Online educational programs have emerged as an innovative alternative to traditional off-line, face-to-face programs in “brick and mortar” classrooms on physical college campuses. Engineering programs are embracing these innovative online teaching programs to stay competitive by operating more efficiently and by attracting a variety of stakeholders. These stakeholders include student veterans enrolled in online graduate engineering programs attracted by a variety of engineering majors and courses. This study brings these developments together to answer the following research question:
How do student veterans and curriculum variety impact the performance of online master’s degree engineering programs?
To answer this question, we develop a research model from hypotheses drawing from the literature. The model is then tested using secondary data from 65 online engineering master’s degree granting programs throughout the United States. The statistical analysis technique used is linear regression. The independent variables represent veteran enrollment and curriculum variety, and the dependent variable represents online graduate engineering program performance. In sum, the heterogeneity of students and curriculum are found to positively impact on-line engineering program success. This study is important because it empirically identifies specific factors that can improve online graduate engineering program performance. The paper concludes with implications for engineering education and recommendations for future research.
Douglas M. Schutz is an Associate Professor of Information Systems, International Business, and Management at the Tokyo University of Science in Japan. He received a Ph.D. in Business Administration focusing on Management Information Systems (MIS) from the Fox School of Business of Temple University at Philadelphia, an MBA in Information Management from the McCombs School of Business of the University of Texas at Austin, and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis focusing on digital electronics design. Doug was one of 40 Ph.D. students selected globally to present his research at the International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS) Doctoral Consortium in Shanghai, China. His research has been nominated Best Paper at the Hawaii International Conference on Systems Science (HICSS), and his work has been published numerous times by the Japan Society of Information and Management (JSIM). He has been a lecturer at the Regensburg University of Applied Sciences in Germany and at the Vietnam National University. Prior to academia, Doug worked as an IT manager and consultant in the electric utility industry out of New Orleans for two Fortune 500 companies, where his responsibilities included IT disaster recovery from Hurricane Katrina. Previously, he served as an unrestricted line officer in the U.S. Navy onboard a guided missile destroyer and the second Aegis cruiser.
Dante Dionne is a Senior Innovation Technology Manager at Korean Air. The past 25+ years of his career has centered on management and professional services consulting. Where, he has specialized in leading multi-national project teams in digital business transformation, mobility and innovative technology solutions.
Dante received his Ph.D. in Psychology with a focus on Organizational Leadership and an MA in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from the Chicago School of Professional Psychology, and a BS in Business Management with a minor in Computer Science. Dante has graduate level teaching credits in Psychometrics, Data Management and as a Visiting Scholar at the Tokyo University of Science. Dante’s research spans several specializations in psychology including: Organizational, Social, Cultural, Developmental, Cognitive, Performance, Sports, and Positive Psychology. Dante is also an active member of American Psychological Association (APA) Division 46 (Society for Media Psychology and Technology), Division 14 (Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology), Division 13 (Society of Consulting Psychology) and Division 47 (Society for Sport, Exercise and Performance Psychology).
Yong-Young Kim is an assistant professor of Division of Business Administration and Economics at Konkuk University in Korea. He earned his Master’s and Doctoral Degree in Management Information Systems from Seoul National University in Korea. His research interests include Smart Work, online games, IT experiential learning processes, IT convergence & platform, and ubiquitous computing. His papers have appeared in Information Resources Management Journal, Cluster Computing, International Journal of Advanced Media and Communication, Asia Pacific Journal of Information Systems, and Journal of Korean OR/MS Society and also have been presented at many leading international conferences (ICIS, HICSS, PACIS).
Are you a researcher? Would you like to cite this paper? Visit the ASEE document repository at peer.asee.org for more tools and easy citations.