The Doctoral Experience

Students take their comprehensive exams when they are in their final semester of coursework, before the final two stand-alone dissertation courses. 

Review all of your core and specialty/concentration notes, and papers.  Review recent literature on your specialty/concentration so you will have recent content knowledge.  Contact your academic department for a link or access to any current study guide resources for your degree program. 

Approximately 4 hours

You formally submit your committee member names during DRST930.   

Be prepared to orally defend your dissertation.  You will discuss your findings, implications, and methodology.  Be prepared to answer your committee’s questions related to their feedback and guidance through the process. Dissertation Defenses are completed virtually, students will need to have a microphone and camera-enabled access. 

No. Dissertation Defenses are hosted virtually, so you can attend from anywhere.

This is the Institutional Review Board.  In iLearn, you can access the IRB and Research organization for forms, documentation, and guidance on the IRB process. 

Resources like Grammarly are great! You can find access to Grammarly and other writing resources through the Writing Center – they can help you too! 

The Learning Commons

Though different academic areas have different types of research focus the overall format is the same. Cumberlands has many dissertation professionals who will lead you through the process regardless of the research path you take.   

Once a dissertation has been approved by committee members and the academic department a doctoral candidate will be contacted to schedule the time and date for your defense. 

Each dissertation course is a prerequisite for the next course. 

All projects that involve human research subjects are subject to review by the IRB prior to the initiation of the study.  The following definitions are used to determine whether a study is subject to IRB review.
According to the Office for Human Research Protections (HHS.org), a human subject is a living individual about whom an investigator (whether professional or student) conducting research: (i) Obtains information or biospecimens through intervention or interaction with the individual, and uses, studies, or analyzes the information or biospecimens; or (ii) Obtains, uses, studies, analyzes, or generates identifiable private information or identifiable biospecimens.

Research is defined as “a systematic investigation, including research, development, testing, and evaluation, designed to develop or contribute to generalizable knowledge.”  A systematic investigation is an activity that involves a prospective plan incorporating data collection (quantitative or qualitative) and data analysis to answer a question. Investigations designed to develop or contribute to generalizable knowledge are those that are designed to draw general conclusions, inform policy, or facilitate change in practice. 

Projects that are part of a class learning experience if there is no intention of using the results for any purpose other than a class assignment. The sole purpose of the activity is to serve as a learning experience to help students understand the process of conducting research, and the focus is not on producing meaningful results.  In these cases, only the student and instructor have access to the results, and the project’s purpose ends when a grade is assigned.  However, some class assignments have a larger purpose which may make them subject to IRB review. For example, IRB approval should be obtained prior to data collection if the data collected in the class assignment becomes used for a thesis project or plans to share the results with an outside audience. Thesis or dissertation projects conducted to meet degree requirements are subject to IRB review and approval any time human subjects are involved. 

For questions about IRB, please contact the Director of Ethics and Research at IRB [at] ucumberlands.edu (IRB[at]ucumberlands[dot]edu)

To protect everyone in the process of research, all students and faculty involved in research at the University of the Cumberlands must complete the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI)  Basic course in the Social and Behavioral module. Students will be required to provide a certificate of completion along with their IRB application and materials as a course assignment during their enrollment in the Advanced Research Methods course.

The basic course is completed the first time and then the refresher course every three years thereafter. 

It takes approximately 3 hours to complete the training and users can log in and complete the modules as they have time.  Upon completion of the modules, a certificate will be awarded. 

CITI Training Instructions

Ready to submit your IRB application or looking for more resources? Students should enroll in the IRB and Research organization find within iLearn.

IRB and Research Organization Enrollment Instructions (OneDrive LINK)