For courses in Spanish:

For courses in Spanish:

Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), Spain Máster internacional de e-learning. This program is currently accredited in Spain. However, UOC is also offering a European Certificate for Course Design and Teaching in E-learning in English, in collaboration with the Institute of Education, University of London and the University of Florence, Italy, worth 20 European credits. The program is based on the Master’s Degree in E-learning, and the aim is for the certificate to be integrated with the masters degree to become a  European Master’s Degree recognized throughout Europe.

Universidad de Guadalajara, Mexico Maestría en Tecnologías para el Aprendizaje
This program is nationally accredited in Mexico, and is now well established..

Universidad Tecnológia Metropolitana de Santiago (UTEM), Chile Magíster en Educación a Distancia
This has a strong technology component, international faculty, and students from several South American countries

Doing a Ph.D. in e-learning

I am often asked about what institutions offer a Ph.D. in e-learning entirely by distance. Very few! Indeed, the idea of a doing a Ph.D. in e-learning  by distance is based on a number of misconceptions. For instance, there are very few Ph.D. programs anywhere specifically in e-learning (Northcentral – see above – is an exception) and hardly any universities offer Ph.D.s at a distance (the Open University of Catalonia does, on the Information Society, and Athabasca University starts its D.Ed. in Distance Education in August 2008 – with 12 students. University of Lancaster, UK, and University of Calgary offer online programs, but still require a limited number of face-to-face meetings). But don’t give up. There are ways.

Your best bet is to try a good local university with a Faculty of Education or something similar. The trick is to find a local supervisor willing to accept your proposed area of research. Try to find someone in the local Faculty of Education with an interest in e-learning and try to negotiate a research topic of mutual interest. This is really the hardest and most important part. Getting the right supervisor is absolutely essential. However, there are many more potential students than faculty interested in e-learning.

Your admission to a program will depend on your prior qualifications – usually at least a masters degree in education or a related area – and your particular area of interest as defined by your intended research topic. In other words, try to find a suitable local supervisor and topic  BEFORE formally applying for admission. Depending on the university, you may not need additional courses if you already have a suitable masters degree, although you may be required by your supervisor to do some specific graduate courses, such as research methods or educational theory, if these are important to your topic and you have not studied them before.

If you find a willing and sympathetic local faculty member with an interest in e-learning but worried they don’t have the right expertise to supervise your particular interest, suggest a committee with an external supervisor (anywhere in the world) who really has the expertise and who may be willing to share the supervision with your local supervisor. Again, though, your chances of getting an external supervisor is much higher if that person already knows you or is aware of your work. Again, good e-learning professors are already likely to have a full supervision load, so it is not easy. (Whether good or not, my load is currently full!)

This means that even before applying for a Ph.D., you need to do some homework. Identify a topic with some degree of flexibility, have in mind an internal and an external supervisor, and show that you have done the necessary courses such as research methods, educational theory, etc., that will prepare you for a Ph.D. (or are willing to do them first).

Nearly all universities require ‘residency’, i.e. a physical presence on campus, for a Ph.D., but in reality the need for you to be there can be strictly limited. Most of your study can be done in your own locality. However, you will need to meet (in person or by phone) with at least your supervisor on a reasonably regular basis, and you should try to make meetings where other research students are discussing their work, or push for an online discussion forum for research students within the program.

Lastly, be sure you know why you want to do a Ph.D. There are only three good reasons:

• because you want to teach about e-learning in a university;
• because you want to do full-time research in e-learning when you have finished;
• or (the best) you have a burning question you want to investigate.

If you cannot give a strong  ‘yes’ to at least one of those reasons, don’t do it. A Ph.D. is an expensive, time-consuming, and very frustrating waste of your time, otherwise.

See also:

• The Economist: The disposable academic: why doing a Ph.D. is often a waste of time
• StatsCanada: Labour market outcomes of Canadian doctoral candidates.

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