The Doctor of Business Administration program requires successful completion of 11 courses (90 quarter credit hours). The program must be completed within a maximum timeframe of 54 months. Core courses are supplemented by courses in the specialty area chosen. The courses for this program are conducted in an online delivery format through a competency-based education (CBE) approach. The faculty model utilized is designed for a 1:1 faculty/student relationship that promotes and involves substantive faculty/student interaction. The faculty engage students through a variety of multimedia presentations, conversations, and qualitative and quantitative feedback.

Students complete coursework that supports a strong understanding of the skills required to identify an issue pertinent to the professional field and determine the existing data and prior research findings that illuminate potential implementations. The primary focus is on identifying and analyzing the value of existing data with a critical lens on both the methodology used in the data collection and the subject matter expertise of the researcher in the student’s field.

After completing an initial review of the existing data and developing a preliminary analysis within the first courses, students move on to creating a formal literature review and identification of stakeholders to ensure that the research addresses multiple perspectives. This supports the move from review to analysis and toward the final portion of the dissertation in practice or capstone. The final stage will include the student’s findings based upon the analysis of the research and a resulting proposal for implementation commensurate with the industry standards for the field being addressed. As a part of the presentation of the dissertation or capstone, the student includes a description or model of how the recommended proposal will be shared with the community or population it is intended to support. Students are empowered within this learning model to apply learning in practice each term, demonstrating understanding by creating a portfolio of work. The guiding principle is for students to collaborate with instructors and create a learning plan that individualizes each demonstration of mastery specific to a professional field, rather than a predetermined theoretical application. Each course has a set of competencies that can be demonstrated through application of the topic in the students’ field. To that end, the courses are written to address the competency, not a specific subject matter. Each student chooses a focus for the doctoral program that serves as a basis for the individualization.