DDP Coursework Sequence

Students completing the DDP follow the sequence below:

• Year 2 Spring 2 EDOC 7005 Research Design for DDP

• Year 2 Summer EDOC 7902 Comprehensive Examination and Project Proposal

• Year 3 Fall Semester EDOC 8001 Doctoral Digital Portfolio I

• Year 3 Spring Semester EDOC 8002 Doctoral Digital Portfolio II

Note: The DDP Chair and Committee are typically appointed after successful completion of EDOC 7005 and before enrollment in EDOC 8001.

During EDOC 7005 and EDOC 7902, students design their portfolio framework, identify the problem of practice, establish the conceptual and methodological foundation, and develop the proposal for the Doctoral Digital Portfolio.

During EDOC 8001 and EDOC 8002, students complete, refine, and present the portfolio under the guidance of a DDP Chair and Committee. Official IRB should be submitted in early Fall in Year 3. The DDP Chair is the IRB faculty sponsor. The final DDP needs to be approved by the DDP Chair and EDOC 8002 Professor. The DDP Committee Members offer content expertise and support but do not vote to approve the DDP. 

Institutional Review Board (IRB)

Some Doctoral Digital Portfolios involve research with human participants, while others do not.

If the portfolio includes research activities requiring Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval, students must obtain approval before beginning any research involving human participants. In such cases, the DDP Chair serves as the Faculty Sponsor and guides the student through the University's IRB process. The Chair and Doctoral Candidate need to have active CITI training certificate (expires and can be renewed every 3 years). DDP Committee Members are recommended to have active CITI certificates also. 

Checklist for DDP Chair Responsibilities

• Please read through the EdD Website (https://sites.google.com/view/eddwebster/home) for the program ethos, policies, Doctoral Digital Portfolio (DDP) guidelines, and important forms.

• The DDP Chair guides the doctoral student through the successful completion of the Doctoral Digital Portfolio (DDP) during Year 3 in EDOC 8001 Doctoral Digital Portfolio I and EDOC 8002 Doctoral Digital Portfolio II. The DDP Chair reviews substantial drafts, provides scholarly feedback, and monitors the doctoral student's progress throughout EDOC 8001 and EDOC 8002.

• The DDP Chair reviews the approved DDP proposal and guides the doctoral student in completing the Doctoral Digital Portfolio. The DDP Chair may request revisions to the approved proposal when necessary. Any disputes regarding the proposal should be resolved among the DDP Chair, the doctoral student, and the Director of the Ed.D. Program.

• The DDP Chair communicates with the doctoral student regarding preferred communication methods, meeting frequency, and turnaround time for reviewing substantial drafts. Although there is no required number of meetings, the DDP Chair meets regularly with the doctoral student and consults with DDP Committee Members as needed. The DDP Chair and doctoral student mutually determine the frequency and duration of meetings, as well as appropriate points for committee involvement. A general expectation for feedback on substantial drafts is 14 calendar days, although another mutually agreed-upon timeframe is acceptable.

• As a general guideline, a DDP Chair should anticipate approximately 6–10 hours of meetings over the course of the DDP, in addition to time spent reviewing drafts and providing written feedback.

• If Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval is required, the DDP Chair serves as the Faculty Sponsor, maintains an active CITI certification, reviews the IRB application and supporting documents, and reminds the doctoral student that research involving human participants may not begin until IRB approval is received. The doctoral student submits the IRB application and copies the DDP Chair and EDOC 8001 Professor on the submission.

• The DDP Chair works collaboratively with the doctoral student and DDP Committee Members until the Doctoral Digital Portfolio is successfully completed.

• The DDP Chair guides the doctoral student in preparing the final Doctoral Digital Portfolio for submission. The final DDP must be approved by both the EDOC 8002 course professor and the DDP Chair. The EdD Director and EDOC 8002 Faculty submit approved DDP to a designated library repository. 

• The DDP Chair reminds the doctoral student to obtain permission for reproducing copyrighted materials, when applicable, and to use the Copyright Release Form (https://drive.google.com/file/d/17MyB-qRNB5KDg5zxiW7GBA6wLAhywNlh/view).

• Compensation is predicated upon the successful completion of the DDP and fulfillment of DDP Chair responsibilities, rather than enrollment in any particular course. The DDP Chair receives $600 per doctoral student upon successful completion of DDP and fulfillment of DDP Chair responsibilities. Co-Chairs split the compensation in half. 

• In the event that the DDP is not completed in Year 3, the student enrolls in EDOC 8010 (1 credit per semester) under the Director of EdD or designated Faculty until the DDP is complete. The DDP Chair and Committee Members need to continue to support the students until the DDP is complete.

Checklist for DDP Committee Member Responsibilities

• Please read through the EdD Website (https://sites.google.com/view/eddwebster/home) for the program ethos, policies, Doctoral Digital Portfolio (DDP) guidelines, and important forms.

• The DDP Committee Member supports the doctoral student in the successful completion of the Doctoral Digital Portfolio (DDP) during Year 3 in EDOC 8001 Doctoral Digital Portfolio I and EDOC 8002 Doctoral Digital Portfolio II. The DDP Committee Member reviews substantial drafts and provides scholarly feedback as requested by the DDP Chair and doctoral student.

• The DDP Committee Member reviews the approved DDP proposal and provides scholarly guidance throughout the completion of the Doctoral Digital Portfolio. Questions or concerns regarding the proposal should be communicated to the DDP Chair.

• The DDP Committee Member communicates with the doctoral student regarding preferred communication methods and turnaround time for reviewing substantial drafts. Although there is no required number of meetings, the DDP Committee Member meets with the doctoral student as requested by the DDP Chair or when additional guidance is needed. A general expectation for feedback on substantial drafts is 14 calendar days, although another mutually agreed-upon timeframe is acceptable.

• As a general guideline, a DDP Committee Member should anticipate approximately 4-6 hours of meetings over the course of the DDP, in addition to time spent reviewing drafts and providing written feedback.

• The DDP Committee Member works collaboratively with the DDP Chair and doctoral student throughout the Doctoral Digital Portfolio process and provides scholarly feedback until the DDP is successfully completed.

• The DDP Committee Member reviews the final Doctoral Digital Portfolio, when requested by the DDP Chair and student, and provides recommendations before final submission.

• Compensation is predicated upon the successful completion of the DDP and fulfillment of DDP Committee Member responsibilities, rather than enrollment in any particular course. Each DDP Committee Member receives $200 per doctoral student upon successful completion of DDP and fulfillment of committee responsibilities.

• In the event that the DDP is not completed during Year 3, the student enrolls in EDOC 8010 (1 credit per semester) under the Director of the Ed.D. Program or a designated faculty member until the DDP is complete. The DDP Committee Member continues to support the doctoral student until the Doctoral Digital Portfolio is successfully completed.

Compensation for DDP Chair and Committee Members

Change of DDP Chair or Committee Member

• Requests to change a DDP Chair or Committee Member must be initiated by the doctoral student and will be reviewed by the Director of the Ed.D. Program. Approved changes must be documented by email.

Compensation for Webster University Faculty

• For full-time Webster University faculty, stipends will be processed only if the DDP Chair or Committee Member meets load and the service qualifies beyond load in accordance with University policy.

• Per the Office of Academic Affairs' guidelines, full-time administrators and staff are not eligible to receive stipends for serving as DDP Chairs or Committee Members.

Conflict of Interest

• To avoid conflicts of interest, doctoral students should not invite supervisors or colleagues from the same office or direct reporting unit to serve as DDP Chairs or Committee Members.

Eligibility to Serve

• Faculty teaching EDOC 8001 Doctoral Digital Portfolio I or EDOC 8002 Doctoral Digital Portfolio II may not serve as the DDP Chair or a DDP Committee Member for students enrolled in those courses, in order to avoid conflict of interest. 

DDP Requirements by the End of Year Three

DDP to be submitted in PDF

“The Ed.D. program at Webster University is designed for preparing well-rounded educator-scholars who have the passion and competence to make a difference in this world through scholarship and service…Beyond the four foci: theory, research, practice, and leadership, the program values social consciousness, criticality, and advocacy. Social consciousness corresponds to the connectedness of the dissertation projects to the sociopolitical, socioeconomic, and sociocultural contexts. As Webster is well respected as a leader in global citizenship, our program also values dissertation projects which engage in cross-cultural research with global contextual relevancy. Criticality refers to our critical thinking and analytical capacity to challenge the status quo and create new proposals for advancing the knowledge base and specialty area. Advocacy reminds us to take the findings from our dissertations to the next level and become a voice and advocate for the people that we represent and care for,” (from Ed.D. Google Site).

As the doctoral program fosters social consciousness, criticality, and advocacy, the final project, Doctoral Digital Portfolio, is aligned with these core values and objectives. The following paragraphs discuss the steps involved in this project. The DDP is built upon social constructionism and so you will create your own knowledge base, website, and social media profile. Though it is not a dissertation, it still contains the necessary elements of framing a study, literature review, appropriate research methods, and a discussion of findings. The DDP should have a wider reach of audience, which democratizes the knowledge dissemination and maximizes the impact of the work. 

In this project, you will continue to construct your own professional website (use any other free website services that you prefer), a social media account[1] (choose any social media platform such as Twitter, Facebook, etc. You can use an existing account), a Research Gate account, and construct your own knowledge base with your research topic. The project should help you make connections with existing body of research by following the works of academics and experts in the field through social media and Research Gate. 

The following paragraphs discuss the steps involved in the DDP. The project is built upon social constructionism and encourages students to create their own knowledge bases through professional websites, academic writing, and oral presentation.

There are 3 parts to the final project. Make sure to review and complete all three parts. 

Part 1: Professional Website

Assignment description:

As the doctoral program fosters social consciousness, criticality, and advocacy, the final project is aligned with these core values and objectives. The following paragraphs discuss the steps involved in this participatory project. The project is built upon social constructionism and so you will create your own knowledge base, website, and social media profile.

In this project, you will create your own professional website (use any other free website services that you prefer). The topic could stem from a theory, a social movement, with a clear identification of the problem of practice. 

Steps:

1.      Outline basic content
Create a Google Site to introduce yourself, your professional identity and positioning, research interests, and professional organizations that you belong to

o   Include a picture

o   Introduce yourself and your research interests

o   Include the professional organizations that you belong to

o   Are you an advocate for any particular causes or marginalized population?

o   If applicable, include publications, blog articles etc.

o   Optional: You may choose to link relevant social media accounts (Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube channel etc.)

2.     Create a Research Gate (https://www.researchgate.net) account and link this profile to your professional website

o   Start to identify relevant theorists, scholars, academics that are relevant to your research interests and topic and follow their works.

3.     Construct your knowledge base

o   State the Problem of Practice that you are tackling with contextualization and rationale.

o   Start to write in your own words (with citations following APA) about the topic 

§  What is the historical development of your topic? How did it happen? Who are the important founders of the knowledge?

§  What are the sociocultural and sociopolitical contexts of the topic?

§  How has the topic of interest been received by other cultures in the world?

§  What is the gap in the existing knowledge base (please also use Google Scholar, our Library, and Mendeley) that you can contribute to?

§  How do you position yourself among the different perspectives?

§  How can you develop this into a research project?

4.     Construct your educational philosophy or teaching philosophy

o   Incorporating attention to social-global considerations. Include in your website.

o   You may choose to articulate your philosophy in the format of your choosing on your professional website. For example:

§  Written Philosophy

§  Video Presentation

§  Visual Representation

5.     Optional components
You may choose to include any of the following components in your website:

o   Link to relevant social media accounts (i.e., LinkedIn, Twitter)

o   Visual representations that help convey your philosophy, researcher identity,

o   Poem, song, or other artistic representation

o   Short film or documentary

o   A series of podcast that feature your presentation of the problem of practice

Part 2: DDP Research Paper

·       DDP Research Paper Guidelines:

o   60-120 pages, double-spaced, 1-inch margins

o   APA 7th Edition for citation and references (a minimum of 40 references required)

o   References can be journal articles, book chapters, and respected websites

o   Section headings required

o   Any inclusion of reprints from copyrighted materials (images, photos, tables, charts, illustrations) require a Copyright Release Permission Form

Sections in the written paper need to include:

·       Contextualization of the topic (historical, sociocultural, and sociopolitical contexts)

·       Theoretical Framing (Choose ONE theory that connects to your topic)

·       Literature Review (Identify at least 10 empirical studies with citations based on what you found online)

·       Statement of Problem of Practice (What is the problem? Who do you advocate for?)

·       Research Questions (What can you contribute to this problem?)

·       Methodology (quantitative, qualitative, or mixed)

·       Discussions & Impact in the Field (How does this relate to transformative education? How can this study benefit the research community and the marginalized population?)

·       IRB approval is required for projects that involve human subjects in the research.

Part 3: Oral Presentation

In addition to the professional website and research paper, you will record a 20-minute oral presentation of your DDP.

Guidelines for the Oral Presentation:

·       First 5 minutes: Present a summary of what you have done and the outcome of the project.

·       Next 5 minutes: Present a summary of the knowledge base that you built in this project, with at least 10 bullet points listing your major contribution.

·       Next 5 minutes: Explain your research design and methodology.

·       Last 5 minutes: Explain how your project is transformative and how you can develop research studies that connect with your topic of interest.

·       You do not need to include a reference list in your PowerPoint, as such is required in the written paper. Please use proper in-text citation (APA). 

[1] You may want to be thoughtful and check with your supervisors about having the chosen topics associated with you as a professional in the field.

Please note that the above requirements are subject to change. Rubrics are listed in EDOC 8002 syllabus.

Recently published Doctoral Digital Portfolios can be viewed and downloaded here.