I took an extra long period of time off between the spring and summer semesters….glad I did too. I was able to relax a bit and focus on some other things (like starting this blog!).

My ‘summer vacation’ has come to an end though. I started my summer course June 28 and am actually extremely excited about this course.

The course is titled “INFS 892 – Theory Development and Use in Design Research” and the description is below:

This course focuses on theory development and use in design science research through intensive research in a specific topic area. Students will select one of three approaches described below in their topic area to develop a conceptual paper by the end of the semester.

Information Systems Design Theories: In-depth analysis of behavioral research in specific topic areas and the development of information system design theories to address IS design problems in the area.

Formal Models and Design Frameworks: Use for mathematical modeling techniques such as set theory, graph theory, and logic based mechanisms to model information system problems and develop information system design frameworks.

Simulation-based Socio-Technical Theories: Use of social network analysis, data-mining and agent-based simulation tools to understand and model socio-technical systems.

Looks like fun!

I’ll let you know how it goes.

Looking for a distance doctorate in Business Administration (DBA) from a US based brick and mortar university that is regionally accredited AND AACSB accredited?

The only one I know in the US is Kennesaw State University’s Doctor of Business Administration from the KSU Coles School of Business.

I recently ran across the Coles DBA and am impressed with what I’m hearing about it.  The program isn’t a 100% online program but I believe it is a viable program for many of you looking for a distance DBA…especially if you are interested in the AACSB accreditation status of this program.

Accreditation

Kennesaw State University is accredited in the US by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) and the Coles Business School has been accredited by the The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), which is considered by many to be the elite accreditation for business programs around the world.

SACS is a recognized body by the US Department of Education and Council on Higher Education. Kennesaw State has been a regionally accredited university since 1968 (not sure what status was prior to that). You can see the CHEA listing of Kennesaw State University’s accredited status here and the SACS accreditation listing here.

Program Delivery and Requirements

The Kennesaw State University Coles Doctor of Business Administration is not a fully online program.

The Coles DBA is a 3 year minimum program requiring campus visits and residency’s throughout the period of the program. According to this page, the program is split into about 29 days of on-campus residency’s per year.  These 29 days per year are structures as follows:

The program structure covers three years as follows:

Year 1 Residencies:

• Three 4-day residencies (Thu-Sun)
• Three 3-day residencies (Fri-Sun)
• Four 2-day residencies (Sat-Sun)

Year 2 Residencies:

• Three 4-day residencies (Thu-Sun)
• Three 3-day residencies (Fri-Sun)
• Four 2-day residencies (Sat-Sun)

Year 3 Residencies:

• Two 4-day residencies (Thu-Sun)
• Three 3-day residencies (Fri-Sun)
• Four 2-day residencies (Sat-Sun)

In addition to the on-campus residencies, there are online courses, independent study, virtual collaboration and other interactions with other DBA students and faculty.

The Coles DBA has 6 concentration areas: Accounting, Finance, Management, Marketing, Business Ethics, and Family Business with each concentration having sub-concentrations.

Tuition / Fees

The Coles doctorate isn’t cheap. According to the Coles DBA website, the cost for the program for students starting in 2011 is $83,475, which is an increase from $79,500 for those who started in 2010.   Its my understanding that this is the cost of the entire program, not a ‘per year’ costs.

While expensive, this is the only program in the US for those looking for a US Regionally Accredited Doctor of Business Administration with AACSB accreditation.

Feedback from Current Students / Alumni

I haven’t been able to track any current students or alumni from the Coles program…as soon as I do, I will add their thoughts and feelings about the program here.  I am assuming that the reason for not being able to find DBA alumni has to do with the fact that the program was started in 2009 (according to this article) and students are still working through the program

Usefulness of the degree

The Coles DBA looks like a wonderful program for any business person looking for something more than an MBA.  I also believe the program could be useful for someone looking to move into the field of academia as it removes the ’100% online’ stigma that other programs that are delivered fully online AND the program / degree has the additional credential of having the prestigious business accreditation from the AACSB.

Final Thoughts

I like this program. A lot.

I like the management concentration of this DBA and, if i weren’t already working on a doctorate in information systems, I might have had to seriously consider this program.

The cost of this program puts it out of reach of most folks. I think that was done on purpose though…if you price this program at a similar level of a Capella doctorate or a Univ of Phoenix doctorate, you’re telling people that the program is similar to those, when in realitiy it isn’t.

This program looks to be about as close to a full-time on-campus DBA as you can get without actually being a full-time program.

Interested in a distance doctorate information systems doctoral degree via distance from a regionally accredited brick and mortar university that has been around since 1881?

Dakota State University’s Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) in Information Systems via distance learning is your only option!

Note: I am currently working on the D.Sc. at DSU.  I like this program and hope tons of people choose it….but I will try to be partial with the review.

Dakota State (DSU) is a regionally accredited non-profit brick-and-mortar university offering one doctorate degree online and on-campus:  the Doctor of Science in Information Systems degree.

Accreditation

DSU is a regionally accredited university with accreditation received from the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCA-HLC). The NCA-HLC is a recognized body by the US Department of Education and Council on Higher Education. DSU has been a regionally accredited university since 1961 (not sure what status was prior to that). You can see the CHEA listing of Dakota State University’s accredited status here and the NCA-HLC accreditation listing here.

DSU also lists the following accreditation for their graduate degrees (note the ACBSP Accreditation, which is a positive for DSU’s graduate programs for people earning Business & MIS degrees).

• National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE)
• Division of Education of the South Dakota Department of Education and Cultural Affairs
• Association of Collegiate Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP)
• State Approving Agency as programs eligible for veterans benefits
• Commission on Accreditation of the Allied Health Education Programs
• Committee on Accreditation for Respiratory Care (CoARC)
• Commission on Accreditation for Health Informatic and Information Management Education
• American Health Information Management Association
• Service Members Opportunity College

Program Delivery & Requirements

The DSU Doctor of Science degree is actually a combined program with on-campus and online students taking the same courses and performing the same type of work.

For those students taking courses externally / online, the program is delivered using an asynchronous mode via a platform called Desire2Learn. The course delivery is similar to many other online programs with discussion boards, instructor videos and submittal mechanisms for coursework and exams.  Many courses are a combined delivery method with on-campus students attending a lecture which is then videotaped and shared with distance students.

The Dakota State D.Sc. has the following requirements (see full requirements):

The program can be completed on a full-time or part-time basis, with classes offered in three academic terms: fall, spring, and summer. Overall, the program requirements for the D.Sc. in Information Systems include a total of 88 semester credit hours:

• 63 credit hours of graduate course work:
• 27 credit hours of masters-level Information Systems (MSIS) which may be waived for students with an MSIS degree
  • 9 credit hours of research methods
  • 27 credit hours of research specialization including research seminars, and core and elective courses
• Screening examination
• Qualifying portfolio
• 25 credit hours of dissertation work

The qualifying portfolio is used to push students toward writing articles, teaching and performing other activities to prepare the student for a career in academia after finishing the program.

Tuition / Fees

The DSU distance doctorate program is quite inexpensive when compared to others. For distance students who aren’t South Dakota Residents,  the fee is $343.75 per hour. For South Dakota residents taking courses on campus., the fee is $151.30 per credit hour…that’s a great rate.

For someone without a Masters degree in Information Systems taking the course online, the program would cost ~ $30K.  If you already have a MSIS, the program would cost ~$17.5K.

This is one of the best deals out there in doctoral distance education.

Feedback from Current Students & Alumni

This is one of those easy ones…since I’m a student at DSU.

I’ve been a student at DSU since mid-2007 and have been completely happy with my choice of this program.  The professors have all been top-notch with many of them coming from Top Tier schools (e.g., University of Arizona – a great program for Information Systems).

I have heard a few reports from students of a professor with very negative reports on one particular course.  Those reports are in the minority and other students have mentioned to me that the professor in question is quite good in other courses.

Many of the students that I’ve had the pleasure of working with have been extremely smart, well educated and very driven to make it through this program.

I’ve not had the pleasure of meeting or talking with any Alumni yet but I do know of at least three doctoral students who have completed their degree since I started.

Usefulness of the Degree(s)

I believe the DSU D.Sc. is a great degree for anyone looking to move into (or stay) in the world of consulting and is even an excellent degree for practitioners as the program is focused on real-world usage of technology and theories.

The degree might hold some merit in academia if one were to earn it and, along with a good set of publications and experience, it might work as a credential to obtain a job in a smaller university / college.  I don’t think the degree will open any doors at upper tier universities, but you never know what the future may bring.  Put together an amazing streak of publications and become well known and this doctorate + that exposure might be enough to land a full-time gig at a Tier 1 University…but I don’t think you should bet your future on it.

Final Thoughts

The Dakota State University Doctor of Science program is an excellent program. It’s a regionally accredited doctorate from a brick-and-mortar university that’s been around since 1881.

If you’re looking for a doctorate degree in information systems from a school with a long history and delivered 100% online, check out Dakota State’s D.Sc. program.

For more information check out the DSU Graduate program website.

My journey to earning a distance PhD began in 2006 after finishing up my MBA from the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD).

During my time at UTD, I took many courses online and I really (really) enjoyed it. I could study at my own pace and I didn’t have to spend time driving to campus and sitting in a class listening to someone talk about something that I could probably pick up in a few hours of self-study.

After finishing my MBA, I started looking around for something else to do.  I guess I’m a glutton for punishment

I spoke with my mom one day about a feeling that I had. I felt as though I was missing something.   Even thought I had earned an MBA, I felt like I hadn’t accomplished everything I set out to accomplish.

My mom laughed and walked out of the room to return a few minutes later with a book of some sort. It looked like a scrapbook…and it was.  It was something that I put together (at the mom’s urging) during High School.

Mom handed my the book and said look at page X (whatever page it was).  I did and was surprised to see that I had written down that in 20 years I’d “have a PhD and be teaching at a university”. Wow.

I was dumbfounded.

Somewhere between the time I wrote that line in that scrapbook and 2006, I’d lost my way.

But immediately upon reading that, I knew I had to find a doctoral program.

So…I began searching.  And Searching.

I realized that there aren’t many doctoral programs in the Dallas areas (where I live) available to people who are full-time employees.  Believe me…I looked.

All the programs that I found required the doctoral student to be a full-time student.

So..I expanded my search and happened across the world of distance education.

Can you really earn a PhD online?

Of course you can!

But…one has to be extremely careful in the online doctoral program world (as well as all other online programs). There are a lot of unaccredited programs out there with some being excellent (but still unaccredited) and some being nothing more than a Diploma Mill (where you can pay X dollars and get a degree based on ‘life experience’).

In my search I ran across a lot of websites with links to doctoral programs.  Most of those programs were for unaccredited schools…so I searched. And Searched some more.

I found some doozy’s out there.  Lots of “Life Experience Degrees” where I could pay a couple hundred dollars and ‘earn’ a doctoral degree.  Others seemed to have a little bit of work involved in them.  You do have to do some coursework (but I found out it could be waved based on ‘life experience’) and write a ‘dissertation’ that had to be at least 10 pages.  Wow…a 10 page dissertation!    That’s not so bad

Real Degrees via Distance Learning. Really!

I finally happened upon a great forum called DegreeInfo.com that had a forum with some wonderful people who had some extremely insightful things about distance education.  Those folks helped me down the path of choosing the program I ultimately ended up with (Dakota State University‘s Doctor of Science in Information Systems).

There are many options out there for people interested in Master’s degrees and Doctoral degrees using distance learning methods (sometimes called online learning).  These options are from fully accredited universities that range the gamut from Tier 1 schools (Harvard has an extension degree…did you know that?) to Tier 4 schools.

The idea of earning a degree ‘online’ has had a stigmy attached to it in the past, but I do believe people are coming around to the fact that distance learning is just another way of earning a degree.  Many many people are earning Bachelors and Masters degrees this way.

But most people don’t know about the doctoral programs that are available to those with an interest.   Many of these doctoral programs are offered by regionally accredited for-profit universities like the University of Phoenix,  some are offered by the old-fashioned regionally accredited brick-and-mortar non-profit universities (like Dakota State) and some are offered by Nationally accredited universities like the Concord Law School managed by Kaplan. In addition, there are multiple non-US options available to anyone willing to look at programs in the UK, South Africa, Europe and Australia.

So…all of that was said to be able to say this: You can earn a doctorate degree from an accredited university (regional or national accreditation) in the US and programs from other countries that are equally accredited in those countries.

Is a Distance PhD / Doctorate really useful?

Well…depends on what you want to do with it.

Do you want to be a full professor at Harvard? Then I’d doubt a docotrate degree earned via distance learning will open any doors for you.  But…if you want to teach at your local university that isn’t a Tier 1 or 2, you’ve probably got a pretty good shot if you have some publications and industry experience in your field.

Where the distance PhD / Doctorate comes in really handy is for those people already working in their chosen fields.  People such as teachers, law enforcement, hospital administration and others can benefit greatly by earning an advanced degree.  Distance learning provides a great deal of options for these people working full-time.

For me, the doctorate that I’m working on now is a personal goal that I’ve set for myself. Additionally, I hope to use the doctorate to find a nice teaching job at a small university later in life and I may even do some adjunct work now.

Will I use my D.Sc. from Dakota State to teach at Harvard? Nope. Do I want to? Not at all.

Check back soon for more on my journey to to earning my doctorate via distance learning.  In posts that I’ll share later on DistancePhD.org, I’ll provide a walkthrough of my selection process that led me to Dakota State’s doctoral  program.   In addition to the jounrey toward my distance doctorate, I’ll be reviewing and sharing the various programs out there for earning a distance PhD / Doctorate. Hopefully after a year or so of writing, I’ll have a good database of distance PhD programs that will be helpful to future searchers.

Looking for a distance PhD, DBA or EdD via a 100% online and regionally accredited doctoral program?

Northcentral University (NCU) might just be the school for you.

NCU offers 64 doctoral specializations for students looking to earn a distance PhD or DBA delivered 100% online. Northcentral University is Regionally Accredited in the United States, is a for-profit university and offers a program with 100% delivery in three schools:

• School of Business and Technology Management – PhD and DBA offered
• School of Education – PhD and EdD offered
• School of Behavioral and Health Sciences – PhD offered

Accreditation

NCU is a regionally accredited university with accreditation received from the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCA-HLC). The NCA-HLC is a recognized body by the US Department of Education and Council on Higher Education. Northcentral University has been a regionally accredited university since 2003. You can see the CHEA listing of Northcentral University’s accredited status here and the NCA-HLC accreditation listing here.

Additionally, Northcentral University has the distinction of being the only 100% online university offering doctoral degrees accredited by the Association of Collegiate Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP). If you are considering earning a doctoral degree via distance learning in the field of business, the Northcentral University program is one to consider as ACBSP accreditation is seen as an additional value-add for the degree.

Program Delivery & Requirements

The NCU distance PhD and DBA doctoral programs are delivered 100% online with courses starting every month. This approach provides a great deal of flexibility on how many courses to take and when to take them.

Courses are delivered asynchronously which provides students the opportunity to learn at their own pace rather than having to dial in or connect to a video stream at a specified time.

There are no residency requirements for any of the NCU doctoral programs.

As mentioned, Northcentral University has 64 specializations across 3 different programs.  Each specialization has different requirements but it appears all require a minimum of 51 credit hours beyond the Master’s Degree.

You can view all the requirements for each doctoral program at Northcentral University by viewing the NCU Catalog.

Tuition / Fees

As of June 13 2010, NCU charges $600 per credit.  For a doctoral student who transfers no credits in, the doctoral program would cost approximately $42K USD.

The program is fairly competitive price-wise to many others programs and financial assistance is available.

Feedback from Current  Students & Alumni

In talking with current and former students, the program at NCU is rigourous and similar to other graduate programs they’ve been a part of.  While the coursework requires the student to be much more proactive in completing assignments than other universities, this approach seems to be enjoyed by many in the NCU doctoral programs.

Usefulness of the Degree(s)

Most alumni of NCU have earned their degree while working full-time in their chosen profession. The doctoral degree from NCU has helped them earn a raise or promotion and/or added a credential to their resume/CV.    If you are wanting to earn a doctoral degree to gain a credential, qualify for a raise/promotion or certification then NCU’s distance learning doctoral degrees might just be perfect for you.

Don’t expect an NCU doctoral degree to open any doors to full-time work as a professor at a regionally accredited university unless you’ve can add an additional body of work to show your expertise in an area.  A quick google search for professors at Regionally Accredited universities around the US finds only two who’ve listed a Northcentral University doctoral credential.  This is rather telling as it shows that a Northcentral doctoral degree isn’t viewed well by most brick and mortar universities.

Final Thoughts

Northcentral University is a good program for any student looking for a regionally accredited distance PhD or DBA program delivered completely online.   The program has been accredited since 2003 and there are no indications that the accreditation status will change anytime soon.