Online Doctorate of Education (EdD) Degree Program

The courses in this sequence (EDDC 700 through 705), Scholarly Writing, provide opportunities for doctoral candidates to develop and refine their scholarly writing during the first year of the education doctorate in order to become successful writers both during and beyond their academic career. Course topics include writing article abstracts and analyses, critiques, and literature surveys. Strategies for reading critically, organizing and developing thoughts, choosing appropriate vocabulary, and revising their own writing are also covered. Candidates will practice concrete strategies for drafting and revising texts and will develop greater metacognitive awareness of their writing processes. Through peer editing experiences, candidates will develop the ability to be thoughtful readers of their peers’ writing. Candidates write and revise various genres of scholarly writing during the course sequence, culminating in 705 with a revised draft of the Comprehensive Connection paper.

This course is grounded in the belief that it is the responsibility of educators to employ ethical practice in the daily activities of their personal and professional lives. Educators must also ensure that the institutional policies and practices of their school or organization adhere to the application of ethical practice throughout the workplace. The course will emphasize human subjects research issues of harm and deception. This study of the use of ethical principles in an educational context will include an examination of the underlying assumptions and implicit or explicit policies that can support or erode ethical practice. As a result of the activities and discussions completed in this course, candidates will have the opportunity to transform their personal and professional ethical lives and priorities.

The courses in this sequence (EDDC 700 through 705), Scholarly Writing, provide opportunities for doctoral candidates to develop and refine their scholarly writing during the first year of the education doctorate in order to become successful writers both during and beyond their academic career. Course topics include writing article abstracts and analyses, critiques, and literature surveys. Strategies for reading critically, organizing and developing thoughts, choosing appropriate vocabulary, and revising their own writing are also covered. Candidates will practice concrete strategies for drafting and revising texts and will develop greater metacognitive awareness of their writing processes. Through peer editing experiences, candidates will develop the ability to be thoughtful readers of their peers’ writing. Candidates write and revise various genres of scholarly writing during the course sequence, culminating in 705 with a revised draft of the Comprehensive Connection paper.

Based on the view that an individual's beliefs influence his or her actions in powerful ways, this course encourages candidates to reframe their world-view to move away from knowledge transmission towards transformational learning. Candidates will deconstruct conformity to social and cultural canons which have permeated U.S. public schools to a negative effect. They will examine theories that are meant to catalyze social transformation and individual change, and develop their own theory and practice of transformative learning for social change.

The courses in this sequence (EDDC 700 through 705), Scholarly Writing, provide opportunities for doctoral candidates to develop and refine their scholarly writing during the first year of the education doctorate in order to become successful writers both during and beyond their academic career. Course topics include writing article abstracts and analyses, critiques, and literature surveys. Strategies for reading critically, organizing and developing thoughts, choosing appropriate vocabulary, and revising their own writing are also covered. Candidates will practice concrete strategies for drafting and revising texts and will develop greater metacognitive awareness of their writing processes. Through peer editing experiences, candidates will develop the ability to be thoughtful readers of their peers’ writing. Candidates write and revise various genres of scholarly writing during the course sequence, culminating in 705 with a revised draft of the Comprehensive Connection paper.

This course emphasizes the need for organizations to foster an environment where creativity, inventiveness, and entrepreneurship are expectations in the culture. Topics are investigated through popular literature and case studies of individuals who have made significant break-through contributions in the areas of science, music, art, and business. The course will address such questions as "What is the essence of creative work? Can creativity be learned? How critical is it for organizations and leaders to innovate? What conditions are necessary in the workplace to foster an environment where creativity, experimentation, and innovation are welcomed? Who determines what is creative and what is not? Why is innovation more likely found in the commercial and nonprofit sector rather than schools?" Lastly, the course hopes to tap the creative potential within all of us and illustrate its value for our own growth as well as the health of the organization.

The courses in this sequence (EDDC 700 through 705), Scholarly Writing, provide opportunities for doctoral candidates to develop and refine their scholarly writing during the first year of the education doctorate in order to become successful writers both during and beyond their academic career. Course topics include writing article abstracts and analyses, critiques, and literature surveys. Strategies for reading critically, organizing and developing thoughts, choosing appropriate vocabulary, and revising their own writing are also covered. Candidates will practice concrete strategies for drafting and revising texts and will develop greater metacognitive awareness of their writing processes. Through peer editing experiences, candidates will develop the ability to be thoughtful readers of their peers’ writing. Candidates write and revise various genres of scholarly writing during the course sequence, culminating in 705 with a revised draft of the Comprehensive Connection paper.

This course focuses on helping learners internalize the knowledge, attitudes, skills, and values necessary for facilitating organizational improvement in schools and colleges. In particular, it zeros in on the theory and technology of Organizational Development (OD), and the "what, why, and how" of planned change in diverse educational settings from pre-school to graduate school. Additionally, the course content is undergirded by person-centered values, democratic leadership skills, as well as the ideology of service-management, and is aimed at facilitating excellence in student-centered teaching and learning.

The courses in this sequence (EDDC 700 through 705), Scholarly Writing, provide opportunities for doctoral candidates to develop and refine their scholarly writing during the first year of the education doctorate in order to become successful writers both during and beyond their academic career. Course topics include writing article abstracts and analyses, critiques, and literature surveys. Strategies for reading critically, organizing and developing thoughts, choosing appropriate vocabulary, and revising their own writing are also covered. Candidates will practice concrete strategies for drafting and revising texts and will develop greater metacognitive awareness of their writing processes. Through peer editing experiences, candidates will develop the ability to be thoughtful readers of their peers’ writing. Candidates write and revise various genres of scholarly writing during the course sequence, culminating in 705 with a revised draft of the Comprehensive Connection paper.

The first course specific to your concentration.

The courses in this sequence (EDDC 700 through 705), Scholarly Writing, provide opportunities for doctoral candidates to develop and refine their scholarly writing during the first year of the education doctorate in order to become successful writers both during and beyond their academic career. Course topics include writing article abstracts and analyses, critiques, and literature surveys. Strategies for reading critically, organizing and developing thoughts, choosing appropriate vocabulary, and revising their own writing are also covered. Candidates will practice concrete strategies for drafting and revising texts and will develop greater metacognitive awareness of their writing processes. Through peer editing experiences, candidates will develop the ability to be thoughtful readers of their peers’ writing. Candidates write and revise various genres of scholarly writing during the course sequence, culminating in 705 with a revised draft of the Comprehensive Connection paper.

The second course specific to your concentration.

This course focuses on library research in support of a literature review along with continuing development of candidates’ academic writing. The course builds upon the critical thinking practices developed in EDDC 702 and 703, and it emphasizes the interrelatedness of critical reading, writing, and thinking in the pursuit of identifying and understanding the research literature on a topic. Candidates will locate and closely examine peer-reviewed, published research articles on their chosen dissertation topic. Candidates will leave this course with a substantial annotated bibliography of literatures on their topic and a completed literature matrix.

The third course specific to your concentration.

This course builds upon the work completed in EDDC 706. Candidates will use the annotated bibliography and matrix to write an initial Literature Review that presents an argument about the state of research on their topics. Substantial time will be devoted to critiquing previously written Literature Reviews as a way of helping the student understand the differences between a well-written and a poorly-written literature review. The completed literature review will provide the foundation for developing a quantitative research question and prospectus about the topic in EDDC 708 and a qualitative research question and prospectus for the topic in EDDC 709.

The fourth course specific to your concentration.

This course focuses on developing scholarship and understanding in behavioral and social science quantitative research. Doctoral candidates will craft an initial quantitative research prospectus based on the quantitative research question developed previously in EDDR 707. Candidates will identify their research niche (i.e., find a gap, or weak connection, or alternate connection in literature); establish their research niche (i.e., situate their research question in context, purpose, and conceptual framework); and occupy their research niche (i.e., state the proposed study’s significance and the nature of the study, operationalize variables, and determine assumptions, delimitations and limitations).

This course helps beginning educational researchers balance the competing demands of formal experimental and survey design principles with the ever-present practical constraints of the real world so that they can conduct sound quantitative research. Emphasis will be placed on formulating research questions, identifying relevant target populations, selecting respondents for study, refining definitions of the effects of interest, identifying relevant comparisons, selecting appropriate measures, including descriptive, inferential, and probability statistics, determining how many subjects to study, taking advantage of the results of previous research and pilot studies, and anticipating the unanticipated. The quantitative research designs of survey, correlation, causal-comparative, and comparative will be examined.

The prospectus is a preliminary description of the proposed research study. The prospectus provides doctoral candidates the opportunity to develop a draft of a qualitative research prospectus, under the guidance of their Faculty Chair. The prospectus demonstrates the doctoral candidate’s ability to present his or her view of an investigative passion or situation, as a research idea, that he or she is making a case for using relevant, rigorous, and feasible methods.

The goal of this course is to examine inquiry from a relativistic, but systematic, way of knowing. Candidates will apply qualitative research principles through coherent study of the established methodological designs of narrative, phenomenology, grounded theory, ethnography, and case study. The issues of alternative knowledge claims, validity or trustworthiness, in-depth field work, and data collection and analysis will be examined through these six strategies of inquiry.

Taken twice in Year 2

Under the guidance of the Faculty Chair and dissertation committee, candidates will develop and execute a feasible, ethical, and scientifically valid dissertation research study and write a dissertation to report the development, execution, and completion of the study. The dissertation will include: a logical, organized Introduction; a synthesized Literature Review; a well-articulated and sound Methodology; a scientifically accurate and precise presentation of Data Analysis and Results; and, a well-developed Discussion and Conclusion. The dissertation is a scholarly document or presentation intended to demonstrate the research competence of the author and to produce greater understanding resulting from a comprehensive, logical, and ethical investigation. The dissertation is an expression of a high level of critical thought and is expected to be a substantive contribution to the theory or practice of its discipline or field of study.

NOTE: Must take a minimum of eight times. May be repeated for up to 78 credits within the seven-year time limit to earn the degree.

Taken twice in Year 2

Under the guidance of the Faculty Chair and dissertation committee, candidates will develop and execute a feasible, ethical, and scientifically valid dissertation research study and write a dissertation to report the development, execution, and completion of the study. The dissertation will include: a logical, organized Introduction; a synthesized Literature Review; a well-articulated and sound Methodology; a scientifically accurate and precise presentation of Data Analysis and Results; and, a well-developed Discussion and Conclusion. The dissertation is a scholarly document or presentation intended to demonstrate the research competence of the author and to produce greater understanding resulting from a comprehensive, logical, and ethical investigation. The dissertation is an expression of a high level of critical thought and is expected to be a substantive contribution to the theory or practice of its discipline or field of study.

NOTE: Must take a minimum of eight times. May be repeated for up to 78 credits within the seven-year time limit to earn the degree.