On another thread arguing about the merits or otherwise of Rich Doaglass, one correspondent mentioned about the benefits they had received from Rich's dissertation and it use in his/her own research. Which leads me to the question: does anyone know or have any experience as to what research contribution DL doctoral students actually make to the greater academic community? I think it is fairly obvious that for unaccredited schools, the contribution is zero in terms of citing in academic papers, journals and research. But what about RA DL research?
In my area, and in a GAAP context, as I recall John Sanders wrote "The God Who Risks" for his South African research doc done mostly , I suspect , by DL ; it is central in the debate between Open Theism and traditional views on divine omniscience. Recently over a period of several years, I think, it was the subject of much discussion and thought by the 2000 or so members of The Evangelical Theological Society in the USA -- most of whom have docs in their field. Other significant examples could be found. But these all would be limited to GAAP, not RA, as no RA school at this time offers a doc in Theology by only DL.
That is interesting, Bill. I was thinking later that perhaps I should have been more specific as in many countries it is possible to do a doctorate by distance learning through a bricks and motar university. (University of South Africa being a good example) What I was wondering about is research done (and by research, we are talking dissertations/thesis) through DL only institutions such as Walden, Union, Capella, etc.
I can only imagine that DL would be comparable to B&M? I mean they are both listed in the same libraries and references. I don't see why it would be different?
How could you possibly make a conclusion such as this? It is probably very likely that much less research and publication in journals is generated by graduates of unaccredited schools vs. RA schools but you can't conclude there is none. It would be a major research undertaking in and of itself to make such a determination.
I can't speak to academic contributions but I have used dissertations from several DL schools in my professional activitities, including one from NCU (on ISO 9001) and one from Union (on aerodynamics of birds). So DL dissertations can be of value to the business world.
