THE CHANGING NATURE OF THE DOCTORATE IN EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP

Higher education institutions have witnessed an increase in online education over the past two decades. According to a 2013 report by the Sloan Consortium, nearly 7 million students in the US were taking at-least one online college course. Although undergraduate and graduate degree programs have readily established online courses, post-graduate programs have only cautiously increased their online offerings. Recently however, the doctorate in educational leadership is one post-graduate discipline that has experienced a surge in online and or blended courses. While much of the research focuses on bachelors and masters online education, only a scant amount of literature addresses online delivery in doctoral courses. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to identify characteristics shared by educational leadership doctoral programs that use technology in teaching and learning.

This study applied quantitative methods. Data were collected through publically available websites from a sample of 51 US educational leadership doctoral programs. The criteria for inclusion required that the program was located in an accredited nonprofit university, identified as an educational leadership doctoral degree; and used explicit terminology (e.g. online, blended, virtual, hybrid) demonstrating that technology was a component imbedded in the delivery of coursework. An analysis of the data yielded the following predominant results: 92% of the program websites described themselves as blended whereas, 8% were described as online only; 55% noted that the curriculum supported diversity; 35% of the programs listed the number of years to degree completion; and 25% characterized the program as a cohort model.

Study limitations included that data collection occurred only from publically accessible websites and that the sample was specific to one country. Further research is needed to investigate multiple sources related to each program. In addition to greater depth, varied perspectives would illuminate whether the website aligns with other sources and could potentially reveal additional reciprocal characteristics. Even with these limitations, the initial study findings provide important information and offer a snapshot of changing trends in educational leadership doctoral programs that use technology in teaching and learning.