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STUDENTS’PERSISTENCEINADISTRIBUTEDDOCTORALPROGRAMINEDUCATIONALLEADERSHIPINHIGHEREDUCATION:AMixedMethodsStudyNataliyaV.Ivankova*,†andSheldonL.Stick**................................................................................................................................................................................................Thepurposeofthismixedmethodssequentialexplanatorystudywastoidentifyfactorscontributingtostudents’persistenceintheUniversityofNebraska-LincolnDistributedDoctoralPrograminEducationalLeadershipinHigherEducationbyobtainingquantitativeresultsfromsurveying278currentandformerstudentsandthenfollowingupwithfourpurposefullyselectedtypicalrespondentstoexplorethoseresultsinmoredepth.Inthefirst,quantitative,phase,fiveexternalandinternaltotheprogramfactorswerefoundtobepredictorstostudents’persistenceintheprogram:‘‘program’’,‘‘onlinelearningenvironment’’,‘‘studentsupportservices’’,‘‘faculty’’,and‘‘self-motivation’’.Inthequalitativefollowupmultiplecasestudyanalysisfourmajorthemesemerged:(1)qualityofacademicexperiences;(2)onlinelearningenvironment;(3)supportandassistance;and(4)studentself-motivation.Thequantitativeandqualitativefindingsfromthetwophasesofthestudyarediscussedwithreferencetopriorresearch.Implicationsandrecommendationsforpolicymakersareprovided.................................................................................................................................................................................................KEYWORDS:persistence;doctoralstudents;distributedprogram;onlinelearningenvironment.INTRODUCTIONGraduateeducationisamajorpartofAmericanhighereducation,withmorethan1850millionstudentsenrolledingraduateprograms(NCES,2002).Approximatelyonefiftharegraduatestudentspursuingdoctoral*AssistantProfessor,DepartmentofHumanStudies,UniversityofAlabamaatBirmingham,EB202,15303rdAveS,Birmingham,AL,USA.**Professor,DepartmentofEducationalAdministration,UniversityofNebraska-Lincoln,123TeachersCollegeHall,Lincoln,NE68588-0360,USA.�Addresscorrespondenceto:NataliyaV.Ivankova,DepartmentofHumanStudies,UniversityofAlabamaatBirmingham,EB202,15303rdAveS,Birmingham,AL35294-1250,USA.E-mail:nivankov@uab.edu930361-0365/07/0200-0093/0�2006SpringerScience+BusinessMedia,Inc.ResearchinHigherEducation,Vol.48,No.1,February2007(�2006)DOI:10.1007/s11162-006-9025-4degrees(NSF,1998).Outofthisnumber,from40%to60%ofstudentswhobegintheirdoctoralstudiesdonotpersisttograduation(BowenandRudenstine,1992;Geiger,1997;Nolan,1999;Tinto,1993).Highfailurerateandtheeverincreasingtimetodegreearereportedaschronicprob-lemsindoctoraleducation(LovittsandNelson,2000;NSF,1998).Inedu-cationalmajors,attritionfromdoctoralprogramsisestimatedatapproximately50%.Inaddition,about20%giveupatthedissertationstage(BowenandRudenstine,1992;Cesari,1990).Failuretocontinueinthedoctoralprogramisnotonlypainfulandexpensiveforastudent,butisalsodiscouragingforfacultyinvolved,injurioustoaninstitution’srepu-tation,andresultsinalossofhigh-levelresources(BowenandRudens-tine,1992;Golde,2000;Johnson,Green,andKluever,2000;Tinto,1993).Researchersclaimamuchhigherdropoutrateamongstudentspursu-ingtheirdoctoraldegreesviadistanceeducation(DE)(Carr,2000;Diaz,2000;Parker,1999;VerduinandClark,1991).PersistenceinDEisacomplexphenomenoninfluencedbyamultitudeoffactors:chal-lengessetbythedistancelearningenvironment,personallyrelatedinter-nalandexternalvariables,computerliteracy,abilitytoaccessrequisitetechnology,timemanagement,andabsentorquestionablesupportfromanemployerand/orfamily(Kember,1990).Thestudentpopulationiscomposedofmainlypart-timeadultstudents,whooftenhavenumerousanddemandingcommitmentstowork,family,andsociallives(Finke,2000;Holmberg,1995;Thompson,1998).Thesestudentstendtobemorevulnerabletofactorsencroachingontheiracademicprogressbe-causetheirschool-relatedactivitiesoftenarenotprimarylifeobjectives.Althoughmanystudieshavebeendonetounderstandreasonsforpersistenceofdoctoralstudentsintraditionalcampus-basedprograms(BairandHaworth,1999;BowenandRudenstine,1992;Golde,2001;Haworth,1996;Kowalik,1989),thereismuchlessresearchondoctoralstudents’persistenceinDE(Tinto,1998),particularlydistributedpro-grams(distributedconnotesthematerialissentelectronicallytopersonsatvariouslocationsthroughouttheworldandremovestheneedforparticipantstobelocatedatagivensiteatagiventime).Existingstud-ieseitherfocusedonDEstudents’persistenceinindividualundergradu-ateandgraduatecourses,orotherthandistributeddistancelearningdeliverymeans(IvankovaandStick,2003).Knowledgeandunderstandingoffactorscontributingtograduatestudents’persistenceindistributedprogramsmayhelpacademicinstitu-tionsbettermeetDEstudents’needs,improvethequalityoftheiraca-demicexperiences,andincreasetheirretentionanddegreecompletionrate.Thisisespeciallyimportanttodaywhenpostsecondaryinstitutionshavetoconfrontthegrowingproblemsofrevenuegenerationand94IVANKOVAANDSTICKincreasingbudgetcutsandturntoofferinggraduateprogramsindistributedenvironments.KnowledgeoftheevolvingtendenciesmayserveasabaselineforhighereducationaladministratorsinelaboratingDEpolicies,designinganddevelopinggraduatedistributedprograms,andimprovingdistancestudentsupportinfrastructure.Thisarticlereportsonthestudyconductedtounderstandstudents’persistenceintheDistributedDoctoralPrograminEducationalLeadershipinHigherEducation(ELHE)offeredbytheUniversityofNebraska-Lincoln(UNL).Thepurposeofthismixedmethodssequentialexplana-torystudywastoidentifyfactorscontributingtostudents’persistenceintheELHEprogrambyobtainingquantitativeresultsfromasurveyof278currentandformerstudentsandthenfollowingupwithfourpurposefullyselectedindividualstoexplorethoseresultsinmoredepththroughaqualitativecasestudyanalysis.Inthefirst,quantitative,phaseofthestudy,theresearchquestionsfocusedonhowselectedinternalandexter-nalvariablestotheELHEprogram(program-related,advisor-andfaculty-related,institutional-related,student-relatedfactors,andexternalfactors)servedaspredictorstostudents’persistenceintheprogram.Inthesecond,qualitative,phase,fourcasestudiesfromdistinctparticipantgroupsexploredin-depththeresultsfromthestatisticaltests.Inthisphase,theresearchquestionsaddressedseveninternalandexternalfac-tors,foundtohavedifferentlycontributingtothefunctiondiscriminatingthefourgroups:program,onlinelearningenvironment,faculty,studentsupportservices,self-motivation,virtualcommunity,andacademicadvisor.TheoreticalPerspectiveThreemajortheoriesofstudents’persistence—Tinto’s(1975,1993)StudentIntegrationTheory,Bean’s(1980,1990)StudentAttritionMod-el,andKember’s(1990,1995)ModelofDropoutfromDistanceEduca-tionCourses—servedasatheoreticalfoundationforthisstudy.Tinto’sandBean’smodelsfocusedprimarilyonundergraduatecampusstudentsandKember’smodelwasaimedatexplainingattritionofdistanceadultstudents.Althoughthesemodelsdifferedintheirapproachtopersis-tence,theysharedsimilarcoreelementsandcomplimentedeachother.Theirprinciplecomponentshelpedidentifycriticalinternalandexternalfactorspresumablyimpactingstudents’persistence,suchasentrychar-acteristics,goalcommitment,academicandsocialintegration,andexternalforces(family,friendsandemployers).Extensiveliteraturereviewalsorevealedthatgraduatestudents’persis-tenceinaprogramofstudyseldomistheresultoftheinfluenceofoneSTUDENTS’PERSISTENCEINADISTRIBUTEDDOCTORALPROGRAM95factor.Amongthoseidentifiedwereinstitutionalanddepartmentalfactors(Austin,2002;Golde,1998,2000;FerrerdeValero,2001;Lovitts,2001;NeradandMiller,1996),academicadvisors(FerrerdeValero,2001;Golde;2000;GirvesandWemmerus,1988),supportandencouragement(Brien,1992;Hales,1998;NeradandCerny1993),motivationandpersonalgoals(Bauer,1997;Lovitts,2001;McCabe-Martinez,1996;Reynolds,1998),andfamilyandemployerrelationships(Frasier,1993;Golde,1998;McCabe-Martinez,1996).Basedonthesefactorsandtheprinciplecomponentsfromthreetheoriesofstudents’persistenceasetofvariableswascreatedtotestforthepredictivepowerofinternalandexternalfactorsondoctoralstudents’persistenceintheELHEprogram.DistributedDoctoralPrograminEducationalLeadershipinHigherEducationTheDistributedDoctoralPrograminEducationalLeadershipinHigherEducationisofferedthroughtheDepartmentofEducationalAdministrationattheUniversityofNebraska-Lincoln(StickandIvank-ova,2004).Theprogramwasinitiatedin1994andoffersstudentsachoiceofthePhDortheEdDDegreesinEducationalStudieswiththeemphasisinEducationalLeadershipinHigherEducation.Itispossibleforstudentstocompleteanentireprogramviadistributedmeans.Inno-vativeteachingmethodologiesandadistributedlearningenvironmentenabledmoststudentstocompletetheirprogramsofstudywithina36-to60-monthperiod,withminimaldisruptiontolifestyle,familyresponsibilities,andemployment.Mostofthecourseworknecessaryforthedegreeisprovidedthroughdistributedlearningsoftware,whichuti-lizestheInternetasaconnectinglink.MostoftheprogramisdeliveredtostudentsviaLotusNotesandBlackboardgroupware,whichprovidesasynchronousandcollaborativelearningexperiencestoparticipants.Morethan260studentswereenrolledandinvaryingstagesoftheirprograms,with180–200activeduringagivensemester.Since2004therehavebeenmorethan70studentsgraduated.Somestudentsdidpartialcourseworkoncampusbecauseeitherselectedcourseswerenotavailableonline,orstudentswantedtheon-campusexperience.METHODSStudyDesignToanswerthestudyresearchquestions,theresearchersusedamixedmethodsapproach(TashakkoriandTeddlie,2003),whichisa96IVANKOVAANDSTICKprocedureforcollecting,analyzingandmixingorintegratingbothquantitativeandqualitativedataatsomestageoftheresearchpro-cesswithinasinglestudy(Creswell,2005).Therationaleformixingbothtypesofdataisthatneitherquantitativenorqualitativemeth-odsaresufficientbythemselvestocapturethetrendsanddetailsofsituations,suchasthecomplexissueofdoctoralstudents’persistenceinthedistributedenvironment.Whenusedincombination,quantita-tiveandqualitativemethodscomplementeachotherandprovideamorecompletepictureoftheresearchproblem(Green,Caracelli,andGraham,1989;JohnsonandTurner,2003;TashakkoriandTeddlie,1998).Thisstudyusedasequentialexplanatorymixedmethodsdesign,consistingoftwodistinctphases(Creswell,PlanoClark,Guttman,andHanson,2003;TashakkoriandTeddlie,1998).Inthisdesign,thequantitative,numeric,dataiscollectedandanalyzedfirst,whilethequalitative,text,dataiscollectedandanalyzedsecondinsequence,andhelpsexplain,orelaborateonthequantitativeresultsobtainedinthefirstphase.Inthisstudy,thequantitativedatahelpedidentifyapotentialpredictivepowerofselectedexternalandinternalfactorsonthedistributeddoctoralstudents’persistenceandpurposefullyselecttheinformantsforthesecondphase.Then,aqualitativemultiplecasestudyapproachwasusedtoexplainwhycertainexternalandinternalfactors,testedinthefirstphase,weresignificantpredictorsofstu-dents’persistenceintheprogram.Thus,thequantitativedataandre-sultsprovidedageneralpictureoftheresearchproblem,whilethequalitativedataanditsanalysisrefinedandexplainedthosestatisticalresultsbyexploringtheparticipants’viewsregardingtheirpersistenceinmoredepth.Thepriority(Creswelletal.,2003)inthestudywasgiventothequal-itativeapproach,becauseitfocusedonin-depthexplanationsoftheresultsobtainedinthefirst,quantitative,phase,andinvolvedextensivedatacollectionfrommultiplesourcesandtwo-levelcaseanalysis.Thequantitativeandqualitativephaseswereconnected(Hanson,Creswell,PlanoClark,Petska,andCreswell,2005)whenselectingfourpartici-pantsforqualitativecasestudiesanddevelopingtheinterviewprotocolbasedontheresultsfromthestatisticaltestsfromthefirstphase.Theresultsofthequantitativeandqualitativephaseswereintegrated(Creswelletal.,2003)duringthediscussionoftheoutcomesoftheentirestudy(seeFig.1foradiagramofthemixedmethodssequentialexplanatorydesignproceduresinthestudy)1.STUDENTS’PERSISTENCEINADISTRIBUTEDDOCTORALPROGRAM97PhaseProcedureProductCross-sectionalweb-basedNumericdatasurvey(N=278)Datascreening(univariate,Descriptivestatistics,multivariate)missingdata,linearity,homoscedasticity,normality,multivariateoutliers,FactoranalysisFactorloadingsFrequenciesDescriptivestatisticsDiscriminantfunctionCanonicaldiscriminantanalysisfunctions,standardizedandSPSSquan.softwarev.11structurecoefficients,functionsatgroupcentroidsPurposefullyselectingCases(N=4)1participantfromeachgroup(N=4)basedontypicalresponseandmaximalvariationprincipleDevelopinginterviewInterviewprotocolquestionsIndividualin-depthTextdata(interviewtelephoneinterviewswithtranscripts,documents,4participantsartifactdescription)Emailfollow-upinterviewsImagedata(photographs)ElicitationmaterialsDocumentsLotusNotescoursesCodingandthematicanalysisVisualmodelofmultiplecaseWithin-caseandacross-caseanalysisthemedevelopmentCodesandthemesCross-thematicanalysisSimilaranddifferentthemesandcategoriesQSRN6qualitativesoftwareCross-thematicmatrixInterpretationandexplana-DiscussiontionofthequantitativeandImplicationsqualitativeresultsFutureresearchQuantitativeDataCollectionQuantitativeDataAnalysisCaseSelection;InterviewProtocolDevelopmentQUALITATIVEDataCollectionQUALITATIVEDataAnalysisIntegrationoftheQuantitativeandQualitativeResultsFIG.1.Visualmodelformixedmethodssequentialexplanatorydesignprocedures.98IVANKOVAANDSTICKTargetPopulationThetargetpopulationinthisstudywereactiveandinactivestudents,whowereadmittedtotheELHEprogramandtakingclassesduringthespring2003semester.Alsopartofthetargetpopulationwerestudentswhohadbeengraduatedwithanearneddoctoraldegreefromthepro-gramandthosewhohadwithdrawn,orhadbeenterminatedfromtheprogrampriortothespring2003semester.StudentswerereferredtoasDEstudentsiftheyhadtakenhalfoftheirclassesviadistributedmeans.Thestudents’statusvariedintermsofprogressand/orcompletionofcourses,numberofonlinecoursestaken,anddoctoraldegreepursued.Criteriaforselectingtheparticipantsincluded:(1)beinginELHEvs.otherprograms;(2)timeperiodof1994-Spring2003;(3)musthavedone1/2ofcourseworkonline;(4)beeitheradmitted,bothactiveandinactive,graduated,withdrawn,orterminatedfromtheprogram;(5)forthosewhojuststarted,theymusthavetakenatleastoneonlinecourseinthepro-gram.Atotalof278studentsmetthecriteria.Thebreakdownbytheirmatriculationstatusintheprogramwas:(1)thoseadmittedandactiveintheprogram(n=202);(2)thoseadmittedbutinactive(n=13);(3)thosewhoweregraduated(n=26),and(4)thosewhowithdreworwereterminatedfromtheprogram(n=37)sinceitsinceptionin1994.Theanonymityoftheparticipantsinthefirstphasewasprotectedbyassigningthemuniquenumericpasswordstoaccesstheweb-basedsurvey.Inthesecondphase,theparticipantsselectedforcasestudyanalysiswereas-signedfictitiousnames,thuskeepingtheresponsesconfidential.Inaddi-tion,allthenamesandgenderrelatedpronounswereremovedfromthequotationsusedforillustrations.QuantitativePhaseDataCollectionForthefirst,quantitative,phase,thecross-sectionalsurveydesign(McMillan,2000)wasused.Thesurveyinstrumentwasself-developedandpilottestedon5%ofrandomlyselectedparticipants.Thecoresur-veyitemsformedfive7-pointLikerttypescalesrelatedtofiveinternalandexternalentitiesaffectingstudents’persistence,andreflectedninevariables,representingarangeofinternalandexternaltotheprogramfactors:‘‘onlinelearningenvironment’’,‘‘program’’,‘‘virtualcommu-nity’’,‘‘faculty’’,‘‘studentsupportservices’’,‘‘academicadvisor’’,‘‘fam-ilyandsignificantother’’,‘‘employment’’,and‘‘self-motivation’’.Table1presentstherelationshipbetweenthesurveyscales,subscalesSTUDENTS’PERSISTENCEINADISTRIBUTEDDOCTORALPROGRAM99andvariables,andliststhesurveyitemsmeasuringeachvariable,aswellasreliabilityindexesforeachsubscale.Thesurveyitemsandscalesweredevelopedbasedontheanalysisoftherelatedliterature,threetheoreti-calmodelsofstudents’persistence(Bean,1980,1990;Kember,1990,1995;Tinto,1975,1993)andanearlierqualitativethematicanalysisstudyofsevenELHEactivestudents(IvankovaandStick,2002).Apanelofprofessorsteachingintheprogramwasusedtosecurethecon-tentvalidityofthesurveyinstrument.Basedonthepilottesting,somesurveyitemswererevisedslightly.ThesurveywasadministeredonlineandwasaccessedthroughtheURL.ActiveemailaddressesofthepotentialparticipantswereobtainedthroughtheUNLDepartmentofEducationalAdministrationandiden-tifiedthroughothersources.Theparticipantswererecruitedviae-mailaweekbeforethebeginningofthestudy.ThedatacollectiontookplacebetweenApril1andJuly18,2003.Theprocedurewascomplicatedbyhavingtocorrect50inactiveemailaddressesandlocateformerstudents,whohadwithdrawnorgraduatedfromtheprogram.Technologicalglit-chesinthesystemalsopresentedchallenges.Twenty-threeparticipantswhowerewillingtocompletethequestionnaire,couldnotaccessthesurvey,orfailedtocompleteitinfull.Ahardcopyofthesurveywasmailed,faxed,orsentasaWorddocumentattachmenttosuchpartici-pants.Nineteensuchparticipantsreturnedthecompletedsurvey.From278potentialparticipants207responded,whichconstitutedaresponserateof74.5%.Allrespondentswereorganizedintofourgroupsbasedontheirmatriculationstatusintheprogramandsimilarityofaca-demicexperiences:(1)studentswhohadcompleted30orfewercredithoursofcoursework(BeginningGroup)(n=78);(2)studentswhohadcompletedmorethan30credithoursofcoursework(MatriculatedTABLE1.SurveyScalesandPredictorVariablesinQuantitativeAnalysisSurveyscales/FactorsSubscales/PredictorvariablesCronbach’salphaSurveyitemsRelatedtoELHEprogramOnlinelearningenvironment.8503Q14a–jProgram.8344Q13a–gVirtualcommunity.8012Q13h–lRelatedtofacultyandacademicadvisorAcademicadvisor.9818Q15a–mFaculty.9079Q13m–rRelatedtoinstitutionStudentsupportservices.8243Q13s–yRelatedtostudentSelf-motivation.8948Q16a–gExternaltoELHEprogramFamilyandsignificantother.5829Q17a–dEmployment.5289Q17e–h100IVANKOVAANDSTICKGroup)(n=78);(3)formerstudentswhohadgraduatedfromtheprogramwiththedoctoraldegree(GraduatedGroup)(n=26);and(4)formerstudentswhoeitherhadwithdrawnorhadbeenterminatedfromtheprogram,orhadbeeninactiveduringthelastthreeterms(spring,fall,summer)priortothesurveyadministration(Withdrawn/InactiveGroup)(n=25).Reliabilityandvalidityofthesurveyscalesanditemswereestablished,usingdescriptivestatistics,frequencydistributions,internalconsistencyreliabilityindexes(Cronbach’salpha,item-totalcorrelation,correcteditem-totalcorrelation,andalpha-if-itemdeleted),aswellasinter-itemcorrelationsandfactoranalysis(Ivankova,2004).DataAnalysisBothunivariateandmultivariatestatisticalprocedureswereusedtoanalyzethesurveydata.Surveydemographicinformationandthepar-ticipants’answerstoseparateitemsoneachsurveysucscalewereana-lyzedusingcrosstabulationandfrequencycounts.Discriminantfunctionanalysiswasusedtoidentifythepredictivepowerofnineselectedfactorsasrelatedtostudents’persistenceintheELHEprogram.Priortotheanalysis,datascreeningwasconductedatbothunivariateandmultivariatelevels,followingtheproceduresoutlinedbyKline(1998)andTabachnickandFidell(2000).QualitativePhaseQualitativeResearchDesignAmultiplecasestudydesign(Stake,1995;Yin,2003)wasusedforcollectingandanalyzingthedatainthesecond,qualitative,phase.Theinstrumentalmultiplecases(Stake,1995)servedthepurposeof‘‘illumi-natingaparticularissue’’(Creswell,2005,p.439),suchaspersistenceintheELHEprogram.TheunitofanalysiswasaformerorcurrentELHEstudent.EachcasestudywasboundedbyoneindividualandbythetimeheorshematriculatedintheELHEprogram.CaseSelectionAsystematictwo-stagecaseselectionprocedurewasdeveloped2.Dur-ingthefirststage,typicalrespondentsineachparticipantgroupwereidentified,first,bycalculatingthesummedmeanscoresandtheirrespec-tivegroupmeansforallparticipantsineachofthefourgroupsbasedontheirresponsestothesurveyquestions,andthenbyselectingafewSTUDENTS’PERSISTENCEINADISTRIBUTEDDOCTORALPROGRAM101respondentsfromeachgroupwiththemeanscoreswithinonestandarderrorofthemean.Duringthesecondstage,one‘‘bestinformant’’fromeachgroupwasselecte