San José State University

SCHOOL OF LIBRARY & INFORMATION SCIENCE



SLIS Home – San José Gateway Ph.D. – Course Structure

Course Structure

The length of the program is generally six years part–time (including 24 months of provisional registration).

Assessment for the doctoral award is based on a program of supervised research and investigation, culminating in a thesis.

There are two required residencies a year, one week in San José in August and one week during the annual conference of the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE) in January. The San José dates for 2009 are August 3-7 inclusive.

The San José cohort includes required expectations in support of the conduct of research and preparation of the dissertation. Each year is structured as follows:

Preliminary

Doctoral Student Advanced Technology Workshop.

Year One

Seminars, reading courses and projects will lead to a deep understanding of the Theoretical and Research Foundations of Library and Information Science, including advanced library research methods, as well as socialization to the academic world of research and scholarship.

Deliverables:

Year Two

Seminars, reading courses and projects will lead to a deep understanding of the Role of the Faculty Member in High Education, Curriculum Design and Course Development and Pedagogy in Higher Education.

Deliverables:

Note: The confirmation of candidature takes place at the end of 24 months, or the end of Year Two. This requires documentation of progress, and as a minimum the literature review, and a seminar presentation on the topic proposed for investigation. The first three chapters for the dissertation (introduction; literature review; methodology and pilot; plan for progress) may be presented at this time or at the end of Year Three. Confirmation of candidature takes place in San José in August and results in confirmation as a Ph.D. student at QUT.

Year Three

Seminars in which faculty and candidates present critical studies of selected problems; independent study or reading courses under faculty supervision; research projects conducted under faculty supervision with greater focus on the dissertation topic; research fora will model the dissertation defense.

By the end of Year Three the candidate will have submitted at least one substantive research project for review.

Year Four To Six

Seminars in which faculty and candidates present critical studies of selected problems; independent study or reading courses under faculty supervision; research projects conducted under faculty supervision.

Candidates are also required to have regular, face–to–face interaction with supervisors and to participate in University scholarly activities such as research seminars, teaching and publication.

It is anticipated that San José faculty and doctoral candidates will engage in collaborative research and publication over the course of the six years.

Both QUT and San José faculty supervise and meet with students (see Supervision ).

The student orientation will be held in August in San José over two weeks. Students will then meet once each year in August in San José for one week and once each year in January for one week during the annual conference on the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE). Students will be expected to contribute to ALISE work–in–progress and doctoral poster sessions.

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