisites that were required to take before some classes were unlocked, but here's a notional order in which I would take the classes: Joint Forces, Joint Planning, Joint Air Operations (send double course registration request about a month from finishing this class), International Security Studies + Practice of Command, Research 1 (if unlocked), Leadership and Warfare + Airpower Studies, Warfare Studies + work on your research paper for research 2 if you want, then wrap up with Research 2.  Good luck!

[VETTE277]

How fast can OLMP be completed ? Is it possible to speed run like DL-ASCS (which says 7 months to complete but you can really do it in like 3) ?

 

Also if you have previously completed DL-ACSC, is there any credit towards OLMP ?

[likearock1515]

6 hours ago, VETTE277 said:

How fast can OLMP be completed ? Is it possible to speed run like DL-ASCS (which says 7 months to complete but you can really do it in like 3) ?

 

Also if you have previously completed DL-ACSC, is there any credit towards OLMP ?

I guess there would be a minimum of 7 8-week semesters, so about a year and a couple months. That includes three double-turn semesters, two of which would contain research classes. That would be a heavy lift, but if all you care about is getting C's, you can probably manage. I think some courses do not get unlocked immediately either, so you'll maybe need to map out pre-reqs. Most courses were available when I would look at registering for them. The research courses can't be started until a certain number of classes are done.

No it is not like the DL-ACSC; there are no self-paced courses, other than the orientation course. All courses are facilitated, structured with mid-term essays, weekly discussion boards, and final exam essays. Some also have group projects. As for transferring credit, I doubt those courses give any credit towards the masters program, but you can ask the help desk.

[TBLADE]

23 hours ago, likearock1515 said:

I just wrapped up the OLMP in December. I doubled up on two back to back semesters, which was kind of draining. I didn't know which classes were best to combine, so I'm glad you asked! I found these to be the easiest classes: Practice of Command (LC-5510), International Security Studies (NS-5510), Airpower Studies (AP-5510), and Leadership and Warfare (LW-5510). I had to take (and pass) three courses before I could sign up for two at one time, and I assume its the same now...if you want to double up on your fourth semester, you'll need to send a heads up to the student help desk folks, as your registration window will close before your 3rd course grade is submitted and your account can be "unlocked." It was easy to do this, just plan ahead!  They will make sure you are on track to pass and unlock your registration

I would definitely not recommend doubling up classes while taking the Joint Planning, Joint Forces, or Research 1 or 2 classes, but you'd still be able to manage passing scores if you need to. I'm not sure of the prerequisites that were required to take before some classes were unlocked, but here's a notional order in which I would take the classes: Joint Forces, Joint Planning, Joint Air Operations (send double course registration request about a month from finishing this class), International Security Studies + Practice of Command, Research 1 (if unlocked), Leadership and Warfare + Airpower Studies, Warfare Studies + work on your research paper for research 2 if you want, then wrap up with Research 2.  Good luck!

Awesome, thanks for the help!  I'm not in a huge time crunch but think I need to double up once to meet the timeline I'm eyeing.  

[supertrooper44]

On 1/22/2023 at 9:06 AM, likearock1515 said:

I just wrapped up the OLMP in December. I doubled up on two back to back semesters, which was kind of draining. I didn't know which classes were best to combine, so I'm glad you asked! I found these to be the easiest classes: Practice of Command (LC-5510), International Security Studies (NS-5510), Airpower Studies (AP-5510), and Leadership and Warfare (LW-5510). I had to take (and pass) three courses before I could sign up for two at one time, and I assume its the same now...if you want to double up on your fourth semester, you'll need to send a heads up to the student help desk folks, as your registration window will close before your 3rd course grade is submitted and your account can be "unlocked." It was easy to do this, just plan ahead!  They will make sure you are on track to pass and unlock your registration

I would definitely not recommend doubling up classes while taking the Joint Planning, Joint Forces, or Research 1 or 2 classes, but you'd still be able to manage passing scores if you need to. I'm not sure of the prerequisites that were required to take before some classes were unlocked, but here's a notional order in which I would take the classes: Joint Forces, Joint Planning, Joint Air Operations (send double course registration request about a month from finishing this class), International Security Studies + Practice of Command, Research 1 (if unlocked), Leadership and Warfare + Airpower Studies, Warfare Studies + work on your research paper for research 2 if you want, then wrap up with Research 2.  Good luck!

One class left (Research 2) and I would second this plan if you really want to double up. 

I doubled up twice and now am taking this term off to work on my final paper. All in all it will take me a little under two years to have finished the whole program. 

Note that they have been adding requirements/assignments as the good idea fairy strikes someone at AU. The last class I took was NS-5510 and we had to do this AI-graded article review, weekly Zoom sessions (the sessions themselves aren't mandatory but the written reflection is graded), discussion posts, VoiceThreads (perhaps the dumbest assignments ever), and some papers. It turns into kind of a lot when you actually have stuff to do at work. 

Be thinking about what you want to write about for your final paper. When enrolling in Research I they say you don't have to know, but you have to turn in an assignment at the end of Week 1 basically picking your topic. 

All in all it wasn't a terrible program - I'd say much of it exceeded my (admittedly low considering it's AU) expectations and did take away some useful gouge. Add in the fact it's completely free and doesn't incur an ADSC and it's one of the better deals out there. 

My main complaint was how poorly the classes are balanced out. AFPC uses it as competitive thing for civilians, so I had a number of classes where there were only one or two other dudes/dudettes who had any ops or deployed experience. Makes it tough to discuss things when the people with no experience are just regurgitating info from a random JP. 

[mp5g]

1 hour ago, supertrooper44 said:

My main complaint was how poorly the classes are balanced out. AFPC uses it as competitive thing for civilians, so I had a number of classes where there were only one or two other dudes/dudettes who had any ops or deployed experience. Makes it tough to discuss things when the people with no experience are just regurgitating info from a random JP. 

Ah, takes me back to Distance Learning ACSC, Afghanistan ‘18. I decided that after hacking the mish, turning bad guy bodies into pink mist, then coming back and having to discuss “use of force” or “diplomatic resolutions” with a bunch of noners and civilians was pissing me off to no end, literally wanting to make me go out and kill someone. Trump was happy to oblige with the ROE and ISIS.

I didn’t sign up for another course until rotating back home. 

[filthy_liar]

On 1/22/2023 at 8:06 AM, likearock1515 said:

I just wrapped up the OLMP in December. I doubled up on two back to back semesters, which was kind of draining. I didn't know which classes were best to combine, so I'm glad you asked! I found these to be the easiest classes: Practice of Command (LC-5510), International Security Studies (NS-5510), Airpower Studies (AP-5510), and Leadership and Warfare (LW-5510). I had to take (and pass) three courses before I could sign up for two at one time, and I assume its the same now...if you want to double up on your fourth semester, you'll need to send a heads up to the student help desk folks, as your registration window will close before your 3rd course grade is submitted and your account can be "unlocked." It was easy to do this, just plan ahead!  They will make sure you are on track to pass and unlock your registration

I would definitely not recommend doubling up classes while taking the Joint Planning, Joint Forces, or Research 1 or 2 classes, but you'd still be able to manage passing scores if you need to. I'm not sure of the prerequisites that were required to take before some classes were unlocked, but here's a notional order in which I would take the classes: Joint Forces, Joint Planning, Joint Air Operations (send double course registration request about a month from finishing this class), International Security Studies + Practice of Command, Research 1 (if unlocked), Leadership and Warfare + Airpower Studies, Warfare Studies + work on your research paper for research 2 if you want, then wrap up with Research 2.  Good luck

How are you looking on your primary duties?  I did all of my PME up to AWC but I never obtained the level of understanding of all of that up there.  Maybe I was an idiot...if they selected me for a school, I showed up and did my best.  Those two paragraphs just read to me that you are putting a heck of a lot of effort into participating in and understanding PME.  Maybe it has changed, but when I went through - instead of all of that up there that you typed, we would be strategizing tee times and arguing about who owed who a round of scotch.

[likearock1515]

On 1/24/2023 at 8:02 PM, filthy_liar said:

How are you looking on your primary duties?  I did all of my PME up to AWC but I never obtained the level of understanding of all of that up there.  Maybe I was an idiot...if they selected me for a school, I showed up and did my best.  Those two paragraphs just read to me that you are putting a heck of a lot of effort into participating in and understanding PME.  Maybe it has changed, but when I went through - instead of all of that up there that you typed, we would be strategizing tee times and arguing about who owed who a round of scotch.

I think I put in above average effort on the OLMP compared to other military classmates, not that I don't think they took it seriously. The civilians supertrooper44 mentioned put in an above average amount of effort as well I thought, and they provided an interesting perspective. I'll agree it was frustrating to be put into a group project with non-ops people, but you have to work with them everyday so do your best to not look like a jerk and come to some mutual understanding of what the Joint Force is/does.

I did fine with primary duties I think. I went through three upgrades during the OLMP, had a decent office workload, and we had our first kid. I definitely made sure to work on classwork at work to the max extent possible though, and I didn't try to hide it. If the Air Force wanted me to get a degree/IDE, I wasn't going to sacrifice too much home time to knock it out. Nobody called me out on doing non-work stuff at the desk, and my shop chief even would assign things to other folks if they knew I was working on a paper. I probably did one third of the discussions/papers/projects at work. For the research paper, I wrote at least half of it at work. I doubled up classes on deployments, since my usual deployment day looks like 1 hour of preflight, 5 hours of flying, then 18 hours of nothing.

Unfortunately, the kid prevented me from scheduling too many of the tee times you were fortunate enough to focus on, but I did drink more than usual to get through some zoom reflections and discussion posts. 🙂

[filthy_liar]

Fair enough.  Just busting your chops.  If I had paid half as much attention to PME as you do I probably would've done better.

[Danger41]

Anyone done this as a WIC grad? I see you can do the Operational Warfare Concentration and get 12 out of 30 credits for it. Would it be possible to finish the remaining 6 classes in a year?

[StrikeOut312]

13 minutes ago, Danger41 said:

Anyone done this as a WIC grad? I see you can do the Operational Warfare Concentration and get 12 out of 30 credits for it. Would it be possible to finish the remaining 6 classes in a year?

I went that avenue and slow rolled it. If you’re diligent, you could absolutely do it. The classes are about 8 weeks long. 2nd to last class you gather research and define your question, last class you write a 25-pager. If you already know what you want to write about, you should gather research material during the first four classes. Those first four aren’t too bad.

[HossHarris]

I’d bet a WIC paper could be fashioned into an ACSC paper fairly easily …