A grounded theory of decision-making processes in United States postsecondary distance education program development.

Abstract

This study explored decision-making processes in the development of a U.S. postsecondary distance education program. The research was conducted on a single case where a major university, an international union, and a multinational corporation engaged in a four-year process of developing a distance education degree program for nearly 100,000 students in over 75 locations. A model by Thompson (1967) of four decision-making processes (i.e., rational, coalition, trial and error, and garbage can) was used to connect a grounded theory to decision-making processes. Data collection and analysis were conducted using grounded theory methodology. The primary sources of data collection were interviews with program development staff and documents. The data were analyzed using two procedures: (1) a case description; and (2) in vivo coding. In conducting these procedures, a constant comparison of the data was employed to group and analyze similar data. This research makes important contributions to the literature on distance education program development. It generated a model of decision-making in distance education program development that can be used to conduct future research and guide practice.