As some of you already know, I am starting a PhD program at Old Dominion University (ODU) via distance learning. I transferred from NCU's PhD in business program to ODU's PhD in engineering program - before I go any further, let me be clear...NCU's PhD program is excellent, but I just wanted a program with a little more math. The class I just started is taught via Video Tele-Conference (VTC), which means I have to physically attend a live broadcast at the time that the class is offered. I ran into a problem with Monday evening's classes, so I arranged to have the classes mailed to me on DVDs (for a charge). I went to attend class this past Wednesday, but discovered that ODU did not have the necessary equipment for me to view the class through my local higher education center. I ended up using another university’s equipment, but I had to leave a half-an-hour early when the other university’s student arrived. At this point I was not impressed. The next day I contacted ODU and explained my problem. After a few emails amongst ODU DL staff members, ODU set up a special link just for me to view classes over the Internet via streaming video and they are arranging a satellite hook-up with my local higher education center so I can view and interact with the class live when I can physically attend classes. On top of that, since there is no need for the DVDs, they are returning my money for the DVD service. And if the video streaming doesn’t work very well, they told me that they will ship DVDs of the class to my local higher education center for free. Now that’s customer service!
That is pretty cool. It's good to see DL program staff making a real effort to ensure that their programs work for students. ODU is in Norfolk, right? I'd guess that they have quite a few Navy personnel among their students. And the Navy has this annoying habit of moving their people all over the planet. So ODU may have experience working with individual students in unusual circumstances where course delivery is difficult.
It's good to see the folks at ODU treating you well. I earned my undergraduate degree from them in traditional face-to-face classes. I took a look at their distance programs awhile back and the only PhD program was in Community College Leadership. Have they added more distance learning PhD programs recently??
Bill, ODU is in fact in Norfolk, VA. So you are probably correct on having to do a little catering to Navy folks. Blaketots, ODU’s PhD in Engineering program (concentration in modeling and simulation (M&S)) isn’t officially offered through DL – they do officially offer the MS and ME in M&S via DL. ODU does, however, offer all of the necessary coursework for the doctorate through my local higher education center. ODU is in the process of getting their M&S doctorate officially approved for DL. When I applied for the program, I applied for the PhD and was notified that I had been accepted into the PhD program. So to answer your question: no, ODU doesn’t officially offer any doctorate via DL except for the PhD in Community College Leadership. The first batch of DL doctoral M&S students is presently going through the coursework so ODU has a couple of years before this will become an issue.
PhD2B, that´s such an awesome field of study. I like it myself a lot. I wish you the best in these studies, and hope you have a lot of fun (in fact, I feel soooo jealous, I´d love to enroll in such a program ). Regards
My hope is that they will one day offer the PhD in Business via distance learning steaming video. I think that would be a great solution to the residency issue in most PhD programs. I guess the only problem is that the school couldn't truly verify if the student in fact watched the videos....so the residency requirement would be "up in the air".
JLV, Degree programs in M&S are fairly new. Presently there are only about five or six people in the world with doctorates in M&S with only a handful of such programs offered worldwide. The curriculum is a little intimidating. For me, my lack of programming skills occasionally worries me. I would think it would be harder if I were a pure programmer because there is quite a bit of higher level math involved. I figure it is easier for me to learn to write simple programs than it would be for a programmer, without a strong math background, to learn higher level math (i.e. differential/multivariate calculus, linear algebra, and so on...).
I agree, PhD2B, I´d also prefer to have solid math skills rather than programming skills. You can always learn programming later on without major headaches. If you have been accepted, I am sure they think you can succeed without having excessive problems. I guess you´ll be also using simulation software tools like Arena, Mathlab, Simulink and the like. As I said, I presume it is going to be a lot of fun. And just out of curiosity, what are your plans? How would you be using your PhD? If your answer is industry, what type of jobs can you find in simulation and modeling? Finance? Manufacturing? Process design in the service sector? I find this simulation business to be a fascinating field but I am not sure what type of jobs are available. In any case I honestly believe you made an excellent decision. Regards
Gosh! Hope no-one thinks your PhD in M&S stands for Masochism & Sadism! On the other hand, anyone who would attempt doctoral studies in any field must be at least a closet masochist.
JLV, I am not an M&S guy by trade but I have heard of those programs. I am not sure if those programs will be used in the M&S program. I do know that students are supposed to have at least a basic understanding of programming. The course I am in now involves a little pre-packaged C++ and Interactive Data Language (IDL). Ted, With all of the math and programming involved, you may be right on what M&S really stands for.
Well, actually that may be slightly more difficult than I anticipated... Good luck, PhD2B, enjoy, and keep us posted.
