Charles,
I am sure that at GW, and at any school, there are learners who do not perform or do not "get" it. We know from the completion statistics that many learners simply don't have what it takes to complete the dissertation in a satisfactory way. While you had a disappointing experience, but can you generalize from one review to the quality and intentions of the entire university?
A strong conceptual framework, rooted in the literature *is* required, whether or not this learner understood it. From my experience that foundational work is required at the proposal stage. I would day that we are quite interested in doctoral research-I am! Right now I have mentees working on pretty innovative studies of virtual teams and contemporary leadership issues with international and with multi-generational research participants, developing new theories and models. I recently presented at an academic conference with two of my mentees and they did me proud. I believe their work represents doctoral level research and will fill gaps in the literature and scholarship.
In any case, I am not writing to argue with you or anyone on this list-just to respond to the prospective doctoral learner who wrote and say yes, there are viable, exciting, and yes high quality doctoral options online.
Respectfully,
Janet
I read your AOM OB missive with great interest. I was asked by a Capella doctoral student to review her work.
My review did not go well.
The student's knowledge and awareness of how to perform doctoral level research just was not there. She did not understand and could not grasp the concepts on ontology or epistemology - and the importance of being able to explain her paradigms. Another area of weakness was in her research setup. She presented a very thin conceptual framework, that when questioned could not defend its foundation in the literature.
In the end the student was not happy with our review leaving with the comment "this is to hard and not required in her Capella program".
It seems that Capella is only interested in students learning the doctoral process rather performing doctoral level research.
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Regards,
Charles Watson, Ed.D
George Washington University