Learner-Centric Approach Leads to Graduation
By: Julia Smith, Ph.D.
I believe educating the next generation of leaders must be a priority. Today’s complex and rapidly changing world makes it critical that educators in every discipline not only make education more accessible, but also create systems to support learners so that they complete their degrees. The School of Advanced Studies (SAS) at University of Phoenix provides a unique level of support to help ensure doctoral learners graduate.
When I first came on board as a faculty member in 2007, I was impressed by the quality and quantity of support systems in place. Now, as the Director of Academic Affairs for SAS, I see first-hand, on a daily basis, the difference that coordinated efforts, clearly articulated expectations and benchmarks make for our learners. While learning how to take their place as leaders in a variety of key disciplines including health care, nursing, business and education, our doctoral learners engage in a mutually responsible and rewarding partnership with faculty and their team of advisors.
A team approach
As soon as a prospective learner expresses an interest in pursuing a doctorate with us, we begin a dialogue of increasingly focused questions that are designed to help us gauge the learner’s intentions and his or her willingness to work and learn. As part of the admissions process, learners are required to compose a Letter of Intent, which encourages them to begin a deeper examination of their motivations and an understanding of the commitment necessary to attain their goals. From their initial contact with prospective learners, our Advisors go to great lengths to set proper expectations of the rigors of doctoral learning. This new appreciation of the doctoral journey requires a self-directed, intentional approach and a qualitative leap from past educational experiences.
A graduation team composed of advisors from several academic areas is created for each learner upon acceptance into one of our doctoral degree programs. This graduation team stays with the learner from the start of his or her academic career until graduation. The team’s primary purpose is to ensure that each learner has the tools and the support he or she needs to graduate.
Imagine your first day as a new doctoral learner: You have no idea of what’s in store. How motivating would it be to have an advisor call you to see if there’s anything you need? It would be even more motivating if the same advisor called a few days later to see how you did on an assignment, or to remind you that the University’s Center for Writing Excellence will provide feedback and tutoring on your writing assignments before you submit them to your faculty.
The graduation team offers the information and guidance learners need to create a successful experience—from reminders about the available academic workshops, to providing insights on how to prepare for rigorous scholarship, to explaining the financial options available to them. This level of support means that learners can focus on what’s important—the intellectual and social experiences that will help them successfully complete their education.
Achieving success through the dissertation process
In the School of Advanced Studies, the dissertation process is integrated in the curriculum. Our doctoral learners begin developing their proposals at the start of their doctoral degree program, rather than at the end of their education. Within their first three classes, our learners will have an idea for their dissertation proposal. Those who want to develop their ideas further have the option to enroll in dissertation preparation workshops at that time.
A vital component of creating an excellent academic environment in which learners can grow is the expectation of progressive performance on the part of learners. To support learner performance, SAS has a framework of increasingly rigorous expectations that incorporates scholarly writing, analytical skills and leadership development.
When it comes time to write their dissertations, School of Advanced Studies learners select a mentor. For the rest of the doctoral journey, culminating in graduation, the learner and the mentor work together to set a course of action for completion of the dissertation. When the dissertation is ready to be formally reviewed, it is submitted to the dissertation committee, composed of two additional doctoral faculty, who provide the learner with feedback on content, the research method, and the design of the dissertation before it is ready for final approval.
Creating excellence in doctoral education
As global collaboration and partnerships become the reality of our professional lives, it is more important than ever that we are prepared to take our positions as leaders in our fields, globally as well as locally. At SAS, our vision of creating excellence in doctoral learning is both an affirmation of our programs and a challenge to ourselves and to our learners. Since its inception, the School of Advanced Studies has defined itself in terms that emphasize human experience, observation and imagination. We fix our place in doctoral leadership studies by not only examining roads well traveled by our worthy predecessors, but also by looking above and beyond to the future, which holds endless promise.
When I entered nursing school, I did not know that I would one day choose to earn my doctorate and become an educator and an administrator in higher education. As a critical-care nurse, I came to see that some of the problems we experienced in hospitals could be prevented through education. I became an educator because I deeply wanted to share my knowledge and expertise with the next generation of nurses. At SAS, I am privileged to touch the lives of not only future nursing leaders, but leaders in many disciplines who will make a positive difference in their professions, their communities and in the world.
To learn more about Julia Smith’s work, visit phoenix.edu.
About the Author
Julia A. Smith, PhD, RN, CNS, is Director of Academic Affairs at the University of Phoenix, School of Advanced Studies. She has a distinguished career in healthcare management and higher education, specializing in strategic planning, program development, and leadership of complex, multidisciplinary organizations. In addition to executive leadership roles in community health and university administration, Dr. Smith has served as a graduate faculty member, doctoral mentor, and peer reviewer of scholarly publications. A registered nurse for over 20 years, she earned her BSN and MSN from San Diego State University and her PhD in Nursing from University of San Diego.