Information Technology Doctoral Students: Challenges During the Dissertation Journey
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18533/ijbsr.v9i2.1167Keywords:
Dissertation, dissertation teams, doctoral students, challenges.Abstract
The problem that is addressed in this paper is that information technologies (IT) doctoral students are not receiving the proper guidance and feedback they need to complete their dissertations. The purpose of this qualitative observational case study was to investigate the types of challenges IT doctoral students encounter as they complete their dissertation. A qualitative observational research design was used to collect data for the study. The data was collected between the years 2014 to 2018. Ten participants were used for the study, which were five professors and five IT doctoral students. The researchers of the current study observed how professors supervised students in IT doctoral projects. The researchers observed students from three universities in the southern part of the United States. Purposeful sampling was used to recruit participants. Thematic data analysis was used to analyze the data. The findings suggest that the doctoral team is not well trained, do not communicate to doctoral students effectively, do not provide clear feedbacks, and do not use the dissertation checklist that is required by their school. The researchers provided some implications for practice and some conclusions.
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