South College announces competency-based DBA

[McManus]

For those utilizing AI, they have a few different checks, so be warned. A person in our cohort was caught twice and I believe is pending academic discipline.

Would you know what these checks are? Would like to try using them in my work.

Ed.D, Adult Learning and Development student here. They use Turnitin. They just revised their AI policy to accommodate the realities of AI checks, and I believe that it's more than fair. I have had an outstanding experience in the program, enrolled in Jan 2023, and am just starting my 3rd of 5 chapters in my dissertation.

[maxxor6868]

For those utilizing AI, they have a few different checks, so be warned. A person in our cohort was caught twice and I believe is pending academic discipline.

Would you know what these checks are? Would like to try using them in my work.

Ed.D, Adult Learning and Development student here. They use Turnitin. They just revised their AI policy to accommodate the realities of AI checks, and I believe that it's more than fair. I have had an outstanding experience in the program, enrolled in Jan 2023, and am just starting my 3rd of 5 chapters in my dissertation.

How is the dissertation? I am 50% done with course 6 and my goal is to have course 7 finish by my second-semester start date on April 1st. My mentor says that there a pretty big slow down after course 8 and I will more than likely use the entire second semester for the last two courses. I know the grading period is longer but I am a little worried. My goal is to finish it all in two terms if possible.

[JourneyMan]

I have been chatting/talking with an acutal admission counselor at South College the last few days and can confirm the DBA program is available online via the Knoxville campus. It is completely online and starts four times a year, with the next being Apr 1. When you set up your account you have to choose knoxville as the school, not the onlne school. They are still working through some hiccups in that regard.

Unfortunately they do not accept the GI Bill at this time, so I will have to continue on with 14 more classes with Liberty U.

I'll throw a shout out to the admission counselor. She is quick with replies, doesn't fluff anything up, and is very helpful. Kudos to South for this.

They actually do support the GI bill now.  This was a recent change they announced.

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Unfortunately they do not accept the GI Bill at this time

Hmm...this is interesting. How can they accept the GI Bill for their other programs, but not the DBA? Did they tell you why or what the issue is? If I can't use GI Bill, then I will have to look elsewhere as well, I'm not interested in coming out of pocket for anything after spending almost 2 decades in military service to earn my educational benefits. Are you sure you are not taking about the "military grant" instead?

They do accept the GI Bill. They changed it last month apparently.

[walruspanda]

Despite my signature, instead of the PUG EdD I'm considering signing up for the South College DBA program with the IT concentration after my MSIT is done at PUG this month. Some thoughts:

• I like the fact that South's DBA program is CME, because I have a much easier time with motivation with CME courses than traditional, "slow" courses. I'm somewhat worried that 20 months of more traditional courses at PUG might make it unlikely that I finish.
  
• I've seen that some people have been able to finish the DBA program in 12 months or 18 months -- and either of those would be cheaper than PUG's EdD (although not much cheaper if it takes 18 months).
  
• The B part of DBA doesn't really interest me -- I work in K-12 education, not business. All things being equal, I'd rather get South's EdD than South's DBA, but the IT concentration's only available in the latter.
  
• Even though I don't love the name South College, I think there are some advantages to having a doctorate at a different school than where your masters was achieved. And South is RA (although for-profit).
  
• There was a time I had crossed them on my list because their AI detection seemed to go crazy (if FB is to be believed). However, that doesn't seem to be much of an issue now, so they seem to have rectified whatever issue that was.
  

Not sure which way I'm going to end up going. Not getting a doctorate is a real option, too -- it's certainly not necessary in my field, but I'm still being called by the siren's song.

[maxxor6868]

Despite my signature, instead of the PUG EdD I'm considering signing up for the South College DBA program with the IT concentration after my MSIT is done at PUG this month. Some thoughts:

• I like the fact that South's DBA program is CME, because I have a much easier time with motivation with CME courses than traditional, "slow" courses. I'm somewhat worried that 20 months of more traditional courses at PUG might make it unlikely that I finish.
  
• I've seen that some people have been able to finish the DBA program in 12 months or 18 months -- and either of those would be cheaper than PUG's EdD (although not much cheaper if it takes 18 months).
  
• The B part of DBA doesn't really interest me -- I work in K-12 education, not business. All things being equal, I'd rather get South's EdD than South's DBA, but the IT concentration's only available in the latter.
  
• Even though I don't love the name South College, I think there are some advantages to having a doctorate at a different school than where your masters was achieved. And South is RA (although for-profit).
  
• There was a time I had crossed them on my list because their AI detection seemed to go crazy (if FB is to be believed). However, that doesn't seem to be much of an issue now, so they seem to have rectified whatever issue that was.
  

Not sure which way I'm going to end up going. Not getting a doctorate is a real option, too -- it's certainly not necessary in my field, but I'm still being called by the siren's song.

As someone in the program I can give my thoughts. I went through TESU and WGU for my undergrad and masters and I enjoy the idea of different colleges for my education. I went to a high school, than a community college for my associates, than TESU for undergrad, WGU for my masters, and now South College for my DBA. It does not make a difference in reality but I feel better about going through five different educational centers and proving myself each time. There is an extreme amount of writing to be fair now. It easy 5-6x more writing than WGU. In terms of AI detection, it was really bad at first. They are open and transparent that they are working on improving the system though. I am still not a fan of how it is used but it is a lot better than when it was first implemented.

[kidneysmasher]

I just submitted the first three chapters of my dissertation for review by the methodologist and then IRB check. So far the courses have been cumbersome with writing, but not overly difficult. The AI problem is annoying. I have not been effected by it, but to trust the word of the company running the Turnitin AI checker, as opposed to numerous academic and comp sci professionals proving it to be ineffective is discouraging. additionally, my first three chapters got all the way past my chair/committee with praise and then it went to the next level and they made me make major corrections to make it more apparent as a "business" topic. I posted my frustration about this and was suprised to hear 3-4 other people had the same issue and two even had to restart from Chapter 1, Fuck that! With that being said there are definitely still some growing pains.

[maxxor6868]

I just submitted the first three chapters of my dissertation for review by the methodologist and then IRB check. So far the courses have been cumbersome with writing, but not overly difficult. The AI problem is annoying. I have not been effected by it, but to trust the word of the company running the Turnitin AI checker, as opposed to numerous academic and comp sci professionals proving it to be ineffective is discouraging. additionally, my first three chapters got all the way past my chair/committee with praise and then it went to the next level and they made me make major corrections to make it more apparent as a "business" topic. I posted my frustration about this and was suprised to hear 3-4 other people had the same issue and two even had to restart from Chapter 1, Fuck that! With that being said there are definitely still some growing pains.

How long did it take you to write those three chapters? How long would you say it will take to write the whole dissertation? How many pages? How many chapters? Any advice I am halfway through course 9 and will hopefully start at the beginning of April when my second term starts. Is it possible to do it in six months? The AI turn is super annoying. I had a couple of assignments get automatically rejected because my word doc could not be read by turn and they said they didn't know it, not AI. Maybe they could just read my papers instead??

[walruspanda]

I have officially applied for the DBA w/ IT concentration program at South College. I'm about 50/50 between that and the EdD at PUG -- both have some advantages for my specific situation, so I'm really not sure which choice I'm going to land on.

[bjcheung77]

@walruspanda, it really depends, if you're wanting to get into a leadership role within the education field, the EdD may be better, for general business administration or ones that deal with IT, the DBA is the better choice.

[walruspanda]

@walruspanda, it really depends, if you're wanting to get into a leadership role within the education field, the EdD may be better, for general business administration or ones that deal with IT, the DBA is the better choice.

I'm aiming for IT leadership roles...but within K-12 education. Both the PUG EdD degree and the South DBA degree would have an IT concentration or cognate for me, which is why I'm slightly leaning toward PUG, at least as of today. Tomorrow may be different!