EdD Faculty Perspective

Kimberly Allen: I actually am one of those individuals who went to college and never left. Walked onto my first college campus and fell in love with the college environment and felt like I stood on the 50 yard line of where learning happens.

Susan Bartel: We had a very successful on campus program and so this gave us an opportunity to take what we perceived to be a very unique and quality program to those people who would not have access to it otherwise.

Kimberly Allen: If and when you reach a point that you feel like you’re stuck, then it’s time to pursue the next level.

Robin Grebing: Now is a good time to earn an EdD because the needs of students are changing, higher education environments are changing, and we need leaders who are ready to embrace those challenges. It’s a very exciting time for the right leaders, but they need the right education. And I think Maryville is really offering a progressive program that can prepare leaders to be a part of this dynamic society.

Susan Bartel: What we want to do is to build leaders for the future, not for now. So it isn’t about teaching them the skills of today. It’s about how are you going to handle the complex leadership challenges that we’re all going to be faced with that we don’t even know about.

Robin Grebing: The process is unique for a couple of reasons. One is that students are writing their dissertation as they’re doing their doctoral coursework, and then a typical more traditional program students do their coursework and then the faculty say, “Okay, go write your dissertation. Call me if you need anything.” We are actually walking you through the dissertation process as you’re doing your coursework.

Susan Bartel: So our research residency, we have one in their first summer in the program and then the second one is in the second summer of their program. And it gives them an opportunity to have workshops, to have some benefits from alums. We’ll have alumni come back and talk about their process and their dissertation study. They’ll be able to do some independent writing with critique from faculty and peers.

Robin Grebing: I would encourage them to think about it as a very exciting opportunity because we rarely get the chance in our busy lives where we have lots of responsibility to think deeply about the issues that are in front of us and about the work we do.

Kimberly Allen: So while the online program allows you to balance work, school, family, I think it’s three days in which you get to purely focus on your academic endeavors.

Robin Grebing: And what the residency does is provide a series of workshops that gives students that opportunity both to look at the issues that are affecting education, but also to develop the skills and to work on pieces of their dissertation that are really crucial.

Susan Bartel: So it will be three days of intense work, but they will away with nearly a year’s worth of productivity if they had been left on their own.

Robin Grebing: These aren’t correspondence courses. These are courses developed utilizing the technology to enhance the learning.

Kimberly Allen: It’s not taking a face-to-face program and forcing it into an online model. So, we get to be very intentional and very strategic about how we build things, how we place things so that we benefit both face-to-face and online students.

Susan Bartel: It’s my personal focus as well as that of the institution, we have a quality program that prepares students at least, if not better, than they would be prepared if they were in the on ground.

Robin Grebing: It is a life changing commitment. It gives you new career opportunities. It gives you the tools you need to make the change that you want to make. You will never regret having done the program.