DLitt et Phil and DL at UNISA

RoscoeB · Sep 21, 2010

I was browsing the web for something on the DLitt et Phil degree in S. Africa when I came across this article: “Distance Education Doctoral Program for Nurses as Offered by the University of South Africa (UNISA).”

INDEN: "Distance Education Doctoral Program"

I like section 2.6: “Advantages and Disadvantages of a distance education doctoral program.” Interesting.

Roscoe

cravenco · Sep 21, 2010

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2.6 Advantages and Disadvantages of a distance education doctoral program

The major personal advantage for the student of pursuing this distance education D Litt et Phil program is the ability to continue with his/her life and work obviating family disruptions by relocating to a university city, or even to a different country. Similarly the health care services are not disrupted by the absence of numbers of senior personnel. Students who continue with their jobs while pursuing their studies are more likely to remain in their countries once they have obtained their doctoral qualifications than those who relocate to other countries or continents for study purposes. Because the students remain within their communities, their fields of research are usually relevant to their specific communities' needs.

Ironically the very advantage of being able to continue with one's work and life whilst pursuing doctoral studies, is also a disadvantage. This is the case because the studies are then simply just added on top of all the other responsibilities, whilst students who relocate to universities to pursue full time doctoral studies, need not fulfil their job obligations during this period, and sometimes other persons fulfil their family obligations as well. Thus the students pursuing distance education courses can be expected to take much longer to complete their studies than those who pursue full time studies at residential universities. Students who have made substantial progress with their studies are encouraged to apply for study leave, ideally once they have collected and analyzed their data. Study leave definitely enhances the students' chances of achieving success, although a number of students have managed to complete their studies without any study leave whatsoever.

Another disadvantage is the "distance" involved in distance education. Although students are encouraged to meet their promoters personally, this is not always possible. Telephone, fax and e-mail contacts are encouraged. These can all be problematic in Africa where even e-mails often function by land lines which are disrupted every time any length of copper wire "goes missing". Postal services, including door-to-door deliveries can be expensive, unreliable and it can take weeks for a posted chapter to reach the promoter, and weeks to return. Postal delays can be demotivating for many students, but items which get lost in the post are the major problems delaying progress.

The answer would seem to send all completed chapters by e-mail. Deciphering e-mail attachments sent from different parts of the continent using different programs pose challenges to both students and promoters. However, as more and more Internet cafes are established throughout Africa, this possibility is becoming a reality - at least for students living and working in areas with access to the Internet, and with reliable electricity supplies.

Because of the distance between the promoter and the student, and because neither of them is involved solely in research, much of the excitement inherent in successful research might never be actualized. The student and the mentor can never be fully immersed in research, and might not "... experience the excitement of knowledge building, an excitement that comes from seeing one project lead to another in an evolving program or research" (Keller & Ward 1993:266). Students following distance education D Litt et Phil programs might not have the advantage of working with more senior researchers nor of teaching more junior researchers. In this way the opportunity to learn from both junior and senior colleagues might be severely limited.

Another potential disadvantage of offering solely distance education D Litt et Phil courses, relate to the promoters involved. Because of the distance, and thus the lack of students on campus, the promoters' academic schedule can easily become overloaded with any number of "invisible" doctoral students, in addition to undergraduate and other structured postgraduate distance education courses. Under these circumstances the doctoral candidate's quality of guidance depends solely on the quality of the responses supplied by the promoter and joint promoter. "The focus of the research doctorate should be on research, and it should be built around research-productive faculty members who mentor students in their particular areas of research. Research doctoral programs should carefully limit the number of students admitted to study and assure that all students will have the opportunity to become competent beginning researchers who will continue on into productive research/teaching careers" (Grace 1989:269). The necessity to limit the number of distance education students might be more obscure than in the case of face-to-face teaching situations. However, it would definitely seem to be in the interest of both the students and the faculty members that the total number of students should be limited to manageable proportions for the faculty in general and for each specific promoter. "Faculty costs need to be identified because without time for the appropriate mentoring of students, performance of students will suffer. Student advisement and dissertation supervision require faculty time e and space considerations, as well as the individual intellectual output of faculty members" (Germain, Deatrick, Hagopian & Whitney 1994: 121).
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cravenco · Sep 21, 2010

Thanks once again.

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DLitt et Phil and DL at UNISA

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