“As a new OTD program, our faculty has been anxious and excited in anticipation for our inaugural cohort to meet all of their educational milestones with success. Then, this inaugural Class of 2021 was met with challenges, barriers, and delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We had always planned to integrate the Therapy Ed preparation course into our curriculum in the 8th semester as a component of the professional competency seminar. This course has learning outcomes around NBCOT exam preparation and professional transitions from student to practitioner. For this Class of 2021, these objectives became more important and challenging after experiencing delays in fieldwork and adjusting to hybrid communications and learning. Therapy Ed could not have been more accommodating and supportive. They were able to offer a virtual preparation course for our students on the timeline that worked best for all of them. There was flexibility for students who had a conflict and superb follow up from the staff and the course instructor. Our students reported back that the instructor was engaging, helpful, and seemed to truly care about their success. Therapy Ed and Dr. Fleming-Castaldy went above and beyond by scheduling an online “refresher” course for our students (and others) after they completed their Doctoral Capstone placements to review and prepare them for intensive exam studying. All of our inaugural graduates who took the exam in 2021 have passed on the first attempt and the rest of the cohort are showing great success as well! We look forward to a return to in-person Therapy Ed courses but feel confident that our students will be prepared in any format!”
- Meredith Gronski, OTD, OTR/L, CLA Program Director & Chair Methodist University OTD Program