Program Overview

Program Overview

The Doctor of Occupational Therapy (O.T.D.) program at Colorado State University is designed using subject- and learner-centered principles. The program focuses on occupation and prepares graduates to become occupational therapy practitioners who can collaborate and lead in the field. The O.T.D. program has been granted 7-year accreditation by the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education of the American Occupational Therapy Association.

Program Objectives

The program has six learning objectives:

1. Occupation and OT Process: Students will be proficient in collaborative occupational therapy services guided by clinical reasoning and a rich understanding of occupation.
2. Change and Learning Process: Students will understand and apply dynamic mechanisms that foster change and learning to enable occupation in individuals, organizations, and societies.
3. Intentional Learning and Professional Development: Students will be intentional learners and active members in the profession, evaluating their own approaches to learning and creating strategies to improve their effectiveness.
4. Professional Reasoning: Students will integrate multiple types of reasoning, evidence-based knowledge, and skills to plan, direct, perform, assess, modify, and reflect on occupational therapy practice and research.
5. Practice Settings, Populations, and Roles: Students will appreciate and analyze the impact of practice settings, client populations, and therapist roles on occupational therapy and use their analyses to improve occupation-centered practice.
6. Professional and Therapeutic Collaborations: Students will engage in dynamic, goal-directed collaborations with the client constellation and other professionals to maximize occupational performance.

Program Curriculum

The program consists of 86-99 credits and takes three years to complete. The curriculum includes:

• First Year: Summer, Fall, and Spring semesters with courses such as Occupation and Occupational Therapy Process, Foundations for Professional Development, and Impacts on Occupation--Psychosoc & Context.
• Second Year: Summer, Fall, and Spring semesters with courses such as Level IIA Fieldwork - Adults and Older Adults, Programmatic Interventions, and Infancy Through Early Childhood.
• Third Year: Capstone Project 1, Level IIB Fieldwork - Lifespan Experience 2, and Capstone Experience 1.

Program Requirements

A minimum of 99 credits are required to complete the program. Students must register for specific courses in the Fall or Spring of the Third Year. For more information, please refer to the Requirements for All Graduate Degrees in the Graduate and Professional Bulletin.

Graduate and Professional Bulletin

The Graduate and Professional Bulletin provides information on graduate study, including requirements for all graduate degrees, evaluation of graduate students, graduate school appeals procedure, master's degrees, doctoral degrees, graduate certificates, and graduate specializations.

Master's and Doctoral Procedures

The Graduate School publishes a schedule of deadlines, which are available on the Graduate School website. Students should consult this schedule whenever they approach important steps in their careers. The procedures include:

1. Application for admission
2. Diagnostic examination when required
3. Appointment of advisor
4. Selection of graduate committee
5. Filing of program of study
6. Preliminary examination
7. Report of preliminary examination
8. Changes in committee
9. Application for Graduation
10. Submit thesis or dissertation to committee
11. Final examination
12. Report of final examination
13. Submit a signed Thesis/Dissertation Submission Form
14. Submit the thesis/dissertation electronically
15. Graduation