Implementing an Online Professional Practice Doctoral Program in a PhD Environment: Managing the Dilemmas

Abstract

As EdD programs are revised across the United States, it is important to understand how the development of innovative approaches to these degrees gains traction in higher education settings, especially those with a history of traditional PhD preparation. In this article, we describe the creation of a job-embedded online EdD program designed as a professional practice doctorate for full-time education practitioners. The nature of the program, the challenges that we have confronted, and our emerging strategies for addressing challenges contribute to the conversation about changing paradigms of doctoral preparation.

An Online Doctorate for Researching Professionals: Program Design, Implementation, and Evaluation

“…This on-campus experience proved very Further Considerations 183 fruitful, and a stronger community was clearly evident by the end of the week, as evidenced by both increased traffic in the online community from that point forward and feedback from students (Kenney et al, 2013). Others have also written about the importance of on-campus experiences during online doctoral programs (Jones, Warren, Ennis-Cole, Knezek, Lin, & Norris, 2014;Adams et al, 2014).…”

“…In fact, many professional doctorates still have research requirements aligned to those of PhD programs, although concerted efforts are underway to make such courses more practical to match the goals of professional doctorates (Bengston, Jones, Lasater, & Murphy-Lee, n.d.). The challenge of offering appropriate research courses for professional doctorates is often magnified when Further Considerations 187 the program is online (Adams et al, 2014;.…”

Project-Based Learning and Doctoral Student Research Skill Development in an Online Professional Practice Doctoral Program

“…While adopted as a signature pedagogy, many Ed.D. programs continue to struggle with how best to teach the skills of practitioner research (Adams et. al, 2014).…”

Understanding the Problem of Practice: An Analysis of Professional Practice EdD Dissertations

“…In response to the call to reconceptualize the dissertation experience for EdD students, many professional practice doctoral programs have experimented with and studied alternative dissertation formats to the dissertation experience. Creative examples from published sources include replacing the traditional dissertation experience with (a) a team-produced, client-consultant oriented culminating report (Smrekar & McGraner, 2009); (b) a thematic dissertation that asks students to explore a common topic (Marsh & Dembo, 2009); (c) a portfolio of individual and collaboratively produced writing projects (Browne-Ferrigno & Jensen, 2012;Maxwell & Kupczyk-Romanczuk, 2009); (d) creation of a project and project report (Everson, 2009); and (e) an action research or practitioner inquiry dissertation (Adams, Bondy, Ross, Dana, & Kennedy-Lewis, 2014;Wetzel & Ewbanks, 2013).…”