My A.T. Still University Experience : dissertation process

Moving toward Cape Peninsula

SteveFoerster — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 01:34:00 GMT

“Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts.” — Arnold Bennett

This morning I called Johannes Cronje, the Dean of Informatics at Cape Peninsula University of Technology, to which I'm considering switching instead of continuing at A.T. Still University. Since the school is in Cape Town, South Africa, I had to get up early enough to reach him before they close up shop in the afternoon their time. For someone in such an important post he's very friendly and approachable — he joked that he was nervous to speak to me, as he knows that calls from the U.S. are hideously expensive. I reassured him that I was using Skype, an Internet phone service, and it cost so little that I could talk all day. The downside was that while the the call quality started off all right, it deteriorated markedly, so I may want to consider other options if I'm potentially making calls there frequently.

Anyway, we talked about the faculty member he had originally suggested I might want to work woth closely, but it turned out that he'd chosen that person in particular because he thought that I was specifically interested in health informatics. When I explained that I was more interested in topics related to educational informatics, he said in that case he'd probably connect me with a faculty person there named Pamela Martin. Either way, he told me that the first thing I should do is email him a one page document that briefly outlines my proposal for a research topic.

Fair enough. The thing is, that means that now I have to decide what topic I actually want to do. Like really this time. At ATSU I got sort of pushed into something that was conducive to my interest in veganism, but not at all to my interests in development studies, educational technology, open educational resources, or distance learning. This time it's all up to me, but that means I have to choose carefully, and to find some aspect of the interplay of all these topics that actually suggests a sustainable research question.

The other thing is that in addition to Professor Martin as a primary supervisor, and being backed up by Dean Cronje, he reminded me that I'd also need to find a local external supervisor. The unfortunate thing is that even though I've attended one university in this area and worked at two others, I still don't know any faculty members there who I feel would be right in that role. I need to find someone nearby with a doctoral degree who's keen on open educational resources, the developing world, and educational technology, preferably within a reasonable drive of here. That's no easy task, so it's time to start seeing who in my network might know the right person. Then again, I had to find two external reviewers for the program at ATSU, so I ought to be able to find just one for Cape Peninsula.

So anyway, that's where I am right now. We'll see that happens, but it seems that I'm moving in this direction more and more and considering returning to A.T. Still University less and less.

Next up, behold the rise of the Chinese Ivy League!

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Summer Courses: No Change

SteveFoerster — Wed, 27 May 2009 16:30:00 GMT

“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.

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Chapters One and Two are Submitted

SteveFoerster — Tue, 26 May 2009 16:40:00 GMT

“With me, a change of trouble is as good as a vacation.” — David Lloyd George

I've been pretty quiet for the last few weeks, because I was immersed in writing the first and second chapters of my dissertation, the introduction and the review of the literature. I was also taking the Proposal Preparation course at the same time. All this together took an awful lot of time, and the bottom line was that when I would get the chance to write it would either be for my lit review or it would be a blog entry. Sorry, dear readers, but I had to look out for number one.

The reason I didn't have a minute to spare is that the way things with in this program, we have ten weeks to write both chapters. This is a tough row to hoe. I've mentioned the first chapter, I was able to finish that in about the first half of the term. The second chapter I finished last night. Now they both go to my committee, which will probably cover them in red pen and send them back for revision. I'm especially expecting this for my literature review, because I know it's too short, and I know there are areas where it could use more elaboration. And if I see them, my committee will definitely see them. There will also probably be points that I didn't cover where they want to see some review. So when their responses come in, once again I will have a lot to do.

In the meantime, however, I can go back to getting the work and family parts of my life back into balance. It's as good as a vacation!

As an important additional note, I'd like to thank Dr. Mac, who was unflaggingly encouraging, especially when I was getting pretty frazzled about finishing even the sort of draft that I did ultimately turn in. There are programs out there where the faculty try to run students through the gauntlet so that only the strongest survive. This program definitely isn't one of them, and I appreciate it!

Next up, an update on those summer courses.

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Q&A: Finding Committee Members

SteveFoerster — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 16:50:00 GMT

A reader recently asked me, “I am strongly considering the Doctor of Health Education program and would like to know how you went about finding two committee members. I really like the format of the program with the integrated dissertation and all, but I am not so sure about finding two people who I can rely on for the next two years. What is your experience like with this issue?”

One of the great things about the Doctor of Health Education program is that you start working on your dissertation from the first week you're in the program. The flip side of this is that it's like learning to swim by being thrown into the pool.

Because of this, I think the best way to approach the program is to go in already having a pretty clear sense of what sort of research project you want to do. During the first course you'll get this starting point idea stretched around a little, and that's okay, but if you have a reasonable sense of what will interest you then you can think ahead of time about who your two external reviewers might be.

In other words, if there's a topic that already interests you, I don't think it's premature to look for external reviewers now. What I did was put together a spreadsheet where I listed people whose descriptions online made them seem not only qualified but also having a compatible research interest to mine. When the time came to ask for external committee members, I had a set of email addresses ready so that I could reach out to possible committee members right away.

Note that this was a list of people I didn't already know. That can be a little strange, it's basically saying, “Hi, I realize you don't know me, but I'd like to work with you for the next two years. What do you say?” But, if you don't ask, you don't get, and it turns out there are people out there happy to help with this sort of thing.

The other approach is to shake your tree of personal contacts. You may find that someone you know peripherally is actually perfectly suited to help oversee your research. While I found one of my committee members through the spreadsheet/cold call method I described, I found the other by taking a closer look at colleagues from work and realizing that one was perfect.

So I suppose the bottom line is that it's sort of like looking for a job — you tell all the people you know what you're looking for, and you also network as much as you can beyond that.

A final bit of good news is that the school will help you look for external reviewers if you really get stuck and can't find ideal people to help you. I didn't have to take them up on it, but it was reassuring that the option was there.

Next up, I comment on a legal victory for educational fair use of copyrighted materials.

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Sailing the sea of red ink

SteveFoerster — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 21:11:00 GMT

“If your conclusions are refuted, blame the reviewers for letting the article get through.” — C.Nothing

Just yesterday I was basking in the near triumph of having my first chapter ready to send to my external reviewers. All I had to do was get a clean bill of health from the Writing Center that all of my APA citations and references were styled properly and I'd be good to go. So right around the time that I made yesterday's chirpy little post I received my reply from the Writing Center, and not just from anyone there but from Dr. Ade Anast, the director herself. This didn't bode well either, as the paper she emailed back to me had almost as much red ink on it as a federal budget.

Her primary concern was that I was making assertions and claims that I wasn't backing up with peer reviewed sources. When I got my chapter back from her it looked like a bad Wikipedia article, you know, those ones that have ^{[citation needed]} all over the place. And at first I'll admit I was unhappy about this. I mean, if my dissertation chair was saying everything looked okay, who was this new person coming in to say otherwise, right? But by the time I reached her by phone to discuss her advice, I'd chilled out and remembered that the idea here is that this work needs to be as tight as it can be, and that the best thing to ensure this is to have as many people read it as possible who are willing to call things as they see them.

The good news is that I'm not saying anything particularly controversial in this chapter, and shoring up my assertions with scholarly sources shouldn't be too difficult. I also appreciated additional the additional insight I received about A.T. Still University from my conversation with Dr. Anast, who was really friendly, even relaying a few stories from her own experience writing a doctoral dissertation. Most importantly, it reaffirmed for me that everyone who is involved with this program is dedicated to ensuring that it's academically rigorous and that the work we students do will truly earn us the degree. And it's awfully tough to be upset about that.

Next up, I take a break to answer a reader question about my experience finding committee members.

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