Purdue Global (PUG) EdD in Leadership and Innovation

[walruspanda]

Quick update after finishing my 4th PUG EdD term:

• This term ended up being both ED740 (the consensus hardest course of the 700s) and ED770. ED740 is being revamped, I think starting next term, so anything I say may not be relevant in the future, but it certainly was the most challenging of the 700s so far...as well as the most rewarding. The major paper in the course was a genuinely useful independent exercise, and I wish (despite the difficulty) there was more of that in the program. By luck of the draw, I got the "easy professor" for this class, which I'm sure did help my enjoyment (heard some stories from students with the "hard professor"). 
  
• ED770, conversely, was fairly easy, but my least favorite 700s class so far. There is only so much useful that can be said about "Transformative Learning," and we had learned and talked about it all by week 5...with 5 weeks to go.
  
• 99% in ED740, 100% in ED770. I've gotten either 99% or 100% in five of the seven classes so far (and no lower than 95%). If you can write decently and are willing to put in the work, getting an A is not a challenge.
  
• Left with only one real class next term, ED780, then onto the Applied Research Project! The first EdD class is finishing their ARPs this term, so I'll be interested to see if I can read some of these to get a better feel for them. 
  
• Program is definitely growing -- heard it's now 700 students or so. When it started 18 months ago, they weren't even offering every course every term; now they have four sections of some courses. Much more popular than my MS IT degree at PUG ever was.
  

[walruspanda]

Two quick things:

• PUG now has some examples of their students' Applied Research Projects posted.
  
• Starting this term, both ED740 and ED780, the two most difficult 700-level classes, have been made easier. I have mixed feelings about this -- I thought the old ED740 was the most useful of the classes I've taken here.
  

[walruspanda]

Turned in my last assignment in ED780 -- the last of the traditional classes for the PUG EdD! A couple of quick notes on the 700s classes:

• It used to be suggested by some to take ED740 and/or ED780 separately, since they were the two most difficult classes. Based on my experience in the "new" ED780 this term and what I've heard from others taking the "new" ED740, that's no longer necessary. All the classes are of more-or-less equal difficulty and can be taken two at a time.
  
• Based on what I'd assumed coming into this program, all the classes I've taken I'd rate as easier than I expected for an EdD program...except for "old" ED740, which no longer exists. No classes I'd say were genuinely easy, but for those who can write quickly and synthesize well, there's no class in the 700s I'd call harder than a 5 out of 10.
  
• At this point, looks like I'll have either a 99% or 100% in six of eight classes (and no lower than a 95%), so a comfortable 4.0 GPA in the program (since the 800s are not graded). I certainly know of students who have gotten Bs and worse, though, so while I don't think getting a 4.0 was hard, I wouldn't call it a gimme.
  

Now for the 800s, which is all about creating a 100-to-120-page Applied Research Project (aka dissertation). Right now, PUG is in the middle of redoing how the advising for the project works, which has created a lot of consternation and confusion for students already in the 800s (redoing earlier parts that had already been approved by a professor, etc.). Hopefully for me they've already sorted out the bulk of these issues when I start ED810 in, wow, less than two weeks, but we'll see. At least project approval (which happens during ED780) was straightforward for me, which was not true with other students in the program during my term -- although I think the majority were eventually approved with few changes.