| Purpose, scope, and method of study. Copious studies have documented the fact that dissertation writing presents numerous challenges to doctoral students and their dissertation chairs. The growing trend towards distance education as a primary mode of educational delivery at the graduate level further compounds the existent problem. Research relevant to dissertation writing in nontraditional distance doctoral programs as a unit among extant literature is miniscule. This collective case study details some of the challenges of dissertation writing in nontraditional distance doctoral programs from the perspectives of doctoral graduates and dissertation faculty members at three American universities. The study also describes some of the approaches employed by the schools in response to some of the identified challenges. The data analyzed in the study was derived from university catalogs, Web sites, documents, and interviews with dissertation faculty and graduates from the participant universities.;Findings and conclusions. The research findings revealed that the dissertation writing challenges identified by the participants clustered around four primary themes: theoretical research knowledge application, academic writing/critical research analysis, student-faculty communication/support, and learner disposition. The findings of this study satisfied the need in the literature for more focused attention on nontraditional distance doctoral programs and the need to understand how universities offering nontraditional distance doctoral programs are addressing the challenges of dissertation writing. A major conclusion of this study is that successful dissertation writing in nontraditional distance programs requires a blend of scholastic knowledge and the management of internal and external variables associated with the dissertation writing process. Despite the fact that case studies are limited in their generalizability to other populations, the findings presented in this study can be applied or transferred to similar research contexts. |
