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����ֱ�� is no stranger to innovation. Ever since Captain Partridge’s revolutionary institution opened its doors more than two centuries ago, the University has been on the cutting-edge of higher education. Surely, he would be pleased to know that his American system of education is spread far and wide through the reach of the College of Graduate and Continuing Studies’ (CGCS) online presence.

“We were one of the first in the marketplace all the way back in the ’90s,” says , USA (Ret.), vice president of distance learning. “We helped pioneer the online education model and we had some really great early success.”

The rapid increase in users and commercialization of the online space spurred institutions of higher education across the country to heavily invest in distance learning. “The rather large institutions like Purdue Global, Columbia, and Western Governors University got in the market and took over a lot of the market share that we once dominated,” he says. “For the longest time, the CGCS operated separately from the residential campus, without sharing endeavors. As our operations have aligned to allow residential students to participate in online courses, the CGCS is becoming closer and closer to the residential campus, allowing us to maximize the infusion of the Guiding Values into our curriculum.”

Today, the University’s online and on-campus experience are becoming closer than ever. “That was probably a 10-year drift back to the University. As other entities market shares increased, CGCS became closer and closer to the original campus-based University,” says COL Lyons. “The CGCS is in a period of rebirth; from my perspective, we’re at the point where we’re really engaging in a very substantive and deliberate way with our campus colleagues.”

“That means a few things. One is that we’re close to our Guiding Values as an institution,” he says. “That’s one of the things that distinguishes us from virtually the entirety of higher education: our mission-driven values.”

While all schools have academic integrity requirements, the Honor Code and Guiding Values at Norwich provide a unique path throughout an educational journey. “Norwich really believes in integrity at large, not just a lack of plagiarism,” says COL Lyons. “What are your values? How do those values get embodied in how you live your life and how you participate in society?”

The CGCS leans into the foundation the University offers its students. “We’re really working hard to do three things,” he says. “The first is recalibrating a lot of our concentrations in our majors and so that they’re focused on what ����ֱ���� is good at — don’t try to be everything to everybody.”

“Two is modernization. Financial hurdles naturally create a reluctance with investment, and things can get stale,” says COL Lyons. “Our alumni care about the CGCS and encouraged reinvigoration. For example, the business world of 10-15 years ago is not the business world now. We dealt with COVID and have a whole new economic environment.”

The final pillar is something COL Lyons casually refers to as “Norwich-izing,” which is the continuation of instilling the school’s roots into each student — something that has been taking place in the virtual Norwich world since the CGCS’s founding. “Norwich stands for something much bigger than just the higher education experience,” he says. “It really stands for cultivating graduates of consequence, people that are willing to go out into the world and make a difference, not necessarily for business’s sake, but what purpose they will fulfill.”

“If an course is getting updated and it’s going to have a case study on mergers and acquisitions, maybe we even do a case study on one of our alumni,” says COL Lyons. “Maybe there’s a sidebar that comes of that where they talk about the principles in their case, ethics challenges, or personal stories of resilience, grit, or servant-leadership — any of those ����ֱ�� traits and characteristics that we should talk about, because that’s part of the education. You’re not just getting an MBA, but an MBA with a focus on making a difference in the world.”

“It won’t be overwhelming but weaving supplemental material into a master’s program will give us meaningful and complimentary educational, so when someone graduates, they feel like they understood the message that Norwich was trying to impart,” he says. “You can imagine that being relevant in something like our .”

COL Lyons highlights that even a person’s military background may have impacted history, even if it was not on the battlefield. “Alden Partridge himself reinvented the idea of an experiential education and Grenville Dodge [Class of 1851] was the chief engineer of the Transcontinental Railroad,” he says. “We have vignettes of examples that tell our students, ‘Hey, by the way, this is a part of our history.’”

Overall, the goal of the CGCS is to emphasize the experiential learning aspect of the University’s philosophy. While this is difficult in an online-first world, plans are already in motion. “We’re building out a voluntary residence which will be the Capstone Immersion Program,” says COL Lyons. “They’ll come to either our Norwich or Berlin campus for a week or two for a really intense combination of lectures and exercises with international partners. These folks will go through a real-world scenario exercise with injects, scripts, and responses that they need to do, and briefings they need to complete in a multi-disciplinary world, which is the world we live in.”

“There might be a diplomat in the room, a military person, a historian, or a cyber security student. They will all be a part of the problem solving and solution making because that’s how the real world works,” he says. “That’s the cauldron of life and the experience we want to deliver, and we’re building that out.”

Creating a lasting connection between the physical and digital worlds is key for the CGCS. “We have the AI Center, the Center for Peace and War, the Center for Global Resilience and Security,” says COL Lyons. “From my perspective, our graduate students who are doing research for their degree should be affiliated with a research center, selecting research topics that are enhanced by one of our centers who can help them become better professionals and develop resources for their research.”

“A lot of our military students are studying through a degree completion program with the Joint Special Operations University. They can’t come to campus because they’re full-time students elsewhere. But, if they’re curious and interested in some research we’re doing, even if we can share that in a virtual environment, that creates a ton of benefit for both the student and whichever center they pair with,” he says. “For those who can come and want to do related research, they can be integrated into that process.”

COL Lyons sees distance learning as an ideal way to expand the American system of education and Norwich’s Guiding Values and mission. “From an institutional point of view, there are three benefits. First is from a mission-driven perspective, we’re reaching out and touching a whole new population of people and imbuing them with ����ֱ�� values,” he says. “We’re showing them the benefit of having a values-based approach to education and what that means in a professional context. That’s very valuable to society.”

He also sees it as a boon for faculty. “It’s an opportunity to engage with colleagues across a whole new ecosystem of academics and professionals to collaborate with, and that’s a huge benefit,” he says. “They are able to expand their horizons past what is already available on our physical campus or in their personal networks.”

The third and final point surrounds attracting the highest-quality students available. “More important than all of that, though, is that we are able to reach out to a whole different set of student populations, particularly our military population,” says COL Lyons. “They are already very closely aligned with us philosophically and from a values-based point of view, and we can give them an education — both bachelor’s and master’s — that they’re comfortable with.”

“They’re comfortable with a military college because we talk the same language when they get on the phone. For them, it’s a new, comfortable system of higher education and are far more likely to complete their education,” he says. “We’re providing a comfortable place where all students can be themselves and get a high-quality, values-based Norwich education from a distance. They don’t ever have to come to campus — I hope they do — but they’re still going to get a quality Norwich education. To me, that’s priceless.”

This story was originally published in the 2026 spring edition of the Norwich Record.