The Evaluation of the Doctor of Philosophy Program in Education of the School of Educational Studies, Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University (STOU)

Abstract

The objectives of this research were (1) to evaluate the Doctor of Philosophy Program in Education of the School of Educational Studies, Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University (STOU); and (2) to improve the Doctor of Philosophy Program in Education of the School of Educational Studies, STOU.    The key informants, totaling 100 persons, comprised 19 instructors in the program, 28 graduates of the program, 26 current students, 17 employers/supervisors of the graduates, and 10 instructors in charge of the program.  The employed evaluation instruments were questionnaires, a data recoding form, and guidelines for focus group discussion. Data were analyzed using the percentage, mean, standard deviation, and content analysis.  Research results were as follows: 1) Evaluation results of the Doctor of Philosophy Program in Education of the School of Educational Studies, STOU could be concluded as follows; (1) Regarding evaluation results of input factors of the program, overall, it was found appropriate at the high level which passed the evaluation criteria; (2) Regarding evaluation results of implementation process, overall, it was found appropriate at the high level which passed the evaluation criteria; and (3) Regarding evaluation results of outputs of the program, it was found that from the 2006-2013 academic years, 142 students were admitted to the program, and 65 or 45.77 percent of them graduated. Evaluation results of characteristics of the graduates revealed that the graduates’ employers/supervisors agreed that the graduates had the characteristics of graduates at the highest level and passed the evaluation criteria. 2) Regarding recommendations for program improvement, it was suggested that the Ph.D. program should be separated into of 5 Ph.D. programs as follows: (1) the Doctor of Philosophy Program in Curriculum and Instruction; (2) the Doctor of Philosophy Program in Educational Measurement and Evaluation; (3) the Doctor of Philosophy Program in Guidance and Psychological Counseling; (4) the Doctor of Philosophy Program in Lifelong Education; and (5) the Doctor of Philosophy Program in Educational Technology and Communications.