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It's time to rethink the dissertation process

The recent completion of my doctorate in instructional technology and distance education brought with it a mixed bag of relief and annoyment. While the end result was certainly rewarding, I found the process an excruciating experience in isolation. The coursework was rich in interaction with classmates, instructors, and outside resources. And this is how it should be, considering that the remainder of ones career as a high-level academic will be spent in discussing, researching, analyzing, refuting, defending, and revisiting the topics of the field. And yet, the dissertation process was, by its very nature, a one person, lone wolf, isolated affair. One person creates the project, writes the sections, reviews the literature, creates and implements the experiment, writes the results, and summarizes the findings. Yes, there was the dissertation committee that provided guidance, much like an English instructor provides formative feedback during a writing assignment. But the actual process of creating a dissertation was done by a single person. In fact, collaborative efforts in the creation of a dissertation would, at the very least, reek of academic dishonesty and accusations of cheating if discovered. And yet when the doctorate is completed, the remainder of research projects are typically done in a highly collaborative and collegial atmosphere. 

There is a movement in higher education towards authentic assessment, the creation of assessment activities that are similar to the activities a student would encounter in their workplace. It's time for the dissertation process, which is arguably the grand-daddy of all assessment activities, to be redesigned so that the experience not only adds to the body of knowledge but also provides the researcher with an authentic experience that would be a model for future research activities. Wow, the possibilities of collaborative research projects created by doctoral students sharing expertise and working off each others strengths could provide exceptional results! It was recently stated (and my apologies for not knowing the source) that Abraham Lincoln could walk into a modern day classroom and feel at home and how it's time to redesign the classroom model to take advantage of recent advancements in education so that he would not at home. The same can be said for the dissertation process: let's revise the dissertation process to create an authentic assessment opportunity that could add significant value to the student experience.    

The open movement

I've been doing considerable reading on the opencourseware movement for a special project. Opencourseware is, of course, the movement to freely available course content from higher ed institutions. The public can log in to these courses and partake in as little or as much of the course as desired. No credit is given, there is no interaction with the instructor or other students, and the seeker of knowledge is not associated with the institution in any way. The more I immersed into the open movement, the greater I realized was the extent of freely available course content. And with the availability of course content comes the possibility of open education, or the ability of students to create their own degree plan based on the needs of their future employer. This unbundling of the current educational model presents a mind-boggling assortment of ideas, options, and possibilities, way too large in scope for a single blog post. However, the intent of unbundling is to make higher education 1) accessible to the masses rather than a privileged few, 2) remove the cookie-cutter approach to education and replace with a model more in-tune to what future employees actually need to be competitive in the job market, and 3) make education something that is desired rather than required by students.

Arizona State University Skysong hosted the Education Innovation Summit in April 2010, an invitation-only event for business, education, government, and others. The purpose was to begin discussion on how to change the current model of education and what would be necessary to do so. A number of thought-provoking sessions are now available. Of particular note are the following sessions:

• Education is Free, Credentials are Expensive
• Open Campus
• Disruptive Technologies and How They'll be Deployed

A recurring theme throughout the summit, and in other media that discuss open educational resources, are the need to unbundle the higher educational package now provided to students. The one-size-fits-all is the model that has evolved over tens and hundreds of years, but the accessibility and immediacy of content makes this a less-than-ideal method for educating a workforce that is more and more dependent on technology and accessibility to knowledge.

Recurring themes for future examination include open source course management systems (think Moodle or Google's recently announced CloudCourse), opencourseware, open university models (University of the People or P2PU), and open access publishing (big thanks to Terry Anderson and AU Press for their continued support for this long-overdue need.

Other Sessions from the DLA 2009

Session summaries from the 2009 Distance Learning Administration conference.

This is a session on cheating in online courses. Based on dissertation findings, he had some interesting things to share.

Academic policies do help in reducing cheating. Anything in writing that students can read will reduce (not eliminate).

Cheating falls into four broad categories

1. Different person taking class
2. Collaboration during an assessment adctivity
3. Use of unauthorized resources
4. Using false technology failures

A number of methods for reducing specific cheating in eash area were then provided. One was to reduce the weighting of exams and quizzes.

________________________________________________

Mission driven approach to distance learning leadership, 9 a.m.

The presenter couldn't make it so he presented using Skype. Interesting and great sound quality. Dr. Bernard Bull, Concordia Univeristy. Travel budgets cut back on his travel. Format works well.

• office of DL, focused on business operations
• individual instructor as designer, developer and instructor
• growing use of adjuncts for desiging, developing and teaching
• 2006-formed instructinal design center.

Primary goal

• Instructional design leadership aligned with institution core values
• first priority to elearning projects
• elearning office part of acaemic affairs
• 
  

Five assumptions

1. Need mission statements
2. Need to guide actions of organization
3. help organization decide what not to do
4. elearningand f-2-f will never provide same exsperience
5. both can share common mission and core values

Other sessions at TXDLA 2009

Too many sessions scheduled at the same time required quite a bit of session-juggling. Regardless, there was some great information to be had. Tyler Junior College has put together an excellent instrument for evaluating online courses. Dubbed the "Distance Education Course Standards Course Certification Checklist", the instrument is for reviewing courses prior to being taught online. It covers a number of areas including documentation, professional development, a "Start Here" module, syllabus, and several others. Easy to understand and appears to cover all the bases. 

Also attended the hands-on workshop "DE on a Shoestring", by Dr. Brett Millan. Lots of resources in this one, with handouts for open courseware, Web 2.0 apps, and open source apps. The presenter did a great job of demonstrating how these tools could be used in a classroom situation. 

One of the most intriguing uses of YouTube was that of the interactive video. A series titled "The Murder" shows a 2 minute drama. The final scene asks the viewer to select what action the heroes should take next by clicking a link. The link takes the viewer to the results of their decision. Imaginative use of YouTube.

A session on cloud computing brought out a debate between faculty and IT on the degree that networks should be locked down. Some networks are locked so tightly that the latest cloud computing apps are unavailable. IT contends that this must be done to secure the institutional network, while faculty argue that this prevents students from learning and experiencing the latest cloud applications.  And the argument continues....

Copyright/fair use was covered by Stephany Compton and Jake McBee of Texas Womans U. Documentation is key, as faculty must verify that content used in courses has been properly requrested from the author/owner. A number of links were provided for more info. And pleasant surprise: all attendees received a flash drive with presentation preloaded! Great idea, and hopefully one that will catch on as flash drives come down in price.   

Other resources:

Google docs

Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell

Glogster

Andragogy

Vlog It!

Flickr

Zoho

Big Huge Labs (Flickr add-ons)

Open Office

First day of TXDLA 2009

This is the first day of sessions at TXDLA 2009, and some great ones they were. First one attended dealt with the READI assessment tool. Lots of institutions beginning to use this to assess the readiness of students taking online courses. We've been using it since 2008 but found out about some customizing features such as creating custom text per group and displaying national averages. Need to check out the features of the latest edition.

Also attended a session on a qualitative research study dealing with faculty attitudes about teaching online. They suggested setting up peer training sessions so that faculty could assist each other with learning new technology skills. Gotta try that one. They also suggested relating the addition of technology skills with tenure portfolio. Give recognition for the amount of time required for learning new skills.

I then attended  a session on an Adobe product for easy vlogging. The presenter mentioned a Microsoft product called Windows Media Encoder which is a free screen capture utility. Never heard of this one but can't beat the price.

The last session of the day was the VCT Coordinator's Update provided by Ron Thomson. Ron always has some great things in the works and this session was no different. New apps being purchased for 2010 include CARAT, an online course review process. This is similar to Quality Matters but in an online format. Can't wait to see this in the fall when released. Also the possibility of Presidium and Turnitin, but these last two aren't guaranteed due to budget worries. VCT is also working with NETNet on a master course in Biology or A&P. This would be available to all VCT institutions and include learning objects developed using Softchalk.