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Earn a doctorate from just about anywhere with an Internet connection.
Written by Leslie Cranford and Michael Castellon
Two new programs let students earn a doctorate from just about any computer terminal with an Internet connection.
Texas Tech’s Ph.D. in Technical Communication and Rhetoric is the first online doctoral program in its field. Locke Carter, an associate professor of English and director of graduate studies in TCR, says the program’s online Ph.D. course provides opportunities for students from afar to complete the coursework.
“We surveyed our students after this past year’s May workshop,” he says. “They were quite enthusiastic about the outcomes and agreed that the event achieves what it sets out to do.”
Sally Henschel of Wichita Falls, Texas, has no qualms about getting her doctorate the less-conventional way.
“While the delivery of the courses is distant, the relationship between the faculty and graduate students is anything but that,” she says. “The online students within the program have formed a close international community.”
Also kicking off a new high-tech approach to advanced degrees is the Ed.D. in Agricultural Education. This program, operated in conjunction with Texas A&M, will enroll its third cohort of students in Fall 2006.
René Miller, co-owner of Miller Stock Farm in Thorntown, Ind., makes it clear that getting her doctor of education degree at a distance in no way compromises the value of the diploma.
“Without the Agricultural Education program I could not have continued my education,” she says. “I can’t afford to quit work and move my family to campus. At first I just wanted to get through the classes. Since then I have fallen in love with online learning and the potential it has to help people.”
A 2002 survey by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) showed about 2,876,000 enrollments in college-level, credit-granting distance education courses. Eighty-two percent of them were at the undergrad level.
Both of Texas Tech’s distance doctoral programs typically attract working professionals who want to pursue an advanced degree but must maintain their personal and professional commitments.
In the Technical Communication and Rhetoric program, many of the students are instructors at other universities. They have master’s degrees and are teaching but are also earning a Ph.D.
Ruben Saldaña, whose home in El Paso is a six-hour drive from Lubbock, is a county Extension director and one of the first grads of the Agricultural Education program.
Saldaña says taking the distance-learning program has provided a greater foundation for his career aspirations.
“I see problems and solutions differently, I investigate things differently and I have a much stronger appreciation for sciences and research,” he says. “It has made me more effective on the job and a better asset to my employer."
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Photos by Armando Godinez
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