Occupational Therapy

• SAR OT 925: Capstone
  Graduate Prerequisites: OTD degree students only. This on-line graduate Capstone course is the final course in the post-professional OTD program. Students will prepare for and deliver a 30-minute presentation on their doctoral project to an invited audience of colleagues, family, and friends. After receiving feedback from their presentation, students will prepare a final version of their doctoral paper, which will be indexed in the Boston University Mugar Library.
• SAR OT 928: Capstone 1: Problem Identification
  This course will prepare students to develop a professional development plan to achieve career aspirations as well as a proposal for the OTD Doctoral Project. Through a series of guided self-analysis assignments students will identify academic, personal and professional strengths and create career goals. Students will continue the planning for the doctoral experiential component during this course. All students are assigned an academic mentor from the BU OT Dept. core faculty who students will work with throughout this course. Students and academic mentors, with input from peer mentors will collaborate to identify a focused/realistic problem to address in the Doctoral Capstone. Students will review gaps or shortcomings in current occupational therapy practice and work with their assigned mentor to identify their focused area of interest. Students will identify necessary knowledge and skills to achieve their goals and begin to develop an initial plan for the OTD Doctoral Experiential Component. By the end of the semester, you will have an outline of the proposed problem and drafted learning objectives, which will need to be approved by your academic mentor. Assignments in this course will lead to the completion of Capstone Competency Tasks.
• SAR OT 929: Capstone 2: Critical Appraisal
  This course will prepare students to develop a Doctoral Capstone Plan. Students will continue the planning for the doctoral experiential component during this course. All students are assigned an academic mentor from the BU OT Dept. core faculty who students will work with throughout this course. Students and academic mentors, with input from peer mentors will collaborate to identify a focused/realistic OTD doctoral experiential component plan and identify potential doctoral experiential projects and practice settings. Students will review gaps or shortcomings in current occupational therapy practice and work with their assigned mentor to identify their focused area of interest. Students will identify necessary knowledge and skills to achieve their goals and develop an initial plan for the OTD Doctoral Experiential Component. By the end of the semester, you will have an outline of the proposed focus area, as well as a draft of the mentor agreement- which will need to be approved by your academic mentor. Assignments in this course will lead to the completion of Capstone Competency Tasks.
• SAR OT 930: Doctoral Project
  Graduate Prerequisites: OTD degree students only. This is an on-line graduate course in the post-professional OTD program. Concurrent with each full semester (fall, spring, summer) in the OTD program, students register for one credit of the Doctoral Project. In the fourth semester of the program, students register for 3 credits of the Doctoral Project course. The Doctoral Project is organized around the student's proposed innovation in practice. It is in the form of a series of qualifying tasks, each of which represents a critical phase of the proposal. Guidance in the doctoral project will be through a combination of three elements: Faculty advising and mentorship, peer mentorship and a circle of Advisors composed of a minimum of two professionals with content expertise in the doctoral project. The project outcomes include: description of a short-coming, gap or specific need in the student's area of practice; compilation of a theoretical and evidence base to support the proposed project; description of the proposed program; evaluation plan; funding plan; dissemination plan; executive summary and Fact Sheet. (1 credit each full semester until completed, 3 credits in the final semester - a minimum of 6 credits)
• SAR OT 943: Professional Development Seminar
  This course will prepare students to develop a professional developmental plan to achieve career aspirations and a proposal for the OTD Doctoral Project. Through a series of guided self-analysis assignments students will identify academic, personal and professional strengths and create career goals. Students will review gaps or shortcomings in current occupational therapy practice and knowledge and skills to achieve their goals and develop an initial plan for the OTD Doctoral Experiential Component. The purpose of the Doctoral Experiential Component is to learn the process for creating an evidence and theory based innovative program. The Doctoral Experiential Component is organized around the student's proposed innovation in practice. The Doctoral Experiential Component includes a series of competency tasks, each of which represents a critical phase of the Doctoral Experiential Component. Guidance in the Doctoral Experiential Component is provided through a combination of three mentors: faculty advising (academic mentor), guidance by external expert (Mentor in the situation of practice), and peer mentoring (peer mentors). Students will develop peer mentoring relationships focused on their Doctoral Experiential Component in the context of this course.
• SAR OT 944: Needs Assessment and Program Development
  Introduces students to methods of assessing how occupation contributes to health and well-being among populations. Provides opportunities to develop and practice needs assessment skills. Students will learn how to access and analyze large data sets to examine whether a health problem in a community warrants occupational therapy intervention. Students will conduct a needs assessment of a population and develop a proposal for occupational therapy intervention to address the identified needs.
• SAR OT 946: Preparation for Doctoral Experiential Component
  To prepare for the Doctoral Experiential Component this course will guide students through the 2nd Doctoral Project task: thoroughly evaluating and synthesizing the literature on existing methods for addressing the proposed problem to be addressed in the Doctoral Project. This review of the literature will provide the foundation for the rationale, design, and methods for the student's proposed response to the problem.
• SAR OT 947: Mentored Studies in Doctoral Experiential Component
  This on-line course provides students with concurrent mentoring from their faculty advisor and peer mentor while they are completing the doctoral experiential component. Students meet on-line in small mentoring sections with their faculty advisor throughout the doctoral experiential component. Students will complete the 3rd Doctoral Project task: design and implement an intervention or program that is guided by current theory and best evidence. Students will develop a model for the hypothesized mechanisms of action of a particular intervention or program and incorporate a feasible and effective method for evaluation within the design of the program to be implemented during the doctoral experiential component in the situation of practice.
• SAR OT 948: Mentored Doctoral Experiential Dissemination
  In this course students complete their culminating Doctoral Project and disseminate the findings from their scholarly work, relating theory to practice and demonstrating synthesis of advanced knowledge. The students present their Doctoral Project and discuss findings in a professional forum related to their selected area: clinical practice, research, leadership, program and policy development, advocacy, education or theory development. Development of individualized learning objectives for the dissemination, plan for dissemination and evaluation of student performance objectives occurs in collaboration with the student, Doctoral Project academic mentor and mentor in the situation of practice with expertise in one of the above areas.
• SAR OT 949: Doctoral Experience Component
  This doctoral experiential component is an in-depth experience in one or more of the following student-selected areas: clinical practice, research, leadership, program and policy development, advocacy, education or theory development. This experience is designed to support advanced skills the student's selected area. The experience is a minimum of 14 full-time weeks (560 hours). Development of individualized learning objectives, assignments and evaluation of student performance objectives occurs in collaboration with the student, Doctoral Project mentor and mentor in the situation of practice with expertise in one of the above areas.
• SAR OT 990: OTD Independent Study
  Graduate Prerequisites: OTD degree students only. - Continuation of the on-line doctoral project for OTD students who need additional semesters beyond the 6 credits of OT 930 to complete their doctoral project.