Stephanie Pitassi served in the United States Air Force from 2003–2007, during which she completed her undergraduate degree online. After that, she worked as a civilian for the Air Force as an instructional designer designing online courseware for technical training from 2010–2016. When her husband’s military career relocated their family to San Antonio, Texas, she decided to stay home with her children for a couple of years and earn a master’s to help restart her career the next time they moved.
“We went to visit my parents in Tuscaloosa, and my little sister was in the Early College program, so I found out about UA’s online degree programs,” Stephanie said. UA Early College is a dual enrollment program that allows high school students to earn college credit before they graduate. “We visited the campus, and I fell in love! I was enrolled at another university, but once I found out I could do my program through Alabama, that was it! And the tuition was so affordable that my GI Bill covered the entire cost of the program.”
In January 2019, Stephanie began her master’s in Instructional Technology 100% online from The University of Alabama. The online format made it possible for her to manage the demands of motherhood alongside her coursework, even with her husband away on active-duty assignments for the majority of her time in the program. Offered through UA’s College of Education, the program offers an approach that can be used in public education, corporate training and other technology-based learning environments.
“Most of my classmates were from K–12 or college education environments, and there was one other student in my classes who had a military background. I was worried that it was going to be too teacher-based, but it wasn’t. It really helped prepare me to be an instructional technologist in any environment,” Stephanie said.
Thinking ahead for her career is part of what motivated Stephanie to pursue her master’s, but she also wanted to be an example for her children. “I wanted to do it for my kids. They’re at the age now where they’ve started to understand what they want to do — one wants to be a doctor and one a teacher. It was good for them to see that Mommy works hard and wants to do things too.”
Her son Lucas is a gamer and her favorite class, Game-Based Learning, gave her some extra time to connect with him. “He wanted to be in my class, too! He did some of the games, and I learned about video games and how much he is learning while he’s playing. There’s so much behind it — critical thinking and puzzles and all this really interesting stuff.” Dr. Andre Denham is the faculty coordinator for the program and has said this is his favorite course as well. “Dr. Denham is on it and knows everything about game-based learning,” Stephanie said.
She also praised Dr. Vivian Wright who oversaw her Capstone project, a portfolio of all she had learned in each course. “She was really wonderful and helped me reflect on everything and bring it all together to see how impactful the program had been for me.”
Stephanie completed her program’s final requirements in Spring 2020, while also helping her son and daughter adjust to their own online learning as a result of social distancing measures in place at their school. She said her experience as an online student and the concepts she learned in the Instructional Technology program came in handy for them. “It helped me teach them how to be better online learners and use strategies that are helpful for online education.”
The Pitassis relocated to South Carolina after Stephanie graduated with her master’s. She is looking forward to jumpstarting the next phase of her career and is thankful for the master’s she earned from UA.
“There’s no way I could’ve finished my master’s without it being online. I was extremely happy and impressed with the program, and I think it’s prepared me to go back into the career force and get a professional job outside of the military. Sometimes we get stuck in our own lane and the civilian vs. military barriers can be tough. But I feel like this has equipped me to get back out there.”
Published: September 1st, 2020