INFORMATION BULLETIN August 2022 In this issue: DANTES All things Voluntary Education Enterprise Support (VES)!!! By: Michelle Alexander, Emily Bachman, Erin Roberts and A’donna Hudson, Voluntary Education Enterprise Support Outreach All things VES / 2 DANTES Sponsored Webinars / 3 MilEd Benefits App / 4 Social Media / 6 Virtual Help Desk / 9 Contact Info / 11 and more!muchso 1
All Things VolEd Enterprise Support! By: Michelle Alexander The VolEd workforce includes professional educa tion counselors, education specialists, and educa tion services officers from each branch of military service, located worldwide. The DANTES Voluntary Enterprise Education Support (VES) branch provi des outreach resources, digital information, virtual customer support, and DANTES sponsored pro grams and services development opportunities for the VolEd workforce. “As a DANTES branch focused on enterprise support to the DoD VolED community, our daily focus is researching, planning, creating, distributing, and analyzing our products and services to best contribute to service members achieving their individual education goals” Ron Steiner, VES Branch Supervisor. These activities support the VolEd enterprise to: • Increase service member awareness of educa tion programs and benefits through digital re sources such as promotional videos, the MilEd Benefits mobile app, the DANTES website and Virtual Help Desk, and a social media presence. • Increase counselor proficiency to deliver educa tion support services through: * Professional development opportunities such as webinars on DANTES sponsored programs and the VolEd Professional Deve lopment Institute that provide counselors and education center managers with indus try best practices. * Digital publications and job aids such as e-books, the DANTES Information Bulletin (DIB), education program fact sheets, and infographics that foster current knowledge on counseling tools and resources. Inside this issue, readers will gain insight on: • DANTES-sponsored webinars • The MilEd Benefits mobile app resources • How to connect with DANTES • Leveraging social media for VolEd outreach • Customer support via the virtual help desk • Counselor reference material available as e-books In case you missed previous editions of the DIB, the following issues can be found at dantes.doded.mil/Resources/dib.htmlhttp://www. . These issues include: • February: Transforming Credit for Military Lear ning into Service Member Success • March: Helping Service Members Unlock the Power of Their Own Potential through Kuder Journey • April: Credit for Prior Learning: How Much Credit Do Colleges Actually Accept for Military Courses, Occupations, and CLEP/DSST Exams? Let’s Find Out! • July: 2022 DoD Voluntary Education (VolEd) Professional Development Institute (PDI) 2
DANTES Sponsored Webinars
By: Emily Bechmann DANTES provides regular hosted and Servi ce-supported webinars to the VolEd Workfor ce and facilitates webinars provided by DoD Education Partners. Webinars enhance profes sional development for the VolEd Workforce by increasing program awareness of the DANTES Education Programs and other DoD Education Resources, such as EBSCO Learning Libraries. additional line of effort includes the DANTES Counselor Support Network, a forum facilitated to share information, discuss best practices, and collaborate among peers. Training delivery has been incorporated using platforms such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom for Government. The use of these platforms has allowed DANTES an opportunity to better meet the needs of our customers, reduce travel costs for in-person training, broadly connect with those in different time zones, and build upon our YouTube Channel with recorded webinars and other promotional videos for customers to reference when convenient for them. DANTES-hosted webinars are recorded and available for viewing via the DANTES YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/c/DoDDANTES/ picture see video!
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• Education Fairs include in-person/virtual atten dance, with speaker and exhibitor support.
For more info or to submit a request, don’t hesitate to get in touch with the DANTES Outreach Coordi nator, Emily Bachman at dantes_outreach@ us.navy.mil. 4
• Military Services' Education Program Information to support the Services' Voluntary Education (Vo lEd) communities and individual service mem bers by focusing on specific Service education/ career planning resources.
• An easy to read online format with information on DoD voluntary education programs and other education resources.
• DANTES Sponsored Education Program Infor mation to support a member's pursuit of their educational and career goals.
• Tools for Professional Education Counselors designed to help the Services' Voluntary Educa tion (VolEd) community of professionals assist military students with their educational journey; VolEd Counselors, contact dantes_outreach@ us.navy.mil for the access code.
Event Coordination
MilEd Benefits Mobile App Download the MilEd Benefits mobile app today to learn about military education benefits for U.S. Armed Forces service members. Service members can maximize the use of their military education resources by learning about Defense Department, Department of Veterans Affairs, Military Services, and DANTES sponsored education programs - anyti me, anywhere. With simple-to-use eGuides and a user-friendly design, the MilEd Benefits app provides a one-stop shop to find no-cost education benefits that can help members with military advancement, completing a college degree, and transitioning to civilian employment after serving.
DANTES supports external engagements through in-person and virtual speaker requests, exhibitor booth coordination, and education fairs.
MilEd Benefits provides a host of resources and up dated voluntary education information including:
• Speaker Requests include in-person and virtual presentations between 15 to 60-minutes in len gth, highlighting DANTES Sponsored Education programs and services.
• News and Updates, Downloadable Flyers, Videos, and Encouragement.
MilEd Benefits Mobile App – Available on the Apple Store or Google Play!
• Exhibit Support – DANTES hosts exhibit booths at conferences and symposiums, to share infor mation and promote program awareness.
WITHCONNECTDANTES DoD VolEd programs can help you get promoted, complete your college degree, and successfully transition to civilian employment after serving. DANTES provides service members and the Ser vices’ Voluntary Education (VolEd) communities with no-cost education and career planning resources. Check us out today! 3 EASY WAYS TO CONNECT: 1. Download the MilEd Benefits app to get started on your education anytime anywhere 2. Follow us on our website and social media: • facebook.com/DANTES.DoD • twitter.com/DANTES_DoD • linkedin.com/company/dantes-dod/ • instagram.com/dantes_dod/ 3. Join our monthly webinars or watch them on youtube/DANTES DOD www.myvoled.com 5
Using Social Media to Communicate and Build Program Awareness
Social Media DANTES uses the following social media platforms and we encourage the DoD VolEd community of pro fessionals to follow us, share, and use our messaging and graphics to help make your job easier. After all, our audience is your audience… we are all here to encourage and help our service members pursue and complete their education and career goals!
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By: Erin Roberts Your DANTES Voluntary Education Enterprise Support (VES) Team is comprised of five individuals commi tted to supporting the Defense Department’s (DoD) VolEd community. We work together to coordinate with Service education professionals to build program awareness and to help ensure that all of our na tion’s actively-serving service members, including the Military Services, National Guard, Reserve Compo nents and the U.S. Coast Guard, know about the education benefits available to them at no cost. We do this through several avenues of outreach, to include DANTES website management, our 24/7 customer inquiry response tool, the monthly DIB newsletter, monthly program webinars, and five social media platforms. In this article, we are going to focus on how these platforms can enhance communica tion and help to build program awareness.
Social Media Platforms
DANTES has a social media (SM) presence on the following platforms and each year we see continued growth. That growth shows that these platforms do help to spread awareness of DANTES sponsored edu cation programs with service members and their families:
Information shared on our SM includes program information and updates, service member testimonials, education quotes to inspire, and more. We continually share information on Service education websites and webpages to increase overall knowledge and awareness of the importance that the pursuit of an education can offer to service members and their families.
We know that SM is used by service members to gather information about our programs because the number of our followers remains consistent; and on most platforms, we see continued growth. According to the Pew Research Center, You Tube and Facebook are ranked as the most popular platforms, “When Pew Research Center began tracking social media adoption in 2005, just 5% of American adults used at least one of these platforms. By 2011 that share had risen to half of all Americans, and today 72% of the public uses some type of social media.”
• Facebook https://www.facebook.com/DANTES.DoD
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• Twitter https://twitter.com/DANTES_DOD
• Linked In https://www.linkedin.com/company/10843412/
• Instagram https://www.instagram.com/dantes_dod/
• YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAD8yGhGBeDAtIPMW7Eu-sA
References for Pew Institute: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/10/07/7-facts-about-americans-and-instagramhttps://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2021/04/07/social-media-use-in-2021https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/social-media/ journalists-but-not-for-the-public/tps://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/06/27/twitter-is-the-go-to-social-media-site-for-u-s-ht With regards to the use of SM, we hope that all Service education professionals will take the time to visit our SM platforms regularly and share our content. You can visit our website and find all of the SM platfor ms in one location, https://www.dantes.doded.mil/Resources/Connect.html
• Among younger users, the share is larger: 73% of 18- to 29-year-old Instagram users say they visit the site every day, with roughly half (53%) reporting they do so several times per day.
• 70% of adult Facebook users say they use the platform at least once a day, according to the 2021 sur vey findings.
• Twitter is by far the most common social media site U.S. journalists use for their jobs, but the public most often turns to Facebook for news.
The Pew Research Center, https://www.pewresearch.org/, offers many other interesting statistics on the use of social media by Americans:
• Young adults are the most likely group to say they use Instagram. Around seven-in-ten Americans ages 18 to 29 (71%) say they use Instagram.
• About six-in-ten U.S. adults who use Instagram (59%) say they do so at least once a day.
• Those with higher levels of education are more likely than those with lower levels of educational attainment to report being LinkedIn users. Roughly half of adults who have a bachelor’s or advanced degree (51%) say they use LinkedIn, compared with smaller shares of those with some college expe rience (28%) and those with a high school diploma or less (10%).
• Facebook is used by 69% of Americans.
• YouTube is used by 81% of Americans.
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Looking For Answers - Virtual Customer Support is Always Available By: A’donna Hudson One of DANTES’ newest customer service platforms is providing self service customer support through an answer bot search engine. It is a 24/7 virtual customer support help center that offers many up-todate informational articles about DANTES sponsored programs for military members and their families. The help desk offers a unique answer bot that is there for immediate assistance if needed. DANTES also offers an online help form option for those individual questions that need further assistance. Check us out today at https://www.dantes.doded.mil/. 9
connect.ebsco.com The DoD MWR Digital Library offers free resources to help you prepare for critical military exams such as DSST, ASVAB and AFOQT. Use these step-bystep instructions to access EBSCO LearningExpress materials and more. Accessing Your Test Prep Materials 1. Visit DoD MWR Libraries at https://www.dodmwrlibraries.org 2. From the home page, click the Continuing Education image (Note: You may also access EBSCO LearningExpress by clicking the Digital Collections A-Z tab in the top navigation bar. If you choose this option, you will then need to click the + sign to expand the list of Continuing Education resources.) 4. Enter your DoD Identification Number (EDI-PI) and Date of Birth to access EBSCO LearningExpress. (Note: If you do not know where to find this number, click the Where can I find my EDI-PI link.) 5. Enjoy unlimited use of test preparation materials! 3. Click the “Access” button under EBSCO LearningExpress. Ask a Service Librarian for more information. 10
Editor Reproduction in whole or in part is permitted for any purpose of the United States Government, except that copyrighted materials cannot be reproduced without written permission from the copyright owner. The appearance of external hyperlinks does not constitute endorsement by DANTES of the linked websites, or the information, products, or services contained therein. For more info contact DANTES_Outreach@us.navy.milus: company/10843412https://www.linkedin.com/ 11
Jeff Allen, Director Michelle Alexander,
