Online degree programs gaining traction

EDMONTON (CUP) — With the migration of technology to the classroom, the availability of online doctoral programs is increasing, but concern is growing about retention and mentorship within these programs.

A study led by Liam Rourke at the University of Calgary is beginning to examine the effectiveness of the “e-PhD.” So far, the research has only been examining previous literature, but Rourke is concerned about keeping students in the programs.

“This is a consistent finding in the literature, that both of these domains, both distance education and doctoral programs, have traditionally had a lot of difficulty with retention,” Rourke said.

Rourke is also concerned about professional socialization in distance doctoral programs, which is not as relevant at the bachelor or master level of education. However, at the doctoral level, mentorship from supervisors becomes a large component of a program, which is difficult from a distance.

“At the doctoral level, what you’re trying to create is a steward of the discipline, somebody who is a producer of new knowledge in a field, rather then a consumer of knowledge. In order to do that, you need to do more then just impart factual knowledge to a student,” Rourke said.

Margaret Haughey, vice president of academics at Athabasca University, agrees about the importance of apprenticeship, but does not think that has to occur on campus.

“At the doctoral level, it’s about that other piece, it’s about how do you get supervised. It’s important that there be that continuing conversation, whether you’re having it online or in the classroom,” Haughey said.
Haughey also believes that the idea of a traditional student is disappearing and that universities have to accommodate this change.

“The idea of a student as divorced from a family and relationships and children is an increasingly Victorian idea. How do universities accommodate that? The big research ones tend to say ‘come on campus,’ but the others have to accommodate,” she said.

The other issue for Haughey is the definition of a student as being at a distance, because often students will leave campus to study abroad, or work, and then come back to finish their program.

“I think that this assumption that people come on campus and stay all the time until they complete versus those who would do it at a distance in today’s life, It’s very difficult to make these kinds of generalizations,” Haughey said.

Rourke said that since online doctoral programs are fairly recent initiatives in Canada, it’s hard to speculate about their success.

“These programs are just getting started, so right now we’re just speculating on what some of the challenges that they will face might be,” he said.

He said he can understand the attraction of online programs for both students, especially those that cannot get funding and need to work through their degree.

“For those people that have all these other sets of responsibilities that they’re unable to suspend, the notion of getting their doctoral degree online is very appealing,” Rourke said.

These types of programs are also attractive for institutions, allowing for an increase in enrolment and access.

“Like all things technological these days, it just seems exciting and universities want to project an image of being on the cutting edge of educational technology and doing all they can to make their programs accessible to students,” Rourke stated.

But even if these programs are appealing, Rourke thinks that the quality of doctoral programs needs to be protected.

“In order to be competitive globally in the knowledge economy, this is going to require world-class researchers, and the place where we’ve typically developed our researchers is in PhD. programs, so the quality of these doctoral programs is really important to Canada’s economy,” Rourke said.

In Canada, only four universities offer online doctoral programs, two of which are in Alberta. The University of Calgary offers two education doctorate degrees and Athabasca University offers a doctorate of business administration and a doctorate of distance education.