EDD student orientation sessions will be held prior to the beginning of each semester. Attendance is required before EDD students begin coursework. The orientation sessions will introduce new students to the faculty; provide a thorough description of the program’s academic expectations of its students; introduce students to library services, the writing center staff; provide valuable information regarding course registration; demonstrate the use of Blackboard®; and include a discussion of other important administrative matters.

• Admission to the Ed.D. program

This course focuses on applied theories of leadership behavior. It surveys the concepts of leadership effectiveness: leaders as change agents, and leaders as servants. The role of leadership in organizational communication, control, empowerment, and conflict resolution are analyzed.

• EDD809 Advanced Research Writing

This course focuses on developing an awareness of the major ethical positions and critically examining the foundational ethic theories and decision-making processes throughout history. Various ethical theories are examined in relation to contemporary examples of the ethical challenges faced by leadership. The course seeks to enable individuals to reflect on their personal ethical stances and to analyze and critique ethical issues related to a variety of leadership contexts and situations.

• EDD809 Advanced Research Writing

This course focuses on developing and refining a writing process for extensive research projects. Emphasis is on identifying and strengthening one’s voice as an academic writer; establishing a relationship with readers; achieving advanced skills in development, analysis, revision of ideas, and editing to mastery of research writing. APA style is a key component of the class.

• EDD800 Student Orientation

This course studies the relationship between effective organizational communication strategies and the personal empowerment needed in transformational leadership dimensions of effective communication in adult learning settings. Emotional intelligence, the cultural perspectives on communication, organizational structure, organizational ideology, and organizational symbolism are examined to understand the complexities of organizational communication and strategies for communicating effectively within organizations are analyzed and synthesized with adult learners are critiqued.

• EDD809 Advanced Research Writing

This course addresses a comprehensive range of philosophies and theories of adult learning that influence leadership approaches. Issues such as demographics and characteristics of adult learners, motivation, developmental theories, the impact of age on learning, learning styles, and cultural issues are addressed.

• EDD809 Advanced Research Writing
• EDD802 Leadership Theory

Participants in this course examine characteristics of adult learners as students or employees, and explore various strategies by which to facilitate adult learning. Participants analyze environments as places of learning for adults, and the leader as a culturally competent facilitator of learning.

• EDD809 Advanced Research Writing
• EDD811 Theories of Adult Learning

In this course students examine models for professional development, curricular implementation, and assessment with special emphasis on systematic instructional design. Topics to be addressed include the needs of assessment, goal setting and analysis, objective writing, generating curriculum and instructional strategies, and determining appropriate assessments, evaluations, and feedback.

• EDD809 Advanced Research Writing
• EDD814 Assessment: Theory and Practice

This course focuses on the concept of assessment across learning taxonomies and how they link to learning processes. Topics include clarification of terminology, limitations of conventional evaluation, relating assessment to instruction and teaching practices, performance criteria, assessment tools and strategies, assessment strategies for adult populations, and the creation and evaluation of instruments.

• EDD809 Advanced Research Writing
• EDD820 Introduction to Research

This course introduces the basic techniques needed to conduct organizational research. Fundamental elements such as hypotheses, sampling techniques, data analysis, design validity, and research ethics are investigated in preparation for the design of a scholarly research proposal.

• EDD809 Advanced Research Writing
• EDD820 Introduction to Research

This course provides an in-depth look at qualitative research methods through exploration of qualitative research paradigms; various qualitative methodologies; design, implementation, analysis, and presentation issues; the use of technological data analysis tools in qualitative research; and ethical issues.

• EDD809 Advanced Research Writing
• EDD814 Assessment: Theory and Practice
• EDD821 Techniques for Research
• EDD820 Introduction to Research

This course explores quantitative research methods. It includes a general survey of descriptive statistical techniques, selection of appropriate statistical measure, development of samples or databases, and analysis of findings. Computer application and use of statistical programs to develop, manipulate, and analyze data constitute an integral part of the course.

• EDD809 Advanced Research Writing
• EDD814 Assessment: Theory and Practice
• EDD821 Techniques for Research
• EDD820 Introduction to Research
• A master's-level statistics course

Individualized sessions are conducted with the candidate’s committee chairperson to prepare the dissertation proposal and the dissertation as well as the presentation to the committee. Candidates are required to register for at least one dissertation credit each semester until finished with a minimum of 12 credits required to complete the degree.

• EDD899 Comprehensive Examination

This course applies the principles of education to the discipline of organization development, which studies the ways in which individuals as well as the organization refines existing skills and develops new skills. Topics include the examination of assumptions, strategies, models, and motivational systems that contribute to organizational performance, as well as techniques that develop the organization’s ability to innovate, improve, and manage change.

• EDD809 Advanced Research Writing

This course applies the principles of assessment to the development of authentic systems to monitor and measure the effectiveness of organizations. Models will include the systems approach, the goal-attainment approach, the strategic-constituencies model, and the competing-values model. These models will provide a framework for assessing the criteria which are relevant to the long-term survival of any organization.

Doctoral students are required to take a comprehensive examination upon completion of coursework. The comprehensive examination is an integrative experience requiring students to demonstrate personal mastery of concepts studied during the core sequence as well as the ability to apply those concepts to challenges in their areas of specialization.

Each EDD student is required to provide a presentation of the dissertation project to the student’s committee and the public. The committee and the public are encouraged to ask questions of the student regarding the research project, the student’s written dissertation, points developed in the presentation, or any other related matter.

• EDD899 Comprehensive Examination
• EDD830 Dissertation

The emphasis of this course is on budget allocation, planning, reporting, and auditing. Financial systems at the state, district and school levels are evaluated. It reviews the historical development of Minnesota state funding for public education.

The emphasis of this course is on identification of laws and legal issues affecting schools and school systems. Education case law, contract law, policies, and regulations pertinent to school districts are discussed.

This course focuses on analysis of various methods of supervision and the skills, sensitivities, and attitudes required for clinical supervision. It examines the connection between individual development of teachers and school-wide goals for improvement. Students discern personal leadership strengths that promote teacher development.

This course begins with a historical perspective of higher education, including European roots, the founding of American universities, land-grant colleges, the research university, the two-year college movement, and changes since World War II. The course examines both the historical and the contemporary governance structure and fictions, and the impetus for institutional reform. Future trends, such as those driven by the information age and demographic change, are explored.

• EDD809 Advanced Research Writing

This course provides an overview of policy formulation in postsecondary institutions, including the role of boards, administrators, faculty, and students. The forces exerted by federal and state policy and regulatory agencies on both public and private institutions are examined. Related topics include policies on academic freedom, the future of the tenure system, faculty participation in institutional planning, and the effects of external and internal policy-making on financial planning.

• EDD809 Advanced Research Writing

The course focuses on the variety of issues surrounding the design and assessment of academic programs. Topics include traditional, contemporary and future models of postsecondary programs; the effects of the changing student population on program development, particularly adult learners; educational offerings in the workplace; keeping quality control in the midst of changes, such as an increase in part-time faculty; accreditation issues; the impact of student and faculty evaluations on quality programming; and faculty development as an institutional response to quality programming.

• EDD809 Advanced Research Writing
• EDD814 Assessment: Theory and Practice
• EDD820 Introduction to Research

This course applies the concepts of learning to the methods and techniques through which organizations communicate information and learn. Supported by the learning organization model of organization theory, this course examines the structures and systems that allow organizations to learn as well as those that inhibit or eliminate organizational learning.

• EDD809 Advanced Research Writing