Online Education Specialist Degree, Nova Southeastern, An RA Degree Mill?
Q: Per Dr. Levicoff's suggestion, I checked out Nova Southeastern's
program in Computer Technology in Education. Very expensive, very poor
quality. I consider this particular program a "degree mill" program for
the following reasons.
http://scis.nova.edu/Doctoral/dcte.html
1) According to the Nova literature "A student may declare his or her
degree preference (Ph.D. or Ed.D.) at any time during the program. The
difference between these degrees is a name difference only.".
I find this very disturbing and the statements highly irresponsible for
an accredited University. A PhD is a research degree, designed to
prepare specialized academians for a lifetime of continuing research.
The Ed.D. is a practitioners degree, designed for those who are
specialists in the practice of ideas explored by those with the Ph.D.
In looking over the curricula of traditional universities, I notice a
strong distinction between the program of study for the Ed.D. and the
program of study for the Ph.D. At the University of Kansas, a person
can earn either a Ph.D. or Ed.D. in Educational Leadership. At the
University of Kansas, for example, the Ed.D. has a set program of
coursework which is completed by a cohort of students and includes an
internship in administration. The Ph.D. has a core of 5 courses,
followed by a minor in a specialized area of research, and a set of
courses in statistics and measurement, followed by the dissertation.
KU's Education program is ranked 6th in the United States (U.S. News
and World Report) and distinctions like this make that possible.
A:Is it more of a difference in dissertation though? In other programs,
(I checked out a half a dozen at random), the coursework requirements
were extremely similar, but the dissertation requirements differed. I
can't say that any of the others had *identical* requirements though.
Note that, while the same kinds of courses are required for the MCTE
(see http://scis.nova.edu/Common/Catalogs/mcte.html),