EDD835 Dissertation Design and Planning (3 cr.)

Prerequisite(s): All Required Coursework
This course guides doctoral students through the design, planning, and completion of a full dissertation proposal grounded in a significant problem of practice. Students refine a researchable problem situated in professional and organizational contexts and develop a coherent, ethical, and feasible research design that aligns the problem, purpose, research questions, theoretical framework, and methodology. Through iterative feedback from faculty and peers, students integrate scholarly literature, leadership theory, and professional experience while strengthening their analytic writing and research design decision-making, contributing to the final dissertation.

Upon completion of this course, students are expected to be able to do the following:

1. Define and justify a significant problem of practice grounded in professional, organizational, and scholarly contexts. (Chapter 1)

2. Synthesize relevant literature to situate the study within existing scholarship and demonstrate doctoral-level analysis. (Chapter 2)

3. Select and defend an appropriate and ethical methodology, including data sources and proposed analytic procedures. (Chapter 3)

4. Produce a defense-ready proposal, incorporating iterative feedback and demonstrating clear, professional, APA-style writing. (Full proposal)