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After recommending one of the applicants, the administrators were asked to select one of
three categories that best characterized their reason for their recommendation. They had the
choice of indicating that they (a) have reservations about recommending an applicant whose
doctoral degree was awarded by an online virtual university; that (b) an applicant’s doctoral
degree was awarded by a traditional or an online virtual university would not be an issue that
would be of concern; and (c) another consideration. Each of the categories was followed by
space for written comments to allow further explanation for the selections. At the end of the
questionnaire additional space was provided for comments regarding the choices and any
additional information.
In both scenarios the written comments and explanations were analyzed for patterns and
thematic statements representing reasons for the choices. CATPAC, a qualitative research tool
that is capable of creating displays of complex text associations (Woelfel & Stoyanoff, 1993)
was used to initiate a qualitative analysis of the comments. The keyword frequencies created by
the software were used draw out categories, evaluate patterns and reliably identify recurring
themes (Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Gay, 1992). The forced-choice selections and the computer-
assisted qualitative analysis provided an in-depth understanding of the choices the participants
made, rather than to accept the questionnaire choices as simple categorical selections
(Schumacher & McMillian, 1993).
Results
The responses came from departments that were evenly divided among the four different
disciplines (humanities, social sciences, science / technology and professions) represented in the
sample.
Institutions from thirty-seven states participated with questionnaires being returned from
fifty-nine state schools and forty-three private schools with student populations ranging from
5000 to 35,000. The number of applicants for each position ranged from five to three hundred
with only twelve applicants out of 3,030 identified as holding a terminal degree from “virtual”
university.
Convention