Hello all
I also don't want to rain on people's parade, but I support a lot of what
Anthony had to say here. I think mounting a totally online doctoral program
would be really difficult and current policies ( at least here in Canada)
don't support it. This might change with the times but here are some of the
issues.
It's hard to get into most doctoral programs ( and please don't think I am
saying that you are all not worthy!). Rather, committees are used to seeing
fairly traditional resumes and records.
Most programs depend on their doctoral students for teaching and for
applications to granting agencies such as SSHRC. Right now programs are
measured against the ability of their students to acquire such grants and
non-traditional on-line students might have difficulty being perceived as
candidates for such grants. Also most teaching still occurs in classrooms
(although some is moving into online venues)
It's also one thing to have a student do an email kind of course--sort of
like a reading course, and quite another kettle of fish to design a real
online course and then an online program. A real online course involves
discussion groups, online activities etc, etc. Money and time would have to
go into the development of such courses.
I don't think that an online doctoral program is impossible, but I think an
online quality program would be more difficult to design and implement than
our discussion indicates.
I also suspect that you will have to politic hard to get a university to
deliver such a program. Some universities are interested but they need
incentives; they need identifiable groups; they need voices from on high;
they need money.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Anthony Paré" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, September 25, 2002 4:36 PM
Subject: Re: Distance PhD - English / Rhetoric - suggestions sought
> McGill does have residency requirements and, even if it didn't, I'm not
> sure a complete PhD program-at-a-distance would be a great idea, for
> either the candidate or the institution. (More on that in a moment.)
> However, there are ways of fulfilling residency requirements that don't
> involve a full-scale re-location to Montreal. We have spring and summer
> sessions, all our Education graduate courses are offered in the evening
> (5:30-8:30; Ottawa-based students have managed to take one and even two
> of those courses in a semester), and no one keeps residency attendance.
>
> A distance-PhD would rob the student of chances to immerse herself in a
> community of fellow students. As we all know, the hours spent discussing
> ideas in the bar/café with peers are easily as important as the hours in
> seminars and lectures. In addition, not being around means you can't
> teach or be a TA or RA, it means you miss the public seminars and other
> regular events that universities host, it means you don't have easy
> access to the libraries and other resources that universities have, and
> so on. For the institution, distance-PhDs rob the community of a gifted
> newcomer who would certainly influence the community's activities and
> conversations. I think the literatures on situated learning and
> communities of practice offer eloquent arguments in favour of residency
> requirements, but I realize long-term residency is a problem for some
> people, and I believe our program is flexible enough to accommodate some
> of those people. Anyway, I'd be happy to discuss this with anyone who's
> interested.
>
> Anthony
>
> PS: Can it really be Inkshed 20?!
>
> Anthony Paré
> Chair
> Integrated Studies in Education
> Faculty of Education
> McGill University
>
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