Springer, M., & Newton, K. (2022, August), Will They Come? – Understanding the Student Demographics of a First of its Kind Doctor of Technology Online Program in a Tier-1 University  Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--40385

\bibitem{asee_peer_40385}
  Springer, M., \& Newton, K. (2022, August), \emph{Will They Come? – Understanding the Student Demographics of a First of its Kind Doctor of Technology Online Program in a Tier-1 University}
  Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, Minneapolis, MN.
  10.18260/1-2--40385

Mitchell Springer and Kathryne Newton.  "Will They Come? – Understanding the Student Demographics of a First of its Kind Doctor of Technology Online Program in a Tier-1 University".  2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN, 2022, August.  ASEE Conferences, 2022.  https://peer.asee.org/40385 Internet.  22 Dec, 2024

\bibitem{asee_peer_40385}
  Mitchell Springer and Kathryne Newton.
  "Will They Come? – Understanding the Student Demographics of a First of its Kind Doctor of Technology Online Program in a Tier-1 University".
  \emph{2022 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, Minneapolis, MN, 2022, August}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2022.
  https://peer.asee.org/40385 Internet.  22 Dec, 2024

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_40385
author = "Mitchell Springer and Kathryne Newton"
title = "Will They Come? – Understanding the Student Demographics of a First of its Kind Doctor of Technology Online Program in a Tier-1 University"
booktitle = "2022 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition"
year = "2022"
month = "August"
address = "Minneapolis, MN"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://peer.asee.org/40385}
number = {10.18260/1-2--40385}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Abstract

At this writing, there are approximately 332 million people in the United States. Of this, approximately 36% of the U.S. population has a bachelor’s degree; this is up from 29.9% a decade earlier in 2010.  In 2000, one-third of people with at least a bachelor’s degree had completed an advanced degree. By 2018, 37 percent had done so.  The number of people with master’s degrees, then is roughly 13% of the current U. S. Population.  The number of people with professional degrees is roughly 1.2%, while the number of people with Doctorate degrees is close to 2.2%

Given this, what is the interest and likelihood of those with master’s degrees pursuing an online Doctor of Technology degree?  And, demographically, who are those students?  

The Doctor of Technology (DTECH) program of this paper was nearly six and a half years in the making.  It began with a committee envisioning a degree concept through a yet to be defined academic curriculum. To gain final approval of this degree, an exhaustive compare and contrast was performed of comparable, or similarly situated programs across all levels of academic institutions.

On approval from the Commission for Higher Education, the DTECH proposal authors forecasted a semester over semester enrollment of ten new students.  Given the program was designed as a three-year program, it was anticipated the program would have a steady state enrollment of roughly 30 students.  After two semesters, the program experienced an extraordinary and unexpected enrollment explosion of over 200 students. 

With an in-depth understanding of the students, program originators can assess not only demographic attributes, such as gender, age, race, and ethnicity, but also the range of prior academic degrees conferred. This data multiplicity provides rich insight into market comparison between those students anticipated and those realized.

This paper will take a first look at available demographic data to better understand the students who participate in this program. Available data on gender, race, ethnicity, academic backgrounds, and business/industry type will be explored.

AU  - Mitchell Springer
AU  - Kathryne Newton
CY  - Minneapolis, MN
DA  - 2022/08/23
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Will They Come? – Understanding the Student Demographics of a First of its Kind Doctor of Technology Online Program in a Tier-1 University
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/40385
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--40385
ER  -