Full Description
Our technologically advanced society has generated many rapid changes in higher education in recent years. These changes have been recently exacerbated by the global pandemic COVID-19. Educational institutions around the world have adapted to offering their programs by distance, usually via online computer platforms. While many levels of credentials already existed successfully online, the elite and difficult doctoral degree has remained largely traditional, a bricks-and-mortar program, requiring attendance and perhaps a major lifestyle transition for learners. COVID has changed and will continue to change that.
This book explores the world of online learning and online doctoral study post-COVID and in the future. From "should I undertake this learning?" to how to choose a supervisor and manage the online research experience, using her years of experience and insight, the author has compiled a practical guide outlining not only how to successfully undertake online doctoral study but also how to wisely transfer that acquired online acumen beyond graduation, into the academic life. Newly-minted PhDs and EdDocs face a steep learning curve when entering the professorial life in the Ivory Tower of higher education. This down-to-earth, plain language, and often humorous text explores the pedagogical advantages of the online experience and their usefulness to the new academic hire. Current doctoral learners, both traditional and online, as those mulling future educational plans, and doctoral completers surveying higher education opportunities will benefit from the insight and advice in this very frank text.
Contents
Preface
1 Introduction: A Foundational Landscape of Academia and Online
Doctoral Learning
1 The Importance of Language
2 My Own Relationship to Doctoral Studies and Online
Learning
3 A Broader Context
4 Final Words
2 Can I? Should I? Making the Big Commitment
1 Is There a Case for NOT Entering a Doctoral Program?
2 Some Anecdotal Observations from a Long-Time Academic
and Lifelong Learner
3 Who Engages in Online Doctoral Study?
4 How Does an Online Degree Differ from a Face-to-Face
Degree in These Respects?
5 What the Learners Say
6 What's the Big Deal?
7 Burning Questions Posed by Doctoral Students as They
Consider Entering an Online Program
8 Are You Ready for Online? A Case for Online Readiness
9 Final Words
3 Program Orientation and Residency: What and Why?
1 Program Models and Their Relationship to Orientation
2 The Cohort Model and Its Relationship to Orientation
3 An Example of an On-site Orientation
4 What an Orientation Can't Do
5 Final Words
4 Learning Online in a Doctoral Program
1 The Language of Distance Education (DE)
2 A Short History of Distance Education
3 Adult Education, Philosophy, and the Beauty of Online
Learning
4 Your Presentation of Yourself
5 Synchronous Presentations
6 Asynchronous Presentations
7 Assessment of Online Presence
8 Assessment of Learning Activities
9 Final Words
5 Your Dissertation: The Tour de Force
1 The Nature of Research
2 How Does the Online Doctoral Dissertation Differ from the
Traditional Dissertation?
3 Supervisors: Choosing Them, Co-existing, Liking, and
Communicating with Them, Being Mentored
4 Shop for Your Supervisor from the Get-Go
5 Getting along with Your Supervisor
6 Enjoying a Mentored Relationship with Your Supervisor
7 Types of Supervisor Relationships: Good, Bad, and Ugly?
8 When the Supervisory Relationship Breaks Down
9 How to Start: Tackling the Dissertation
10 The Long and Winding Road: Writing the Dissertation as an
Online Learner
11 Choosing and Using Your Research Sources
12 The Supervisory Dissertation Committee
13 Presenting and Defending Your Dissertation
14 Publishing Your Dissertation: A New Adventure
15 Final Words
6 Stayin' Alive: Your Emotional Health and Wellness
1 The Hidden and Nuanced Stressors
2 Staying Alive and Well
3 Forming Community Online
4 Helping Learners Help Themselves
5 Helping Hands from Faculty and Administrative
Personnel
6 Things Online Teaching Faculty Can Do to Help
7 Things Administrative Personnel Can Do to Help You
8 Final Words
7 Hoops, Gates, Joining the Club, and Then What?
1 Academic Excellence
2 Joining the Club
3 Respect the Club
4 And Then What to Do ...
8 From the Trenches: Students' Reflections on Their Online Doctoral
Programs
1 Program Shape and Highlights
2 Other Voices
3 Final Words
9 The Next Step: Finding Your Fit in Academe
1 The Professoriate
2 Focus on Teaching: The Teacher
3 Focus on Administration: The Administrator
4 Focus on Institutional Loyalty: The Soldier/Stalwart
5 Focus on Collegial and Social Connection: The
Networker
6 Focus on Institutional Politics: The Politico
7 Focus on Recognition: The Star
8 Focus on Intellectual Productivity: The Dogged Scholar
9 Final Thoughts
10 "The World Is Too Much with Us": COVID-19 Changes the
Game
1 Adjustment of Space and Place
2 Adjustment to Social and Personal Anxiety
3 Adjustment to Post-Pandemic Society
4 The Path Forward: The Digital Scholar
5 But Wait, There's More
6 Final Words
11 Concluding Thoughts and Some Seasoned Advice
1 What Next? Advice for the New Dr
2 What Next? Advice for the New Academic Hire
References
Index
