Dec 11, 2024  
NCU Catalog - July 2019 
    
NCU Catalog - July 2019 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Education, Learning Analytics in Higher Education Specialization, EdD


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Doctor of Education


Description of Program


The EdD program attracts innovative self-starters who have leadership responsibility to provide learning and training for individuals in colleges, PK-12 schools, proprietary organizations, private, non-profit, and public organizations, or the military. This doctoral degree program emphasizes the application of theoretical knowledge and research to advance practice within a field of study. You will gain the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to make informed, ethical decisions, develop solutions, and communicate ideas to diverse stakeholders addressing current educational, organizational, and societal issues.

Note: The program sequence below is open to new students only. Students who enrolled prior to April 1, 2019 must continue in the program sequence as stated in the catalog under which they enrolled.

Learning Outcomes


  • Recommend policies advancing equity and social justice in educational organizations
  • Select ethical and regulatory compliant actions supporting the mission and vision of organizations
  • Develop leadership skills through the integration of theoretical constructs with professional practice
  • Create strategic and tactical plans to improve organizations
  • Construct theory-informed decisions for addressing complex problems of practice

Basis for Admissions


Admission to the Doctor of Education program requires a conferred post-baccalaureate master’s degree and/or doctoral degree from a regionally or nationally accredited academic institution. Examples of acceptable doctoral degrees include doctor of philosophy (PhD), and doctor of education (EdD).

In addition to general requirements for admission to an EdD program, applicants to the EdD program with specialization in Nursing Education must provide a copy of the following:

  • A valid and active RN license from the United States
  • A master’s degree in nursing

Degree Requirements


The EdD Program requires 48 credits for degree completion. Students who choose the Nursing Education specialization must take two additional specialization courses for a total of 54 credit hours. Additional credit hours may be allowed as needed to complete the dissertation research. If granted, additional courses will be added to the student degree program in alignment with the SAP and Academic Maximum Time to Completion policies. Students who do not complete their program in accordance with these policies may be dismissed.

  • Individuals with a previously completed master’s degree will meet the basis of admission to the Doctor of Education Program.
  • Doctoral courses are comprised of methods, the comprehensive exam course, and the dissertation with a Grade Point Average of 3.00 (B) or higher.
  • EdD students must demonstrate competency in specific subject areas prior to enrolling in any of the specialization or elective courses.
  • NCU may accept a maximum of 12 semester credit hours in transfer toward the doctoral degree for graduate coursework completed toward a non-conferred doctoral degree at an accredited college or university with a grade of “B” or better. Transfer credit is only awarded for course work that is evaluated to be substantially equivalent in content with the required course work for the EdD program. See the Transfer Credit policy  for additional information.

Note: Students who complete NCU’s EdS program may be eligible to apply up to 30 credits from the EdS program to the School of Education’s Doctoral programs. School Dean (or their designee) approval is required to determine number of applicable credit hours from EdS to the selected doctoral program.

Dissertation Completion Pathway


The NCU mission is dedicated to assisting students in achieving their academic aspirations and helping them become valuable contributors to their community and profession. To support our mission, NCU now offers a dissertation completion pathway for students who have successfully completed their doctoral coursework and achieved doctoral candidacy at a previous institution but were unable to complete their dissertation. NCU’s Dissertation Completion Pathway (DCP) offers a unique opportunity for students to complete their doctorate in one of the doctoral programs offered at NCU (excluding the PhD in MFT, DMFT, DNP, and DHA). Students successfully meeting the entrance and application requirements will complete a minimum of 23 credit hours to earn their doctorate.

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Time to Completion


NCU allows 7 years to complete all doctoral programs of 60 credits or less.

Normal time to completion for this program is 76 months.

Time to completion varies depending upon the pace in which a student completes courses and the number of transfer credits accepted. As most NCU students are working adults balancing educational, professional, and personal commitments, our academic and finance advisors will work with you to develop a program schedule that works best for your needs.

The normal time disclosed above reflects the experience of students who may have entered under different program requirements. In the quest for continuous improvement, academic leadership has revised the program to optimize curriculum and pace, facilitate student learning, and improve chances for success. Therefore, the program is now designed for students enrolling today to take advantage of these revised course structures, lengths, and schedules. New students following the preferred schedule designed by the Dean for this program, and applying no transfer credits, can expect to finish in as little as 38 months.

Students who are unable to complete a degree program within the stated time limits are dismissed. If a student believes they have extenuating circumstances they may document the circumstances and send a request for consideration to their respective School Dean or designee. Exceptions to the policy are determined on a case-by-case basis and are granted only once.

Certification and Licensing


The School of Education serves educational leaders by providing online graduate studies in education to reach worldwide populations. The EdD program is designed to reach national and international markets and does not purport to provide licensure or certification in any particular state or country.

Dissertation Process


Faculty assists each NCU Doctoral student to reach this high goal through a systematic process leading to a high-quality completed dissertation. This process requires care in choosing a topic, documenting its importance, planning the methodology, and conducting the research. These activities lead smoothly into the writing and oral presentation of the dissertation.

A doctoral candidate must be continuously enrolled throughout the series of dissertation courses. Dissertation courses are automatically scheduled and accepted without a break in scheduling to ensure that students remain in continuous enrollment throughout the dissertation course sequence. If additional time is required to complete any of the dissertation courses, students must re-enroll and pay the tuition for that course. Continuous enrollment will only be permitted when students demonstrate progress toward completing dissertation requirements. The Dissertation Committee determines progress.

Course Sequence


The Doctor of Education (EdD) program emphasizes an applied, project based approach to development of appreciable improvements in the body of educational practice. The EdD attracts individuals who are primarily professional administrators either at the PK-12 level or the higher education level. (Deans, enrollment managers, superintendents, principals, teacher leaders, and education faculty who primarily teach - not do research, educational consultants, trainers in organizations). EdD research focuses on solving a problem in the workplace or in the professional field of education and results in a dissertation, but also produces a “product” or solution. This degree is also intended to help students increase their own workplace Leadership Skills. For EdD students, all the statistics they will need is embedded into the Research Courses. An oral presentation of the dissertation is required.

All foundation competency courses, specialization courses, and method coursework must be completed prior to students entering into the Comprehensive Assessment. Upon successful completion of the Doctoral Comprehensive Assessment: Pre-Candidacy Prospectus, students become official Doctoral Candidates and may move onward to the dissertation coursework which is completed sequentially.

In the Doctor of Education, specializations such as Curriculum and Teaching (CT), Early Childhood Education (ECE), Educational Leadership (EL), English Language Learning (ESL), Instructional Leadership (IL), Special Education (SE), and Sports Management (SM) have a curriculum focused on the PK-12 environment.

*The elective course scheduled as part of the initial degree may be changed upon request. Students should contact their Academic and Finance Advisor for assistance.

Learning Analytics in Higher Education (LAHE) Specialization


This specialization seeks to immerse the student into the ever growing field of Learner Analytics. Students will be exposed to history of data analytics, which includes the identification of both early and prominent foundations of learner analytics, as well as an introduction to key theories, leading experts, useful best practices, and applications in higher education. This specialization will provide instruction on the proper identification, utility, and application of relevant data in the education world, as well as provide and introduction into the components of datum, data mining, and types of data analytics, inclusive of tools to extract and analyze data, educational research methods, and relative predictive statistical test that are used in the field. Exposure to important issues within the realm of learning analytics, such as technology and the role of Learning Management Systems (LMS) in personal learning, intelligent data, and adaptive modeling is also crucial to the student. Additionally, this specialization will address key components of data integrity such as data privacy (FERPA), data security and time sensitivity, as well as identify relevant higher education users and key stakeholders and discuss how to build institutional capacity and drive improvement by properly using learning analytics to improve educational outcomes.

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