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Developing a Community of Practice to Support Limited-Residency Doctoral Students

Developing a Community of Practice to Support Limited-Residency Doctoral Students. Steven R. Terrell, Martha M. Snyder, and Laurie P. Dringus 14 th Annual Sloan-C International Conference on Online Learning November 5 – 7, 2008 Caribe Royale Hotel – Orlando, FL. Background.

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Developing a Community of Practice to Support Limited-Residency Doctoral Students

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  1. Developing a Community of Practice to Support Limited-Residency Doctoral Students Steven R. Terrell, Martha M. Snyder, and Laurie P. Dringus 14th Annual Sloan-C International Conference on Online Learning November 5 – 7, 2008 Caribe Royale Hotel – Orlando, FL

  2. Background • Approximately half of the students who begin a doctoral program will not graduate (Bowen & Rudenstine, 1992; National Research Council, 1996; Smallwood, 2004) • Dropout rates among students in distance education programs tend to be even higher (Rovai, 2002)

  3. Background • Stakeholders in higher education are concerned about the reasons for this attrition

  4. Student Success • A variety of demographic, social, and economic factors play a part in doctoral student success (Golde, 2005; Lovitts, 2001; Terrell, 2006, 2007)

  5. Academic Reasons • Lovitts’ (2001) research indicates nearly half of all students leaving a doctoral program cite academic reasons such as: • Lack of integration into the program • Failure • Problems with or loss of advisor • Loss of interest • Dissatisfaction with program

  6. Limited-Residency Dissertation Students • Higher attrition among these students due to: • Physical separation leading to feelings of isolation • Not on campus • Limited face-to-face interaction with peers and faculty

  7. What Can We Do? • Rovai (2002) suggests we can decrease the attrition rate by influencing students’ level of satisfaction and commitment

  8. What Can We Do? • Tinto (1997) suggests that establishing a learning community is one way to get students to feel connected to their academic programs

  9. Communities of Practice Communities of practice (CoPs) support a collective achievement of a group of people who share a common goal to build knowledge in a particular domain or practice (Wenger, 1998).

  10. Purpose To understand students’ needs for the development of an online community of practice (CoP) for students who are working on their dissertation, as well as the importance of participating in such a community.

  11. Research Question • How do limited-residency dissertation students feel about being part of a community of scholars?

  12. Sense of Community • Two constructs • Connectedness to fellow dissertation students • Connectedness to faculty

  13. Participants • All students (N=469) currently working on dissertation towards a degree in educational technology or information systems

  14. Method • Developed set of 18 questions • Adapted statements from Rovai’s (2002) Classroom Community Scale • Panel validated survey • Administered survey via Web

  15. Sample Questions • Faculty-to-Student Connectedness • I feel that I am encouraged to ask questions to the faculty about the dissertation process • I feel a spirit of community between the faculty and myself while I am working on my dissertation. • When I submit work to my dissertation advisor, I feel like I receive timely feedback. • I feel like I can easily communicate with faculty about the dissertation.

  16. Sample Questions • Student-to-Student Connectedness • I feel that students currently working on their dissertation care about each other. • I feel connected to other students in the program who are working on their dissertation. • I feel like I can easily communicate with other students about the dissertation. • I fell like I can rely on other students who are working on their dissertation for their support.

  17. Results • 47.5% (n=223) response rate • Internal reliability established by Cronbach’salpha of .873 • Principal Components Analysis resulted in two-factor model

  18. Results (cont.) • Parsimonious two-factor model each with an eigenvalue greater than 1.00, accounting for 64.04% of the variance • Faculty-to-student connectedness • Student-to-student connectedness

  19. Results (cont.) • Lower than average feelings of connectedness • Student-to-faculty connectedness (mean= 2.92 ) • Student-to-student connectedness even lower (mean = 2.21)

  20. Implications • Higher graduation rates for limited-residency doctoral programs require a unique platform to support dissertation students’ needs • A community of practice (CoP) may support these needs • Results give faculty and administration the information needed to build CoPs to meet these needs

  21. References • Ali, A. & Kohun, F. (2006). Dealing with isolation feelings in IS doctoral programs. International Journal of Doctoral Studies, 1(1), 21-33. • Bowen, W. & Rudenstine, N. (1992). In Pursuit of the Ph.D. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. • Golde, C. (2005). The role of the department and discipline in doctoral student attrition: Lessons from four departments. The Journal of Higher Education, 76(6). • Herzig, A.H. (2002). Where have all the students gone? Participating of doctoral students in authentic mathematical activity as a necessary condition for persistence toward the Ph.D. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 50, 177-212. • Janson, A., Howard, L. & Schoenberger-Orgad, M. (2004). The odyssey of Ph.D. students becoming a community of practice. Business Communication Quarterly, 67(2), 168-181. DOI: 10.1177/1080569904265421. • Lovitts, B. (2001). Leaving the Ivory Tower: The Causes and Consequences of Departure from Doctoral Study. Lanham, UK: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. • Lovitts, B. (2005). Being a good course-taker is not enough: A theoretical perspective on the transition to independent research, Studies in Higher Education, 30(2), 137-154. • Lovitts, B. (2007). Making the Implicit Explicit: Creating Performance Expectations for the Dissertation. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing, LLC

  22. References (cont.) • National Center for Education Statistics. (2000). Percentage distribution of doctoral degree students according to selected student, enrollment, and employment characteristics, by type of degree: 1999–2000. Retrieved May 10, 2006, from http://nces.ed.gov/das/library/tables_listings/show_nedrc.asp?rt=p&tableID=210. • National Research Council. (1996). The Path to the Ph.D.: Measuring Graduate Attrition in the Sciences and Humanities. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. • Perry, B., Boman, J., Care, W., Edwards, M. & Park, C. (2008), Why do students withdraw from online graduate nursing and health studies education?, The Journal of Educators Online, 5(1), 1-17. • Rovai, A. (2002a). Development of an instrument to measure classroom community. Internet and Higher Education, 5(3), 197-211. • Rovai, A. (2002b). Sense of community, perceived cognitive learning, and persistence in asynchronous learning networks. Internet and Higher Education, 5(4), 319-332. • Shea, P., Li, C., & Pickett, A. (2006). A study of teaching presence and students sense of learning community in fully online and web-enhanced college courses. Internet and Higher Education, 9, 175-190. • Smallwood, S. (2004, January 16). Doctor dropout. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved March 18, 2005 from http://chronicle.com/prm/weekly/v50/i19/19a01001.htm

  23. References (cont.) • Stevens, J. (1992). Applied Multivariate Statistics for the Social Science (2nded). Hillsdale, NJ: LEA. • Terrell, S. (2002). The effect of learning style on doctoral course completion in a Web-based learning environment. Internet in Higher Education, 5(4), 345-352. • Terrell, S., Dringus, L. & Snyder, M. (2007, November). The development and validation of an instrument to measure sense of community among dissertation students in a limited-residency doctoral program. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Florida Educational Research Association, Tampa, FL. • Terrell, S., Dringus, L. & Snyder, M. (2008, March). The development of an instrument to measure sense of community in a limited-residency doctoral program. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New York City. • Tinto, V. (Spring 1997). Enhancing learning via community. The NEA Higher Education Journal, 13(1), 53-59. • Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. • Wenger, E., McDermott, R., & Snyder, W. (2002). A guide to managing knowledge: Cultivating communities of practice. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. • Willging, P. & Johnson, S. (2004). Factors that influence student’s decision to dropout of online courses. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 8(4), 105-118.

  24. Developing a Community of Practice to Support Limited-Residency Doctoral Students Steven R. Terrell, Martha M. Snyder, and Laurie P. Dringus 14th Annual Sloan-C International Conference on Online Learning November 5 – 7, 2008 Caribe Royale Hotel – Orlando, FL

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