DrPH HPAL – Integrative Learning Experience (Dissertation)

Overview

The DrPH HPAL Integrated Learning Experience (ILE) serves as the culminating project that results in award of the DrPH HPAL degree for doctoral candidates. The ILE is known as the dissertation providing the evidence of both foundational and concentration competencies that demonstrates doctoral candidates are ready for executive-level positions within public health agencies, industries, organizations or in academic public health programs. Students apply principles and skills learned in coursework and other parts of the DrPH curriculum to a significant topic of public health. The purpose of the ILE is to bring the interdisciplinary perspective obtained through the DrPH curriculum on a topic selected by the students to enhances student professional and scholastic development in their public health leadership careers.

The ILE consists of the following steps: 1) Proposal Development; 2) Proposal Defense that clearly describes how the competencies selected will demonstrate mastery; 3) ILE dissertation; 4) ILE Defense that clearly demonstrates mastery of the DrPH competencies outlined in the proposal. Note that steps 1, 2 and 4 require face to face meetings.

The ILE must address a question or issue that advance the knowledge and practice of leadership in public health relevant to a public health problem or challenge and that entails clear implications for leadership at organizational, community, and/or policy levels. The Project must address a significant public health issue at the individual, group, organization, community, or population level and should strive to address multiple levels whenever possible. The ILE should (1) identify new approaches to existing problems or apply existing approaches to a new problem, identify new principles for addressing existing public health issues or identify existing principles that can be used to guide new efforts in public health or (2) implementation plan generated by the ILE must have the potential to make one or more important improvements in the health of the public, or the ILE’s identification and analysis of past failures and successes must lead to principles for leading organizational, policy or community change that have potentially important ramifications for the public’s health. (3) leadership experience must be incorporated into the ILE either by directly playing leadership roles in designing, implementing, and/or evaluating responses to the public health problem of interest and using findings from research and evaluative activities to propose mechanisms or policy initiatives for future organizational, policy or community change consideration. In addition the doctoral candidate must include an assessment of their own strengths and weaknesses in leadership capacities including cultural proficiency.

Competencies to be Addressed in the ILE

The process of preparing and defending the proposal, completing a dissertation project, preparing the final product summarizing the project, and publicly presenting and defending the project are part of the learning process leading to the successful completion of requirements for the DrPH degree. This process provides faculty with opportunities to observe student mastery of program competencies, as well as opportunities for the student to develop additional competency. Students will incorporate at least four (4) DrPH HPAL foundational competencies and at least two (2) DrPH concentration competencies in their ILE from list below:

ILE Committee

The Dissertation Committee

Before students can begin the ILE, students must complete DrPH HPAL core, concentration and elective coursework; (2) successfully pass comprehensive exams; and (3) receive approval from their academic faculty advisor to establish their dissertation committee.

The student will select their dissertation committee comprised of a minimum of three (3) but no more than five (5) members. The chair, methodologist and at least one committee member who is faculty who teach in the DrPH and who has substantial experience in public health practice. Students may select an additional committee member from faculty who teach in the DrPH, or other ECU faculty member, or community member who has served as mentor for the student’s Applied Practicum Experience (APE) project. Students should expect that a Chair will not agree to serve in this capacity without meeting with the student, learning about the student’s ideas for a Dissertation and discussing possible revisions that may need to be made to the Project ideas. Once the committee members have agreed to serve and the ILE topic confirmed, the student will submit a completed Doctoral ILE Committee Designation Form to the DrPH HPAL Program Director.

ILE Committee Role

The Committee will guide the student and assist in defining the direction of the ILE Proposal. The Committee has the ultimate authority in the direction of the Dissertation; thus, data collection or other Dissertation activities shall not begin until the Committee approves the Dissertation Proposal. If a committee member leaves during the course of their ILE Project, she or he may continue service on the Committee with the approval of the program director. Otherwise, the member will be replaced with the approval of the Committee Chair. Should the Committee Chair leave, she or he may continue service as a Committee Chair or as a Member with the approval of the program director. Any change in the membership or leadership of the Committee requires that a Change in Doctoral Dissertation Committee Designation Form be completed to document all changes to the Committee. This form is to be submitted to the DrPH HPAL program director for approval and signature and to the Department Chair for approval and signature.

ILE (Dissertation) Proposal and Proposal Defense

The Dissertation proposal (“the Proposal”) is a formal written document that outlines the topic of the Dissertation, all Dissertation activities, and benchmarks and timelines for initiation, implementation, and completion of the ILE Project. It also establishes the criteria that define what will constitute a final written product that will be acceptable to the Committee at the completion of the ILE (Dissertation).
The Proposal has four parts: (1) It must outline the topic clearly and in detail. The topic must be stated as an empirical research question. (2) It must include a literature review which is a scholarly analytical synthesis that demonstrates the student’s ability to critically evaluate the relevant literatures on leadership and organizational, community, or policy change as they relate to understanding the issue and identifying alternative courses of action. (3) It must describe the proposed methodology for the ILE Project clearly and explicitly. It should identify and describe appropriate methods to study the issue, which should include qualitative, quantitative, mixed methods, qualitative/quantitative policy analysis, and/or evaluation research methods. The discussion should include a rationale for including the selected methods and strategies over alternative methods that might be appropriate. If primary data collection will be involved, methods of recruitment, data collection, and human subject’s protections must be described in detail, and copies of data collection instruments should be included in an Appendix. (4) It must specify the expectations and clearly describe how the competencies identified will be mastered in the final written product. Dissertation proposals should not exceed 100 pages in length, inclusive of references, appendices, or other supporting material.

Any Doctoral Dissertation Proposal that involves research on human subjects or data obtained from human subjects must be submitted to the ECU Institutional Review Board (IRB) and, when necessary, to all other IRBs with jurisdiction. Committees and students should work carefully together to identify the best time to apply for IRB approval; IRB approval must NOT be sought until the Project’s methods have been approved by the Committee. However, students should be prepared to submit modifications to the IRB-approved protocol should such modifications be necessary based on feedback obtained during the proposal defense.

The Proposal will not be considered “final” until it has been successfully defended in a formal proposal defense meeting. Prior to the proposal defense meeting, students are expected to work collaboratively with their Committee Chair and Committee Members to ensure that the Proposal is satisfactory to all individuals serving on the Committee. This “first tier” approval is designed to ensure that the student has received full input from all individuals serving on his or her Committee, and to ensure that the student has their Committee’s support to move forward. Without this “first tier” approval from the Committee, the Committee Chair may refuse to grant approval for the student to schedule their proposal defense.

The proposal defense will be arranged by the Committee Chair after the Proposal has received “first tier” approval from all Committee Members. The Committee Chair and all Committee Members are expected to attend the proposal defense. The proposal defense should be scheduled with committee members in a timely fashion, ideally two weeks in advance of the proposed time and date. With prior approval from the Committee Chair, a Committee Member may join the proposal defense by conference call or other distance-conferencing technology as needed in special circumstances.

At the proposal defense meeting, the student will present the topic, literature review, methodology, IRB review status, the planned final product of their Dissertation and describe in detail the competencies to be achieved by the ILE product. All those in attendance will be encouraged to ask questions and provide the student and Committee with additional input and/or suggestions regarding the Proposal.
Following this question-and-answer session, the student will be asked to wait outside while the members of the Committee consider the proposal and defense. A majority of the Committee Members must approve the Proposal for it to be considered approved. At the conclusion of the proposal defense meeting, the student and Committee will meet and discuss any necessary revisions to the Proposal. The Proposal will be considered to be final after those revisions are completed and accepted by the Committee. This approval must be documented by completion of the Dissertation Proposal Defense Approval Form. The form is signed by members of the Dissertation Committee and forwarded to the DrPH HPAL program director and department chair for signature. This form is then sent to the Office of University Registrar with copies forwarded to the student and the DrPH HPAL program director.

Students must register for three (3) Dissertation credit hours in every semester for three semesters (total of 9 hours). If the dissertation is not completed by this time, students must register for one (1) hour per ECU policy until the project has been completed and successfully defended.

The ILE Final Product and Defense

The Dissertation final product will take the form of a written document. A final product is expected to be a well-written, cohesive document that is concise, clear, and directed toward the empirical question of interest as well as the public health applications of the findings (including proposed solutions that are based on the findings). The final product must (a) identify the topic and major question(s) of the Dissertation; (b) include the literature review for the Dissertation; (c) describe the methodology used to address the question(s) of the Dissertation; (d) summarize the results of the Dissertation and conclusions drawn, i.e., what was discovered as a result of studying the issue using the methodology in the Dissertation, and (e) describe how the DrPH HPAL competency mastery was achieved as well as a discussion of the project’s significance, including its implications for public health practice, research and policy.

Upon completion of Dissertation Project activities and receipt of a draft of the Final Product, the Committee Chair will guide the student to prepare a refined draft for an oral defense. The student should anticipate multiple revisions with the Committee Chair during this process and should discuss the time that is required for these revisions with the Chair. \

The Committee Chair and Members must all have an opportunity to review and provide feedback. Committee Members must have received a copy of the full draft from the student at least six weeks prior to the defense date and have had an opportunity to provide feedback to the student and Committee Chair. Thus, students and Committee Chairs must work closely during this phase of the project to determine the student’s readiness to distribute drafts to the Committee Members. The Committee Chair is responsible for scheduling the public defense date and time.

At the oral defense, the final product will be presented and defended by the student during this milestone event. The student will be expected to demonstrate that the Project meets the criteria for a scholarly work as outlined above, with an emphasis on the implementation of the methodology, how the results logically follow from the findings, the implications of the project for public health practice, research, and policy and how the DrPH HPAL competencies were achieved.

The defense should be scheduled so that a minimum of 30 minutes are reserved for attendees to ask questions regarding the final product. At the conclusion of the question-and-answer period, the Dissertation Committee members and any members of the DrPH HPAL faculty who attended the defense will confer in a private, closed-door session to discuss the defense. The student will remain close by and available to the committee. The Dissertation Committee members will provide feedback regarding the student’s performance and determine the outcome of the defense. Two outcomes are possible at this closed-door session: a pass or fail. If the student receives a determination of fail, the Committee may require substantial revisions to the dissertation, followed by a repeated defense, or the Committee may determine that the student has failed with no option for revision. Passing or failing status is determined by a majority vote of the Dissertation Committee. The Chair of the Committee will convey the pass or fail decision to the student immediately after the closed-door session, in a private conversation.

The outcome must be documented by completion of the Dissertation Final Defense Approval Form. The form is signed by members of the Dissertation Committee and forwarded to the DrPH HPAL Program Director and the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs for signature. (Because the DrPH is not affiliated with a single department, no signature from a Department Chair is required.) The form is then sent to the Office of University Registrar with copies forwarded to the student, the DrPH Program co-Directors, and the BSOM Office of Student Affairs.

The passing of the ILE oral defense does NOT mean the student has passed the ILE entirely. The student will not be considered to have passed the ILE in its entirety until the final product has been accepted and approved by the department chair and dean of the graduate school. Neither the chair nor the dean should make major revisions at this stage. The student should make these revisions in a timely manner and, at a minimum, all revisions must be completed and accepted by the committee two weeks (10 working days) prior to the deadline for degree conference for that semester. Once any necessary minor revisions have been made and the product is given final approval by the Committee Chair, the student may provide copies of the final product to the Committee Chair and Committee Members. Students must follow ECU’s dissertation submission policies found here http://libguides.ecu.edu/vireo/etd/home

If the Committee determines in its closed-door session that the student has failed the defense but has the option of substantial revisions, the student must schedule a meeting with the Committee Chair as soon as possible, to determine the nature of the Committee’s concerns and to determine what changes must be made to address those concerns. The student will then be required to make the necessary changes, re-draft the final product, and follow the procedures above for distributing new versions of the final product to the Committee and for preparing a new public defense. A student is permitted only one “fail” vote; should the student fail a second defense with the result that it is unlikely that the student can successfully pass the ILE, whereby it is clear the student has worked closely with the faculty sponsor and has received adequate guidance, in exceptional circumstances– marked by an awareness of significant and substantive factors not known to the committee at the time of the initial examination- a candidate who receives a 2nd “fail” will be asked to leave the program.