6   Online Mentoring

The process of supervising a dissertation has long been founded on the model of an apprenticeship. In this model, the doctoral student is considered an apprentice to the master researcher, or supervisor, whose goal is to teach the student how to conduct research independently and thus become a full-fledged member of the academic community. This model generally entails close cooperation between supervisor and student, who are paired on the basis of shared research interests, with the student working on research projects led by the supervisor and the supervisor creating opportunities for the student to acquire habits of mind essential for research in the discipline. The process often includes student observations of collaborations and academic practices in the research environment and supervisor mentoring of processes, presentations, and writing.

In a professional doctorate, the research occurs in a professional environment located outside the university where the student and supervisor interact. Not only do the research methods used in a professional environment not always correspond to those possible in a university setting, but the student does not have opportunities to learn by apprenticeship or collaboration. An online professional doctorate presents additional challenges. Since students live and conduct research at a distance from the university and the supervisor, both the curriculum and the dissertation supervision must be reconceptualized and the processes structured differently so as to prepare students to be independent researchers. The goal of the dissertation in a professional doctorate differs from that of a research doctorate in that the former is expected to contribute contextual knowledge to enhance professional environments rather than advancing knowledge in the discipline as a whole. Nevertheless, the student must still conduct original research, and dissertations continue to be regarded as a means for students to demonstrate the knowledge and skills needed to conduct independent research. How can supervisors mentor students successfully to achieve this goal in an online professional doctorate, when students do not have opportunities to learn from observation, collaboration, and apprenticeship?

In this chapter, we focus on the supervision of dissertations in an online professional doctorate. We prefer to use the term online mentoring rather than online advising and supervision in acknowledgement of several nonmanagerial aspects of guiding students through the dissertation process. We begin with a quick review of the existing literature on dissertation mentoring, albeit not specific to professional or online doctorates. We then present a framework that addresses the roles and strategies of the mentor, the mentee, and the program or institution, all of which facilitate dissertation completion at a distance. To illustrate and support our suggestions, we have interspersed our experiences and research in the EdD in educational technology at the University of Florida (UF EdD EdTech).

DISSERTATION MENTORING

Traditionally, mentoring constitutes an experienced faculty member serving as a teacher, guide, and role model and providing advice and support to a protégé (Johnson & Huwe, 2003). Some researchers of doctoral education have attempted to differentiate among the terms supervision, advising, and mentoring, but these are interchangeably used in much of the literature to denote a wide range of faculty-student relationships. When differentiated, advising often relates to the management of requirements and emotional and acclimatizing support, while supervising encompasses educating, supporting, and controlling the process to independent research (Kadushin, 1976; Winston & Polkosnik, 1984). We prefer the term mentoring, which is learning centred (Zachary, 2002), presumes growth for both the mentee and the mentor, and includes all of the above as well as the navigation of professional growth in a discipline. In some dissertation supervision models, roles are fixed, with the supervisor acting more as a manager and director of the dissertation process (Acker, Hill, & Black, 1994). In contrast, we believe that in an online professional doctorate, because students have a wealth of professional experience and a robust understanding of the professional context where research is conducted, roles in the mentoring relationship can be negotiated, and mentoring processes can be collaboratively managed by the mentor and mentee. Our research and experiences in the UF EdD EdTech have revealed that the doctoral mentees assume a proactive role in the management and direction of their learning during the dissertation process; we explain this role in greater detail later in this chapter.

Whether or not the mentee plays an active role, doctoral mentors impart knowledge and skills to their protégés, enculturate them into a discipline, and provide psychosocial support during the dissertation process (Lyons, Scroggins, & Bonham-Rule, 1990). The doctoral mentoring process and relationship have been determined to be the most important factors in the completion of doctoral dissertations (Hayes & Koro-Ljungberg, 2011; Ives & Rowley, 2005; Paglis, Green, & Bauer, 2006; Tenenbaum, Crosby, & Gliner, 2001). Researchers agree that doctoral mentoring comprises three major areas: educational development, professional development, and psychosocial development. Educational development factors pertain to structured, institution-specific, and general advice on academic program planning; formal and informal teaching for the acquisition of knowledge and skills needed for independent research; and sponsoring and providing opportunities to develop academically. Professional development consists of the provision of structured, institution-specific, and general advice on the discipline and behaviour expected in the academy; access to resources and networks; and opportunities for research, professional development, and collaborations. Psychosocial development refers to the emotional and social support necessary for the mentee’s academic and professional development, role modelling, and encouragement of self-reflection on personal strengths and weaknesses during academic development (Crisp & Cruz, 2009; Hayes & Koro-Ljungberg, 2011; Lechuga, 2011).

Doctoral mentors need to encompass six dimensions: relationships, information, facilitation, confrontation, role modelling, and career planning (Cohen, 1995). Specifically, research about dissertation mentoring has found the following to be characteristic of successful mentoring: a focus on relationship development, clear and honest communication (Ives & Rowley, 2005; Rose, 2003); research-related pedagogy for designing, conducting, and documenting research (Manathunga, 2007); frequent meetings and feedback on written submissions (Heath, 2002); motivation and guidance for career development, and the building of self-confidence (Wisker, 2015). How does a faculty member fulfill all of the different responsibilities of a dissertation mentor when they cannot meet with the mentee in person, may be in different time zones, and must communicate through various technologies in which tone of voice or body language may be missing during communication? Additionally, how can a dissertation mentor successfully guide professional students to conduct dissertations in their professional environments at a distance from the university? We attempt to address these questions in this chapter. Our approach to the online professional doctorate presumes a research-relation orientation rather than a research-practice orientation (Franke & Arvidsson, 2011): that is, we assume that the doctoral student chooses the research problem and project and that, in many cases, the doctoral student does not share the research agenda of the mentor or work as an apprentice to the mentor. Furthermore, because the doctoral students conduct research in their own professional contexts, they often have more contextual and specialized knowledge than their mentors. Although our approach presumes the formation of community and peer support among students and research preparation before admission to candidacy, the strategies we propose in this chapter are valuable for all mentors and students engaged in dissertation mentoring in blended or online environments.

ONLINE MENTORING

Hamilton and Scandura (2003) define the terms e-mentoring or virtual mentoring as “the process of using electronic means as the primary channel of communication between mentors and protégés” (p. 388). They explain this to be the virtual continuation of a mentor-protégé relationship that is created face to face or electronically. In our program, the mentor-protégé relationship is created online and continues mainly through various online media; therefore, we use the term online mentoring. Some of the challenges of online mentoring are isolation due to lack of communication, miscommunication due to the textual nature of online communication, difficulties establishing trust online, technical problems, and insufficient competence in online communication on the part of the mentor or mentee (Ensher, Heun, & Blanchard, 2003).

According to the literature, success in bridging transactional distance through communication and interactions is associated with a blended, learner-centred approach to online mentoring, in which mentors use multiple technologies and activities to develop student trust, facilitate community building, communicate frequently, and foster learner progress (Ensher & Murphy, 2007; Headlam-Wells, Gosland, & Craig, 2005; Schichtel, 2010). Such an approach, according to Schichtel (2010), requires that online mentors possess the following seven competencies:

• online developmental competence that addresses educational development, professional development, and psychosocial development
• social competence that projects personality, social presence, and community in the online environment and overcomes challenges related to distance, time, and lack of social signals
• cognitive competence that fosters critical analysis and reflective practice
• teaching competence that facilitates educational and professional development
• communicative competence to conduct effective communication in the online environment through flexibility in choices of technological mediation for both synchronous and asynchronous interactions
• managerial competence that sets expectations related to the administration and organization of mentoring
• online technical competence that facilitates mentee adaptation to the online environment and technologies

Horvath, Wasko, and Bradley (2008) further emphasize that a competent online mentor should be able to ascertain how much involvement and contact the mentee desires and to support the mentee accordingly. Regarding online feedback, the best practices identified in the literature include the setting of expectations about time management, online availability, and “constructive, timely, clear and comprehensive feedback” (Schichtel, 2010, p. 254).

ONLINE DISSERTATION MENTORING IN A PROFESSIONAL DOCTORATE

While acknowledging and emphasizing the key role of the mentor-mentee relationship in online mentoring, we propose a framework for online mentoring of dissertations that highlights the roles of the mentor, the mentee, and the program or institution. As we discussed in previous chapters of this book, online teaching and learning require structures and processes to be in place in online courses and programs, and online learners must take an active role in the organization and management of their learning. Faculty presence, learning presence, and social presence are necessary during all stages of an online professional doctorate. In the following sections, therefore, we describe not only the strategies that a mentor can use but also, based on data from graduates of our program, those that are useful for mentees. We believe that at every stage in an online doctorate, the teacher, or mentor, and the learner, or mentee, function within a larger system of support. Within a cohort model, academic peers are a strong source of support in an online professional doctorate, as are colleagues, or professional peers. Additionally, the online program or institution must provide administrative and other forms of support, which we discuss at the end of this chapter.

STRATEGIES FOR MENTORS

Choosing and Using Appropriate Technologies for Online Mentoring

The use of both synchronous and asynchronous communication via multiple media has been successful in our experiences of mentoring doctoral students, and the students in our research have appreciated these interactions (Kumar et al., 2013). Students in our program have preferred to meet regularly with their mentors using online synchronous communication. A combination of email; group discussions; phone meetings; teleconferences; Web-based synchronous meetings using Adobe Connect, Cisco Webex, Skype, Zoom, or Google Hangout; and, if possible, occasional face-to-face meetings works well for dissertation mentoring. The following statement by a faculty member reflects the approach of all faculty mentors interviewed about mentoring in our program:

I kind of use whatever the students want to use. We’ve used everything from Skype to Google Hangout, email, the good old-fashioned telephone. To me, the technology is kind of inconsequential. I don’t really care what it is as long as it gives me synchronous reliable access. Some students really like the Google Hangout, because they like to see me and my facial expressions. Sometimes the phone is better for me, just because I can do it anywhere. I kind of just go with whatever makes them feel the most comfortable. (Spring 2012)

Technologies must be carefully chosen based on the purpose of mentoring communication. Asynchronous feedback on written work in the form of comments and tracked changes in a Microsoft Word document or audio comments in Adobe Acrobat, the use of a Google Doc to provide feedback on ideas and milestone management, and emails structuring the process are all valuable. Students in our program have greatly appreciated asynchronous feedback immediately followed by synchronous feedback. We recommend scheduling a synchronous meeting on the phone or in a virtual meeting space such as Zoom when a student receives feedback on a written draft because it sets a deadline for reading the feedback and enables the student to clarify questions about it. Faculty mentors have also found such conversations useful for resolving misunderstandings that may arise from the lack of tone of voice or body language in asynchronous communication and to provide further examples or explanations for their feedback. Whether to schedule a meeting so that it coincides with the student’s receipt of an annotated draft or takes place after the student has had an opportunity to review the feedback may simply be a matter of personal preference, but the decision may also hinge on the nature of the feedback itself. For example, during an interview conducted in the spring of 2015, one faculty mentor explained why, after tracking changes and adding comments in a Word document and writing a summary of her assessment, she chose to share her feedback with the student only at the time of the meeting: “Particularly if there is a lot of work to be done, I want them to hear me talk them through it rather than try to make sense of it on their own first, so that they don’t feel overwhelmed or uncertain about what I mean about things—because I think that would heighten stress and anxiety.” Another faculty mentor has found it more valuable to schedule a synchronous meeting at least a day after a student receives feedback, instructing the student to bring questions and concerns to the meeting so that they can discuss the changes and decide how to move forward.

In terms of management of the process and documentation of student progress, both faculty and students can document synchronous discussions online. One faculty member in our program requires students to write a brief summary of topics discussed and action items after every meeting. These summaries are stored in Google Docs, where students and mentors can access them. Another faculty member takes notes during meetings and maintains a document containing them for each student.

Screen sharing during a synchronous session is useful for feedback at any point in the dissertation phase, but it can be especially valuable during the data analysis process. Students can share their screens with their mentors and peers to demonstrate how they are analyzing their quantitative data and to discuss their results. If their research is qualitative, they can share their codebooks and highlight the pieces of text attached to their codes. These processes can enhance the mentoring of research and decrease isolation during the research process. During an interview, one student in our program found screen sharing to be invaluable to her data analysis:

At one point, we connected through CrossLoop so he [the mentor] could show me the process of how to do data analysis. . . . I could dial into his computer. And so his screen would appear on my computer screen, and I could watch what he was doing. I had a pretty complicated data analysis, and actually struggled with that. And so he was showing me on his screen how to use the software. (Spring 2013)

Other software is useful for administrative purposes during the dissertation process. Polling software such as Doodle is useful for scheduling meetings within research groups and committees, and virtual classrooms provide a platform in which a committee can break out into a separate room for discussion while the student is in the main classroom. Faculty mentors in online professional doctorates, therefore, must be competent using several technologies, but more importantly, they must be able to communicate effectively online and manage the online environment. Mentors usually choose and use technologies based on their preferences, but faculty members in our program have highlighted the need to be flexible so they can accommodate the online communication and technical abilities of students.

Students must be comfortable using technology to communicate with their mentors so that they can focus on the content of the communication without being distracted by technical issues. Although this was not a consideration in our online professional doctorate in educational technology because students are generally comfortable using online technologies when they enter the program, it can play an important role in other online professional doctorates.

Providing Structure

Given their family and work commitments, students in our program have found mentor-initiated contact, set deadlines and deliverables, clear expectations, and the mentor’s structuring of peer interaction extremely useful (Kumar et al., 2013). Mentors, likewise, have found that providing structure for students is critical to student progress, mainly because students are not on campus or surrounded by the culture of academia. They reflected that students who work full-time and write their dissertation at a distance have to “find their way” and that managing time and reading drafts is ameliorated if the mentors structure the process for students and hold them accountable to deadlines and deliverables (Kumar & Johnson, 2017). A key strategy that four of our six faculty members have used to structure the dissertation process is to mentor their mentees as a group.

Ideally, online small-group mentoring would work similarly to a research group, in which peers work on common projects or projects that are different facets of a whole. In an online professional doctorate in which each mentee conducts research in his or her professional environment, small-group mentoring serves multiple purposes: it provides peer support for mentees who are at the same stage of the dissertation process, acquisition of research skills and critical thinking relevant to dissertations, and accountability to the mentor and peers. Each faculty member in our program has approached online small-group mentoring differently. One has mainly used asynchronous communication to structure peer collaboration, the brainstorming and reporting of ideas, reading of drafts, and constructive feedback, while working individually with each student in the group. Another created a structured group-mentoring environment using regular online synchronous sessions, providing feedback to the group as a whole, modelling constructive criticism, and encouraging peer feedback before receiving any written work (Kumar & Johnson, 2017). During the initial stages of defining the research question and writing the proposal, these practices are an effective use of faculty time because students often need clarity on the content and tone of dissertation chapters as well as with process or format. Mentors did not need to repeat the same advice to all students; they could provide feedback to one student within the group environment and ask the others to reflect on their work or make changes while discussing it.

Students in our program have valued small-group mentoring; during interviews, they said that it kept them on track, provided opportunities to partner with peers, and facilitated the completion of their dissertations. One student stated,

We had to get together at set nights on Elluminate [software] and share our chapters as they were coming along with each other and do mini presentations. And then we’d critique each other. And then at the end, she [the mentor] would provide some further feedback. . . . I had already known the people in my group anyway from a couple of years of coursework. I felt very comfortable emailing them offline for suggestions. We’d read each other’s papers. So the small-group cohort was really, really effective in terms of helping to get the work moving. (Spring 2012)

Moreover, students are motivated to move forward together and do not rely solely on the mentor for support. After this peer practice is established, they continue to support each other even when the mentor no longer structures opportunities for that support. After students have collected data and are writing their findings, group meetings are useful for receiving different perspectives, but individual faculty mentoring is still essential for students to receive online feedback specific to their dissertation and progress.

Providing Online Feedback and Support

All doctoral students struggle with writing a document as large as the dissertation because they have never done it before and because it usually represents their first independent research endeavour. Although the process itself can be intimidating, the manner in which students handle the feedback they receive influences their progress, and how faculty provide feedback when they are not physically present can also influence student motivation to continue in an online doctorate (Kumar & Johnson, 2014). A student in our program described her dissertation process as the first time she had ever received such extensive feedback and said that it was difficult to continue writing immediately after receiving comments and criticism. Moreover, mentors in our program have found it challenging to give feedback on a dissertation in the absence of body language, eye contact, and tone of voice, although they are used to providing such feedback on course papers and projects. One faculty mentor likened dissertation feedback to the editorial process in an interview, stating that “it is sometimes just really helpful to sit down with a piece of narrative and write it with the student, show them exactly what you are talking about.” He reflected that in the online environment, he found it challenging to show students how to write without editing their text for them. On-campus students can meet with a mentor to review written dissertation chapters and feedback, which gives both mentors and mentees a chance to clarify feedback, but in an online doctorate, mentors must be more explicit in their written feedback and must ensure that they meet virtually with their mentees to discuss such feedback.

All of the graduates whom we have interviewed about the dissertation process reported that they appreciated explicit, specific, and honest feedback on their dissertation drafts. Many stated that although they initially found feedback difficult to handle, it helped them move forward and understand what was expected; it contributed to the overall quality of the dissertation, and similar feedback would help them if they were to publish in the future. Students appreciated their mentors’ encouragement and positive reinforcement; questions instead of criticism; and provision of additional resources, research, or literature. Given their inability to ask questions and take notes in person, students appreciated clear feedback and the ability to connect with their mentors (Kumar et al., 2013).

In addition to candour, timeliness emerged as an important aspect of feedback. Given their professional and personal commitments, online professional students appreciate the establishment of specific dates for draft submission, the provision of feedback, and discussion of the feedback. During interviews, a faculty member reflected that when working with multiple students, this helped her allot time for the reading of drafts. Moreover, it made students accountable, since they were required to inform her of any delays in submissions and revisions to their timelines. She believed it was also easier for her professional students to plan their time if she set a timeline for receipt of her feedback.

Clear expectations and accountability on both sides are valuable for dissertation completion. Both mentors and mentees can renegotiate deadlines if they are unable to meet deadlines upon which they had previously agreed. Although it is important that mentors initiate such timelines, this is a process that both mentors and mentees must manage together.

As a first step in the dissertation process, students review our scholarship on the guiding principles for dissertations in our online professional doctorate (Dawson & Kumar, 2014). Based on the positive results of this requirement, we recommend that others designing and implementing similar programs identify and communicate the essential elements of dissertations and the attendant student expectations. Activities involving reviewing dissertations in the discipline and understanding their components should be built into the online curriculum. Additionally, during the dissertation stage, faculty in our program have found that it is important for students to review work that uses a similar research design or methodology or that addresses similar research questions. Given the unique needs of professional contexts and professional dissertations, it is critical that students analyze and discuss how the various components of a dissertation fit together.

In a new online professional doctorate, finding appropriate dissertations and achieving clarity with respect to what constitutes a dissertation can be a challenge, as it was for our faculty when mentoring the first cohort of students. However, they were able to identify excellent PhD dissertations in or outside our institution, along with specific chapters that were useful as models. For instance, if a student was using a certain methodological framework, the third chapter of other dissertations that used that framework was shared with that student. In later cohorts, it was possible for faculty mentors to provide sample dissertations completed within our program and to connect mentees with prior graduates who had used a certain methodology or worked in a similar context. This connection of mentees with previous students who have successfully graduated can be extremely useful in an online doctorate.

Given the various commitments in their busy lives, the biggest challenge faced by students in our program is time management. They find it difficult to find time to write, to focus on writing when they do find short periods of time to do so, to stay motivated when writing in isolation, and to balance writing with their other priorities. For example, one student held a job in which 80 percent of his time was spent travelling; he had to do much of his writing on a plane without access to online resources. Another student shared her frustrations not being able to write, stating, “Children follow me around the house, going, ‘mommy, mommy, mommy.’ Mommy has to write” (Kumar & Johnson, 2014).

Mentors in a professional doctorate must be flexible and understanding of the commitments that compete for professional students’ time. This often means meeting with students in the evenings or on weekends and accommodating various time zones. Mentors in our program have consistently emphasized the need to be sensitive to students’ schedules; accommodate their needs; and offer reassurance, guidance, support, and encouragement (Kumar & Johnson, 2017). Some faculty members give students their cell phone numbers, and others make it clear that students should immediately send an email if they need to vent or are struggling with the process. Building a distance relationship that respects boundaries but also encourages students to trust their mentor with their struggles and doubts is difficult but possible. Responding immediately, providing reassurance, and helping students establish priorities at different times is important. Faculty have reported struggling with the challenge of when to give students direct advice and when to let them figure it out for themselves. Students in our program have stated that the most important lesson they learned in such situations is that priorities can change, and it is important to make an informed choice each time they do. Family, for example, may take precedence in a certain situation, while writing may be a priority in another (Coughlin et al., 2012).

In addition to work-life situations that influence professional students’ ability to write, students in an online professional doctorate can face challenges with data collection at their workplace and with changes in initiatives and approval for research. Furthermore, given their distance from the university, they often do not know their committee members as well as on-campus students do (Kumar & Johnson, 2014). Mentors play a significant role in helping professional students navigate these challenges.

STRATEGIES FOR MENTEES

In addition to strategies for mentors, our research has highlighted useful strategies that students can use during the dissertation stage of an online professional doctorate. These strategies, which stem from our students’ insights and suggestions, have been valuable to later students in fostering a smooth dissertation process and effective online mentoring.

Establishing Open and Consistent Communication with Mentors

Students in our program have stated that it is important to establish early, open, and consistent mentor communication; they have provided examples of how this communication helped them in numerous situations in which the mentor reassured or advised them, or suggested alternatives to their problems. They found it important to use multiple modes of communication such as email, phone, and Skype for various situations, but they also suggested that mentees identify the modes of communication with which mentors are most comfortable and to use those means when possible. Finally, they found that asking for clarification immediately when something was unclear prevented misunderstandings that could cause further problems (Kumar et al., 2013).

Being Proactive and Taking the Initiative

Students in the UF EdD EdTech have found it important to take ownership for communication, deadlines, and feedback during the dissertation process. They proposed that mentees should take the initiative in establishing contact with mentors, setting deadlines for drafts and feedback, and arranging meeting dates (Kumar et al., 2013). They believed that this helped to structure writing and communications with mentors and to finish a dissertation on time. Waiting for a mentor to provide structure or deadlines can lead to significant delays in the online environment, where mentees do not have an opportunity to meet the mentors in any other context. Notwithstanding the value of good relationships with mentors, according to students, creating deadlines for oneself, planning, and staying on top of things was paramount in finishing their dissertations.

According to student feedback, when problems arise regarding data collection or analysis or life events, it is important for the student to immediately reach out to the mentor or other committee members and seek advice. Online students may hesitate to reach out, which impedes the dissertation process. Most importantly, students suggested that mentor feedback about writing be implemented immediately while the ideas are fresh and familiar to both the mentor and mentee.

Supporting Peers and Seeking Support from Others

As already noted, it is difficult for online professional students to stay motivated, and several of the students interviewed felt disconnected from academic work because of their professional and personal commitments. Consistent communication with peers, with others in their disciplines, and with people who have completed a doctorate and understand the rigours of the dissertation process is valuable for the completion of a dissertation. Peer support should be structured during the initial stages of an online professional doctorate (for instance, by using activities within a cohort model) so that a support network already exists within the program when students reach the dissertation stage. Given the unique nature of doctoral studies and the challenges of writing a dissertation, others experiencing the same process—in addition to family, friends, and significant others—can be valuable sources of support. Encouragement and cheerleading within a larger cohort and the reading of drafts and provision of feedback within smaller peer groups clearly motivated students in our program, helping them with their writing and research and contributing to the completion of their dissertations. Students suggested that if peer support is difficult or absent, professional students can identify and collaborate with colleagues or friends in their work environments who held terminal degrees or are in similar situations (Kumar et al., 2013). Reaching out to peers and reciprocal reading of drafts can reduce isolation and facilitate the process.

THE ROLE OF THE PROGRAM AND INSTITUTION

Participation in a community with common goals can increase students’ retention and motivation and can help them complete a dissertation. Mentors are crucial during the dissertation stage, but peers also assume a key role, and both function within a larger system of support that is provided by the institution and designed as part of a program. In our model for a professional doctorate, the cohort model is implemented and communities are formed in the initial years to maximize retention during all stages of the doctorate, especially the dissertation.

An institutional climate characterized by student integration and peer support has been found to decrease the time taken to complete a degree or program (de Valero, 2001; Lovitts & Nelson, 2000). Online professional students must connect to their institution and peers via colloquia or webinars that inform them about research procedures; events where peers and faculty members share research; and other opportunities related to academic, career, and researcher development. Doctoral cohorts that have already created close relationships in the first stages of the professional doctorate can network, motivate, and help each other during the dissertation stage. Doctoral students in the natural sciences often have opportunities to engage with each other in laboratories and through research projects during this stage, but in the social sciences, students are often left to their own devices. Some institutions attempt to create intellectual communities through on-campus workshops involving faculty members and their students (Nerad & Miller, 1997); in an online program, it is possible to hold virtual meetings at a departmental or school level that function in the same way. Students can share their research and events in their disciplines, critique and support each other’s work, and share resources. Virtual meetings can be offered throughout a doctoral program and not just during the extremely important dissertation stage.

In terms of infrastructure, doctoral support centres can provide consistent and equitable support not just for on-campus students but also for online doctoral students. West and Gokalp (2011) describe such centres as addressing social isolation in a doctoral program from an institutional or administrative perspective and helping professional students to make a faster transition to dissertation work and to complete their dissertations more quickly. Ideally, all aspects of an online professional doctorate should build up to and culminate in the dissertation process; this includes not only the activities that facilitate scholarly thinking and community building but also the practical processes and content useful to the dissertation process. Specific topics that have been successfully addressed throughout the UF EdD EdTech, thus helping students during the dissertation stage, are information literacy, research ethics and the Institutional Research Board (IRB) process, areas of writing with which students struggle, and bibliographic tools that help students manage their references.

In addition to activities, meetings, and support groups, the provision of research infrastructure for online students is essential. For example, in our online professional doctorate, initial online students did not have access to research software such as SAS or SPSS, which was available to on-campus students. Student versions of such software became available to the second cohort, which made it much easier for the students to acquire research skills and for faculty members to guide them during data analysis in their research. Most universities provide software services to on-campus students, but they might not have processes in place for online students to access these services.

KEY CONSIDERATIONS

Online mentoring at the dissertation stage in our model for the online professional doctorate is preceded by coursework and activities that scaffold scholarly thinking and facilitate the building of a community of researching professionals. The goal of such scaffolding is to ensure a foundational connection of theory, practice, and research in the doctorate and to build a system of support for researching professionals working on their dissertations at a distance from the university. Activities throughout the curriculum should be structured with the end goal of the dissertation in mind. We discuss some considerations in this section that play a role in the online mentoring of students during the dissertation stage.

Assigning mentors and mentees. Our model for the online professional doctorate presumes that the dissertation focuses on a problem or topic in the mentee’s professional environment and that the research is conducted to improve this environment. This scenario can be difficult for a faculty member who is accustomed to mentoring students doing research in experimental or university settings and who may have to mentor a professional who is implementing research in a context with which the mentor has little experience. To the best extent possible, assigning mentees to mentors who have expertise in their areas of specialization, their specific research interests and/or professional contexts, or the types of research methods the mentees will use can greatly reduce tensions, which is critical given that the mentor-mentee relationship during the dissertation stage greatly contributes to the mentee’s satisfaction and support. In this regard, mentors must understand the goal of a dissertation in the online professional doctorate and be familiar with the guiding principles to help students select dissertation topics that have an appropriate scope and will make a difference in their professional contexts.

Mentor workloads also influence the assignment of mentees to mentors, who often find it challenging to mentor multiple dissertations in addition to research, service, and teaching. The challenges are even greater when mentees are located at a distance from the university. Moreover, when professionals move through an online doctorate as a cohort, the number of students preparing a dissertation proposal or writing the final dissertation at the same time is larger. Those organizing programs that require mentors to work with multiple students at one time may need to discuss plans with university administrators in order to secure additional supports for a mentor with a significant increase in workload.

Developing mentors. As discussed above, the mentor is expected to provide structure, sample dissertations, feedback, and psychosocial support, and to choose appropriate technologies for online mentoring. Communicating to mentors the types of strategies that are valuable in an online environment and ensuring that they possess the necessary competencies can facilitate a smooth mentoring process during the dissertation. Lee (2008) states that dissertation supervisors’ experiences as doctoral students and their concept of supervision influence how they supervise or mentor. Regardless of those experiences, which most likely took place in a traditional on-campus doctorate, all faculty in an online professional doctorate should understand the goals of the doctorate, the types of research conducted, the guiding principles of dissertations, and the types of support that researching professionals need. Although these may be similar to their experiences as a doctoral student or as mentors of on-campus doctoral students, they should be aware of the unique nature of the online professional doctorate and the needs and challenges of nontraditional students working on their dissertations at a distance from the university (Kumar & Johnson, 2014). It is advantageous to create opportunities for sharing strategies among faculty members who mentor in an online professional doctorate as a means to support those who may lack previous experience with online mentoring or with the mentoring of professional dissertations.

Developing mentees. Professionals in an online doctorate may not always perceive themselves as responsible for their success during the dissertation stage and, in fact, throughout their doctoral studies. Despite being professionals and experts in their professional environments, based on their experiences as undergraduates or master’s degree students, they may revert to expecting their mentors to take charge of the process or tell them what to do, especially in the online environment, where they do not see their mentors. An outline of the mentee’s role and responsibilities should be given to students at the beginning of the dissertation stage. In the UF EdD EdTech program, students are given material to read before being assigned to a mentor who then outlines how they prefer to work with mentees. Finally, students are connected with graduates or those already writing their dissertation to understand how to best manage the process. Being aware of strategies that have worked for others and accepting responsibility for their progress can go a long way in students’ successful completion of dissertations.

While not a challenge faced in our program because of the technical competencies of students, mentees in other online professional doctorates might lack the technical, social, communication, and managerial competencies (Schichtel, 2010) needed to succeed in the online environment. In another online professional doctorate offered at our institution, students were comfortable using the learning management system used for coursework, but some were less familiar with other technologies and therefore preferred to use the telephone to communicate with their mentors during the dissertation phase. Although it is important for a program and/or mentors to adapt to the need of students and use the technologies familiar to them, guidance on how to use technologies during online mentoring could also be provided to mentees.

Sharing mentoring. In an online professional doctorate such as the UF EdD EdTech, students have the opportunity to work with and get to know multiple faculty members online, after meeting them during initial on-campus summer sessions. This is important because students need exposure to different ways of thinking, providing feedback, and communicating. Often, faculty mentors suggest that a student consult another faculty member about an area of research or research method. We have found that humility among faculty members and a learner-centred approach while crafting a dissertation committee or communicating resources can reduce frustration and help online students who are not on campus and may not always understand the relationships or problems that exist between faculty members.

Furthermore, requirements of dissertation committees and the interdisciplinary nature of professional dissertations often involve faculty members from other disciplines, research orientations, or departments. It is important to communicate the purpose of the online professional doctorate and the guiding principles of dissertations to committee members to ensure that they all work toward the same goal. In the UF EdD EdTech, we require students to share with the committee a prospectus in which they justify the need for their research, provide supporting literature, and briefly describe their proposed research design. This ensures that all committee members understand the purpose of the dissertation, approve of the general research proposed, and have the opportunity to provide feedback at an early stage.

Asking for support. Professionals completing their dissertations at a distance from the university are often hesitant to reach out to peers or others who are experts and ask for advice about their research or writing. We have described the cohort model, institutional support, and small-group mentoring as strategies that help to create a community to alleviate this problem. At the same time, emphasizing and modelling throughout an online professional doctorate the importance of input from others both within and outside the university can help professionals learn to request and receive feedback. Social media, professional organizations, and others who have completed professional doctorates can also be helpful in the dissertation process.

CONCLUSION

The move from traditional on-campus apprenticeship models of dissertation mentoring to the online mentoring of dissertations in the absence of a common research practice between the mentor and mentee requires rethinking the roles of the mentor, the mentee, and the institution. Mentors have to adapt to mentoring professionals who may have little or no prior research experience in the online environment, and mentees have to learn to assimilate and implement feedback and trust the experience and advice of the mentor. In this chapter, we discussed the technologies and strategies used by mentors that have helped students in our program succeed during the dissertation phase. Our research shows that the use of timelines, structure, synchronous feedback, and small-group mentoring are especially valuable to professional students in the online environment. While often not considered an important factor in dissertation mentoring in traditional doctoral programs with on-campus support services, the role played by the program and institution assumes greater importance in an online professional doctorate. A cohort model that facilitates community and scholarly thinking and emphasizes the mentee’s role and strategies in the online environment during the early stages of a program can contribute to peer support and mentee accountability during the dissertation stage. Likewise, infrastructure, services, and opportunities that are designed and offered to support online students conducting research at a distance from the university are essential to student retention and successful dissertation completion.