The Value Proposition for the Doctorate in Educational Technology Leadership

We see ourselves as partners in your professional growth. At the beginning of the program, students work with faculty to develop a Professional Growth Plan: an actionable vision for where they see their careers in three, five, and ten years. Together, we identify the experiences, accomplishments, and opportunities that can help move them toward that vision. 

Throughout the program, we support students as they publish, present, develop programs, explore entrepreneurial ideas, and build professional portfolios aligned with their goals. 

Our students have published books and articles with faculty support. Students with little or no prior public-speaking experience have presented at state, national, and international conferences. Others have developed proposals and projects that have grown into educational programs, initiatives, and businesses. 

Whether your goal is to become an organizational, academic, or entrepreneurial leader, the program serves as both an incubator and a catalyst for developing your skills, accomplishments, professional identity, and portfolio. 

We recognize that doctoral students are balancing significant professional and personal responsibilities. The program is intentionally structured to make doctoral study rigorous while remaining manageable for working professionals. 

Our cohort model provides students with a network of classmates and an enduring community of alumni during the three years of the program and beyond. Online coursework provides flexibility, while the one-week summer institute creates dedicated time for relationship-building, collaboration, professional learning, and focused academic work. 

The result is a doctoral experience designed to provide both flexibility and connection without sacrificing intellectual rigor or a strong sense of community. 

Your dissertation is the signature scholarly achievement of your doctoral program. Our goal is to help you complete a dissertation that you are proud of, that reflects your professional interests, and that can serve as a springboard for future scholarship, leadership, or innovation. 

The program is intentionally structured to support dissertation completion within the three-year sequence. Committee members provide consistent and meaningful guidance throughout the dissertation process, and coursework during the final academic year is specifically aligned with dissertation development and completion. 

Students also have access to support that includes research guidance, academic writing assistance, and proofreading and editorial resources. 

Research has consistently identified inadequate support during the dissertation phase as an important contributor to doctoral noncompletion. Our program is designed to address that challenge directly by surrounding students with structured, sustained support as they move from research idea to completed dissertation. 

Our program provides a focused and comprehensive doctoral education designed specifically for educational technology leadership. 

Rather than assembling a doctorate from loosely connected courses, we have created a coherent sequence in which coursework, professional growth, leadership development, research, and the dissertation reinforce one another. 

Policies, expectations, advising, and communication are coordinated across the program to provide students with a consistent and integrated doctoral experience. 

The program was developed by faculty with expertise in educational technology leadership and is taught, coordinated, and supervised by that same faculty team. This continuity helps ensure that the curriculum remains aligned with the program’s mission, emerging developments in the field, and students’ professional goals. 

We have welcomed 14 diverse cohorts of doctoral students and developed a strong record of supporting students through degree completion and into new professional opportunities. 

Seventy percent of our students have graduated within three years, and 79% have graduated within five years. 

Our graduates have pursued a wide range of career paths. They have become K–12 leaders, deans, faculty members, library leaders, statewide program administrators, consultants, entrepreneurs, and educational technology professionals. Graduates have published books and scholarly articles, entered tenure-track faculty positions, expanded their work as adjunct faculty, and assumed new leadership responsibilities within their organizations. 

Across these paths, students leave the program with more than a doctoral degree. They leave with a stronger professional portfolio, an expanded network of colleagues, demonstrated scholarly and leadership accomplishments, and new opportunities to contribute to their professions. 

Our traditions, policies, and practices provide the foundation for what we do best: innovate in service of others. 

At the core of educational technology leadership is the use of emerging technologies, research, and innovative practices to help people learn, organizations improve, and communities grow. 

Students engage in work that connects technology with meaningful educational and organizational challenges. Through research, leadership, design, and innovation, they explore how technology can improve learning, expand opportunity, solve problems, and help individuals and organizations reach their full potential. 

The program is ultimately about more than earning a doctorate. It is about developing the knowledge, confidence, relationships, and capacity to do work that matters.