“The highest education is that which does not merely give us information but makes our life in harmony with all existence.” — Rabindranath Tagore, 1913 Nobel Laureate for Literature
A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I would ask the administration about the courses that were set for me for Summer. One is a seemingly introductory Education course, and the other is a course on Instructional Design. With how immersed in my literature review I've been for the last few weeks, I didn't get the chance to call them, until yesterday.
By that point I almost didn't want to ask them. For one thing, I'd sort of waited a while. But it also started to occur to me that even though I've taken Instructional Design, it wouldn't kill me to take a refresher course on it. This is especially so since I'll be designing and implementing a course as part of my research, and A.T. Still University might have specific ideas about how to do this that will be covered in detail in these courses.
In the end, I still decided to speak with my Academic Support Coordinator, Lynn Daniels, about it, but with a more open mind. She's my assigned staff person to field questions about the overall process like this, so I knew I'd get good information. She explained that yes, the courses will be different from ones I've had in the past. Like all the other courses I've taken, these two will cover their own material, but they'll also be tightly knit into the dissertation process.
That's a pattern I've noticed. All of the courses in this program, no matter what their subject matter, revolve around the dissertation. In Proposal Preparation we concentrated on grant proposals that would fund our doctoral research. The initial Research course was all about preparing us for writing our initial chapters. Even the Finance course I took in my first term had discussions and assignments that were related to our dissertations.
And ultimately, I think that's a great strength of this program. In a world where half of all people who start doctoral programs end up dropping out during the dissertation process, this program's tight integration of it throughout the coursework greatly reduces that uncertainty without sacrificing the quality of the program. You still have to be self-starting and diligent, but that crucial support and structure are there for you.
And so, when Lynn explained to me that these courses were no exception in being part of the overall process, I backed off of any thought of trying to get exempted from them, since I know for sure that they'll actually be helpful. So I'll be taking them over the upcoming Summer term, and June 15 just isn't that far away....
But at least in the meantime, my family life picks up a bit.