Welcome to your Capella University Colloquium Courseroom!
The Colloquium Courseroom is the first component of your Colloquium Track 3 requirements. The second component is the completion of the Weekend Experience and the third component is completing the Final Assessment Assignment in the Courseroom. After successfully completing all three components of the colloquium, you will receive a satisfactory grade for the track.
A faculty member from your school will facilitate the courseroom for approximately five weeks. They will be available to you as you progress through this important material, and can answer questions regarding the colloquia requirement.
You must complete the entire online colloquium course except for Unit 10 during the time prior to the Weekend Experience starting. This is essential if you are to be able to complete the face-to-face experience successfully. However, you will have access to reenter and review the information in the Courseroom during and after the Weekend Experience.
Keep in mind that everything in the Colloquia Courseroom is important for you to review and complete. Many of the courseroom activities will be self-assessed and, for many of them, successful completion of the assessment is required before you can move on to later activities.
In addition to the activities, there are several presentations for you to review in the Colloquia Courseroom. Most of these presentations have accompanying tasks. You are expected to review and complete the material on your own and will be held responsible for knowing it. We strongly encourage you to look through all presentations, as they contain important information that you will need in preparation for both the Weekend Experience and your doctoral program. Successfully completing all activities and self-assessments is required before attending the Weekend Experience. Failure to complete all activities and assessments will require you to retake the track at a later time.
The work of Track 3 builds on Track 2 and its companion course, if your program includes a companion course. There, you developed a qualitative research design and completed your Research Plan (qualitative, quantitative, or mixed) as far as the sampling plan. We expect that you will have been adding to and deepening your literature review in the meantime, so there may be new material to incorporate into your Research Plan.
Track 3 also is coordinated with the work done any applicable companion courses. In those courses, learners develop a quantitative research design for their dissertation topics and complete the quantitative Research Plan. They compare and contrast their qualitative and quantitative Research Plans and make a decision as to which will serve for their dissertation. In Track 3, both in the Courseroom and the Weekend Experience, you will build on the work done in your companion course, refining and continuing to develop your research design. You are expected to bring your Research Plan to the residency, as well as working on it as needed during this courseroom experience. If you have decided on a qualitative dissertation, bring your qualitative Research Plan with you.
If you have not taken a companion course yet and therefore do not have the quantitative Research Plan with you, your process will be reversed: Here in Track 3, you will continue designing your quantitative dissertation research and continue developing your literature review to support and justify it. You will also complete the remaining sections the Research Plan. When you do take a companion course, you will build on what you have begun here in Track 3.
The Weekend Experience is the second component of the Track 3 colloquium. You prepare for the face-to-face, highly experiential Weekend here in the Colloquium Courseroom. It is very important to remember that checking in and checking out of the Weekend Experience on time is crucial in order to receive a satisfactory grade for your colloquium track. You need to check into the Weekend Experience on the first day of the Weekend Experience between the hours of 11:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. You will also need to check out of the Weekend Experience on the last day at noon. Please be aware that Capella does not allow early departures except in extremely serious and unpredictable circumstances. Specifically, early airline reservations are not acceptable as a reason to leave early. Failure to check in or check out on-time, including unexcused early departure, will result in an unsatisfactory grade for your colloquium track and may require you to retake the track.
After your Weekend Experience is finished, you will once again go back into the Colloquia Courseroom and submit your Final Assessment and your Readiness Plan for the Comprehensive Examination and the Dissertation, which comprise the third and final component to completing your colloquium track. You will be given one week after the Weekend Experience to finish and submit the Final Assessment assignment. Failure to do so will result in an unsatisfactory grade for your colloquium track and may require you retake the track. The Readiness Plan will be due the second week following the Weekend Experience.
After the Final Assessments and Readiness Plans are completed, the facilitator of the Colloquia Courseroom will review and submit your score—which is not a grade. The score will post to your iGuide page in approximately 10 business days. This signals completion of your colloquium track.
Again, welcome to your Colloquia Courseroom and we look forward to working with you in the Colloquia Courseroom and at the Weekend Experience.
Doc. reference: phd_t3_u01s1_h01_expectns.html