Principal preparation program pedagogy and course delivery are critical to principal candidates' preparedness to lead. Research around online program delivery, however, is relatively sparse. This study examined the extent to which university-based educational leadership programs offered fully online (FOL) pathways to the principalship, as well as program geographic locations and institutional characteristics most associated with FOL offerings.,Data were collected through website reviews and coding checks, and then merged with national postsecondary data. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, classification tree analysis, and geographic information system (GIS) mapping.,Roughly 43 percent of all reviewed programs offered an FOL pathway to licensure, which suggests substantial growth in FOL offerings over the last 10 years. While a number of factors were deemed important, geographic characteristics were most associated with FOL status. GIS mapping further illustrated findings with a visual landscape of program FOL offerings.,This study considered only programs for which degrees or certificates could be earned without ever visiting campus in-person for classes. Hybrid programs were excluded from the analysis.,Findings make a clear call for more research into online principal preparation program design and course delivery.,This study provides the first overview of fully online university-based principal preparation programs in the United States while also offering a previously unavailable landscape of all programs specifically leading to licensure. It is also the only higher education study to map or investigate factors associated with FOL offerings and raises questions about prior FOL higher education research.

中文翻译：

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完全在线的校长准备：流行率，机构特征，地理

校长准备课程的教学法和课程交付对于校长准备领导的能力至关重要。但是，围绕在线程序交付的研究相对较少。这项研究调查了以大学为基础的教育领导力课程在多大程度上提供了完全在线（FOL）担任校长的途径，以及该课程的地理位置和与FOL产品最相关的机构特征。通过网站评论和编码检查收集了数据，然后与国家高等教育数据合并。使用描述性统计数据，分类树分析和地理信息系统（GIS）映射对数据进行了分析。大约有43％的已审查程序提供了FOL许可途径，这表明在过去10年中FOL产品的大幅增长。尽管许多因素被认为很重要，但地理特征与FOL状态最相关。GIS映射通过FOL产品的可视化视图进一步说明了发现。本研究仅考虑无需亲自访问校园即可获得学位或证书的课程。分析排除了混合项目。研究结果明确呼吁对在线校长备课计划设计和课程交付进行更多研究。该研究首次概述了美国完全基于大学的在线校长备课计划，同时还提供所有程序以前导致无法获得许可的情况。