Online Doctorate Equals Career Advancement Minus Personal Disruption

University of Arkansas

Becky Warren, left, receives her framed diploma for a Doctor of Education in adult and lifelong learning from Patty Milner of the Global Campus on June 25 at the University of Arkansas Community College at Batesville.

Having the option to earn a doctorate online meant Becky Warren didn't have to choose between career advancement and coaching her daughter's softball team.

The newly promoted dean of career and workforce education at the University of Arkansas Community College at Batesville had an important appointment on June 25. After a day's work, she would change out of business attire into clothing suitable for pacing the sidelines as her 9-year-old daughter's softball team, the Southside Southerners, took on the Cave City Cavemen in tournament action in the evening of that blazing hot day.

But first, the Razorbug Diploma Tour visited Warren on her campus that day to present her with a framed diploma for a Doctor of Education degree in adult and lifelong learning. Earning the degree online meant she didn't have to disrupt her family life or her job. Warren and her husband and children live in Bald Knob (White County), about 35 miles from Batesville. Their 16-year-old son, a junior in high school, is enrolled concurrently in UACCB classes.

The 2005 converted Volkswagen Beetle with hooves, razor spine, curly tail and snout is the centerpiece of a ceremony repeated the past three summers in small towns across western, southern and eastern Arkansas. U of A faculty and staff celebrate the accomplishments of graduates who earned degrees online without leaving their jobs, families and communities. The U of A offers more than 90 degree and licensure programs delivered partially or completely online.

The 2024 Razorbug Diploma Tour is in its third year. The Razorbug was on loan from the Office of Admissions. Global Campus staff drove the Bug more than 2,100 miles through western, southern, eastern and central Arkansas to present 16 diplomas in 15 counties. Only two of the graduates earned bachelor's degrees. The rest were master's degrees and one doctorate. In academic year 2024, the U of A awarded 1,013 online degrees and certificates.

In 10 years of working at the University of Arkansas Community College at Batesville, Warren has been steadily promoted, from career and disability services coordinator to director of workforce and career services to director of adult education to dean of health professions and, in July, to her most recent position. She also taught six hours a semester for three years during one of her appointments.

While all this work experience has taken place at a community college, Warren's four degrees came from four-year institutions: Arkansas Tech University in Russellville, where she is president-elect of the Arkansas Tech Alumni Board; Missouri State University in Springfield; Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia; and the U of A in Fayetteville. After getting her bachelor's degree in agricultural business and animal science from Tech, Warren knew she wanted to work in higher education administration, although she decided later to shift her focus from student affairs to academic affairs.

"It was always my goal," she said. "When I was in graduate school orientation for student affairs, a member of a previous cohort told us that one of the hardest things to break into was community colleges unless you had experience in them, but they were rewarding. Because of that, I did my graduate school internship at Arkansas State University-Beebe and one of my practicum experiences at Ozarks Technical College (in Springfield).

"My time in those experiences made me certain that I wanted to return to community colleges when I got out of grad school," Warren continued. "I grew up in extremely rural Arkansas and saw the impact our local community college had on my family and friends, including my siblings. While my twin and I went straight to a four-year college, it's because we were granted enough financial aid and scholarships to cover full tuition, fees, room and board. Therefore, a four-year college was cheaper for us. I knew the immediate impact community colleges made on the students who attended them, and I wanted to be a part of that. As I've continued in my role in community colleges, I am even more impressed by the economic impact our campuses have on the community."

Community colleges not only raise the quality of life for individuals by boosting their skills and knowledge for higher-paying jobs but also drive local economic growth, Warren explained.

"By offering targeted training programs in partnership with businesses and industry, these institutions ensure a skilled workforce that meets market needs," she said. "This support helps local businesses expand and can attract new industries to the area, creating broader economic benefits. Community colleges also provide accessible education, offering opportunities to underserved populations and helping close the skills gap, making them essential for both personal and regional development."

The University of Arkansas Community College at Batesville, with an enrollment of 1,118 in the fall of 2023, offers associate's degrees and certificate programs in skilled trades and agriculture, STEM, general education and transfer, business, health professions and human services. It has partnered with more than 70 four-year universities to provide a seamless pathway for graduates to continue their education.

The adult and lifelong learning doctorate is one of the few hybrid programs offered by the U of A with three in-person Saturday class sessions required each semester along with all the online coursework, what Warren described as the "best of both worlds." It also features a cohort model where students accepted each year continue throughout the program taking the same courses together in a prescribed order. One of her master's programs followed the cohort model and that was a highlight of the doctoral program for Warren, she said.

"Everybody was a full-time practitioner," she said. "It was about what your classmates bring to you more than the professors sometimes. Our discussions furthered our learning."

Like many things in life, the quality of what you receive depends on the effort you put in, Warren said.

"You have to be fully prepared to do that," she said. "If you are willing to talk to your classmates, you'll get a lot more out of it. You can do the bare minimum, but you won't get as much out of it."

Her favorite class was one on program evaluation that required students to build an evaluation system from start to finish.

"We had to create a logic model," she said. "That is hard to do. Since then, I have taken over federal grants where we have to build logic models, so that is applicable to my job."

She explained that a logic model is used in program and grant assessment as a visual tool that outlines the relationships between a program's resources, activities, outputs and expected outcomes, helping to track progress and measure the effectiveness of the program in achieving its goals. It provides a clear framework for evaluating whether a program's strategies lead to the desired results.