PhDs from places like Capella, Walden, UoP, etc?

Discussion in 'Online & DL Teaching' started by newcreature, Aug 27, 2009.

Loading...
  1. newcreature

    newcreature New Member

    Does anyone have any "experience" with knowing how accepting the academic community is of PhDs from places like Capella, Walden, UoP, etc?

    I am very interested in a PhD in Industrial Psychology that Capella offers, but my goal is to be a professor. Does anyone here "know from experience" how well such a credential will be received by brick and mortar schools?
     
  2. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    I do not have "experience" in this area (after all, how many of our members have PhDs in Industrial Psychology?) but I believe that the convential wisdom is that relevant positions in academia are rather saturated at present. One would need to have substantial professional experience in that area or they would need to have a substantial research background in order to stand out from other applicants. A willingness to travel (perhaps to another country) might assist toward the goal.

    One thing you could do...go to the top ten schools offering this degree and look at the qualifications of their lower level instructors. How do you measure up?
     
  3. Dave Wagner

    Dave Wagner Active Member

    I have experience in this area. There is no definitive answer to your question... The level of acceptance primarily depends on the discipline.

    For example, psychology doctorates should be APA accredited and business doctorates should have AACSB, etc. Ask the school where you are currently teaching what doctoral programs they will accept for the tenure track. If you are not currently teaching, start teaching and ask the chair in the discipline you're teaching. When you finish the doctorate, seek employment at the schools who have faculty guiding Ph.D. students where you earn your doctorate.

    In general, the world of academic employment is filled with lore and misinformation; hiring schools (and there aren't many right now) say they can't find suitably trained junior professors and seemingly trained junior professors say they can't get hired full time. How can there be both a shortage and abundance of the same thing in an efficient market?
     
  4. RFValve

    RFValve Well-Known Member

    Just do a google "PhD Capella" and see how many professors are there teaching full time on a tenure track position. I personally know at least two that were able to land full time positions with a Capella PhD in IT Management. However, Capella is the type of school that graduates hundreds a year so locating few that made it might not be the best indicator.

    The problem with schools like Capella in my opinion is not so much the fact that are online but the fact that graduate too many and that have no publication requirements. If a faculty gets too many applicants from a particular school and most of the applicants have no publications, eventually the faculty might think that this particular school might not be graduating the stronger candidates. On the other hand, Capella graduates have better chances at schools where the primary job is teaching online courses, at least this has been the case of the people that I know that teach mainly online courses.
     
  5. Farina

    Farina New Member

  6. RFValve

    RFValve Well-Known Member

    As DSU is strong at online course, it is not surprising that they have few Capella graduates. However, one has to be careful as there are hundreds of graduates every year, so locating one here and there doesn't mean that placement rates are high.
     
  7. Anthony Pina

    Anthony Pina Active Member

    Yes, I have quite a bit of experience in that area. The acceptance of an online doctorate variest by the setting. Acceptance is low for full-time tenure-track faculty positions at brick & mortar universities. Acceptance is higher for community college faculty, adjunct faculty and administrators at the K-12, community college and university. Acceptance has increased in all areas during the past decade. Many full-time faculty who were hired with the masters as their highest degree have successfully enhanced thier careers with online doctorates.

    There are still many in academia that are prejudiced against online graduate degrees, particularly doctorates.

    Where you obtain your degree is, of course, only one part of the equation. Full-time faculty positions at universities also require a record of scholarship (publications, conference presentations, grants, etc.), service, professional associations/affiliations and successful teaching experience.

    Since we hire faculty to teach online, I tend to give preference to those with an online graduate degree. Those who have been online students tend to be the best online teachers.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 15, 2009
  8. newcreature

    newcreature New Member

    Thank you Anthony

    Thank you Anthony for this insightful answer :)
     
  9. Dave Wagner

    Dave Wagner Active Member

    That is a very interesting hypothesis... I suppose that could be true, but I've never noticed much difference between instructors from either background after a few courses. I've certainly seen the inverse argued: online students don't make the best onground instructors. Still, I've never witnessed that to be true all the time either.
     
  10. BlackBird

    BlackBird Member

    I tend to be one of those individuals who believe that this area falls in the model that some traits come with you at birth (nature in the "nature versus nurture" argument). I've seen "brick 'n mortar" grads be lousy and horrible teachers online and in face-to-face. I've seen online grads do fantastic jobs and have student followings on a traditional campus. We could go on. I think that if you have a propensity to be good, practice makes it better but you are good. Just my opinion.
     

Share This Page