Christine,

Thank you for your very thoughtful response to the inquiry on pass/fail and admission processes and for organizing the list of questions.  I apologize that I didn't reply sooner, and hope that hasn't added to your feeling vulnerable for expressing your position on this important issue.

I am a new program director for an applicant program, so the admission process overall is unchartered water for me.  I very much value the many complexities you've expressed. I want to be sure that I am advising prospective students appropriately not only for future application to my program, but for any program that they may be considering so I want to try to understand the issue from all perspectives.

I'm in the "information gathering" phase of decision making, so these are my initial thoughts regarding the questions:

1)      Will your program accept Credit/No Credit or P/F?  Current position is yes, we will

2)      If yes, what is your position on how that will affect an applicant’ prerequisite and overall GPA?  And perhaps their ability to be accepted into the program?  The current GPA requirement of 3.0 would stand, therefore the student should consider the impact of a grade vs a Credit/Pass on their GPA when making their decision

3)      Will you limit the number of courses with CR/NC or P/F? Likely two at most

4)      If you require a certain grade for a prerequisite, how are you justifying accepting a CR/NC or P/F grade when a pass for many institutions is a D or D-?  Our university set a policy that a pass would be a C or higher, so  I made an assumption that other universities were setting a higher threshold for this unique circumstance than their usual standards.  I will need to revisit this.  My justification for accepting down to "C" grade pass was that there could be sufficient mitigating circumstances this semester that impacted a student's learning and that placing a limit on the number of passes accepted and maintaining the overall GPA would provide some protection.  At the same time, I was recognizing that this may mean that students may be more at risk and need additional support once in the program.

5)      Will you only make these exceptions for this year and not accept credit for students who are currently Freshman – Juniors because they have time to retake courses?  I was intending to extend it for future admission cycles, as I felt that if it was equitable for one admission cycle, it should not become a penalty in future admission cycles.

Here are some of the steps I have taken to gain additional insight/knowledge to my decision making:

-Sent a request to faculty currently teaching any course I have indicated as a prereq for insights on how students are doing, particularly in comparison to past cohorts if they have previously taught the course.

-Made inquiries with other graduate professional programs within my institution as to how they will address this.

-Made inquiries with my state fieldwork consortium to see how other local programs are addressing this.

Are there other things I should be investigating, questions I should be asking to be sure I have the big picture?

One approach that has been brought forward was to maintain current admission criteria but offer a specific COVID related waiver form that allows students to explain why a Credit/Pass should be considered or any impact on a letter grade from this semester.   In talking with several undergraduate faculty I am definitely hearing that there is a lot of diversity in impact for students, with some having little change other than a location/online change and others attempting to continue their studies with significant disruption in all areas of their lives and support systems.

While a waiver would require that the admissions committee has clear, consistent guidelines in how to interpret a waiver to ensure all applicants are evaluated consistently, it might allow for some of those who have those extreme disruptions to ultimately portray how they rose to the challenge, which could potentially prepare them well as a future occupational therapist, especially if a holistic admission process is already in place.  If our desire is a diverse cohort and diverse OT workforce, wouldn't we want to distinguish a student who has all A's and one Pass but can explain that they were caring for an ill family member while completing this course differently than a student who presents with all B's and the minimum GPA but retook a course to get the required B?

Since we don't yet know the overall impact the COVID situation will have on higher education and future admissions, a second advantage to the waiver approach is it may allow more time for decision making and to get a clearer picture on how many students will be presenting with Credit/Pass as opposed to letter grades.  As Neil said, will COVID ratchet up the scrutiny on higher education even further, and so will an inflexible approach after the majority of institutions (at least anecdotally) have voted to offer the Pass/Fail option be viewed as discriminatory?

One thing I am definitely learning as a new program director--it's one thing to understand the big decisions that need to be made, and quite another to realize the 100 little decisions that underly that one big decision!

Stay Well,

Julie

JULIANE CHRESTON OTD OTRL
Professor, Director of Occupational Therapy Program
School of Health Professions

p 734.995.7596  |  c 810.516.8171

Concordia University Ann Arbor
4090 Geddes Road
Ann Arbor MI 48105
cuaa.edu

Please note:
The Concordia University Ann Arbor entry-level occupational therapy doctoral degree program has applied for accreditation by the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education (ACOTE) of the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA), located at 6116 Executive Boulevard, Suite 200, North Bethesda, MD 20852-4929. ACOTE’s telephone number c/o AOTA is (301) 652-AOTA and its Web address is www.acoteonline.org<http://www.acoteonline.org/>.
The program must be granted Candidacy Status before students can be admitted to the program. Concordia University and Dr. Chreston are fully committed to the development of the entry-level occupational therapy doctoral degree program, but prospective students should be aware there is no guarantee that the program will receive Candidacy Status or be allowed to admit students. An ACOTE candidacy decision is expected in April 2022.  Prospective students will be informed of acceptance into the program May 2022 with an anticipated program start of Fall 2022.
The program must be granted Candidacy Status, have a preaccreditation review, complete an on-site evaluation, and be granted Accreditation Status before its graduates will be eligible to sit for the national certification examination for the occupational therapist administered by the National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy (NBCOT). After successful completion of this exam, the individual will be an Occupational Therapist, Registered (OTR). In addition, all states require licensure in order to practice; however, state licenses are usually based on the results of the NBCOT Certification Examination. Note that a felony conviction may affect a graduate’s ability to sit for the NBCOT certification examination or attain state licensure.
Students must complete 24 weeks of Level II fieldwork as well as an individual 14-week capstone experience within 24 months following the completion of the didactic portion of the program. The doctoral capstone experience must be started after completion of all coursework and Level II fieldwork as well as completion of preparatory activities defined in 2018 ACOTE OTD Standard D.1.3.
________________________________
From: ot-pd@aotalists.org [ot-pd@aotalists.org]
Sent: Thursday, April 16, 2020 11:42 AM
To: ot-pd@aotalists.org
Subject: [OT-PD List - AOTA] - RE: Applicant questions

Thank you Julie for asking the question and thank you Neil for answering.  As you said yesterday Neil, these are the things that keep ME up at night.  We had an extraordinary robust (heated) discussion in our faculty senate meeting two weeks ago to determine what our institution’ grading policy will be for this semester.  To no one’s surprise the professional programs in the college of nursing and health professions did not want to change the grading system because we know that grades are a big part of admission criteria and academic progression.  Unfortunately the vote was for faculty to provide grades but if students want to request Credit/No credit they can and faculty cannot object.  A “decision tree” has been developed and will be posted online to help students with their choice but I am still gravely concerned.

So here are our questions for the listserv:

1)      Will your program accept Credit/No Credit or P/F?

2)      If yes, what is your position on how that will affect an applicant’ prerequisite and overall GPA?  And perhaps their ability to be accepted into the program?

3)      Will you limit the number of courses with CR/NC or P/F?

4)      If you require a certain grade for a prerequisite, how are you justifying accepting a CR/NC or P/F grade when a pass for many institutions is a D or D-?

5)      Will you only make these exceptions for this year and not accept credit for students who are currently Freshman – Juniors because they have time to retake courses?

Here are our current thoughts (we have not made any definitive decisions)?

1)      We do not want to accept Cr/No Cr or P/F because there is no way to mathematically calculate an applicant’ prerequisite and overall GPA accurately.  Furthermore, we are very concerned about the inequity these policies have introduced for future applicants.  If an applicant has completed all of their prerequisites in the traditional way and earned the acceptable grades, should we put an applicant who has a “credit” with no way for us to know how much course material they mastered on the same level?

2)      Mathematically having a CR or P for coursework and prerequisites has the potential to dramatically affect an applicant’ calculations.  For example, an applicant earns an A in a 3 credit course with 12 quality points, removing this from the prerequisite equation can result in a drop of several tenths for some applicants.  Other applicants it may have no effect.

3)      This is a very difficult question to answer.  For overall GPA, having CR/No credit or P/F is not as much of an issue for us as the prerequisite GPA.  Many students take more than 1 prerequisite in a semester.  Some students may take as many as 3 or 4 in a semester.  We have 26 required prerequisite hours.  An applicant could potentially have between 3 and 12 prerequisite hours of “credit” instead of grades.  If we limit the number of courses to 1 (our preference) or 2, then the student will have to spend more time and money taking the other prerequisites over.

4)      Right now we require C or above in prerequisites.  However, we are increasing that to B or above for application cycle 2022.  Institutions across the country are determining different levels for CR/No CR or P/F.  For example, the University of Florida proposed a C or above for passing, but the University of Houston proposed a D- or above?  Are programs expecting their admission committee members to search out every applicant’ college to find out what they determined was passing?  That is what we would have to do which puts an extraordinary burden on our small faculty.

5)      If we allow credit, then we would have to allow it for the next four years to cover anyone who took prerequisites this semester.

Now, let me be clear, we totally understand grades are not the only thing that determines a good applicant.  We have an admission process that includes much more than grades.  We also understand that the way we have done things in the past are changing with COVID-19.  However, we are concerned that these changes may have unintended consequences that no one can see yet.  We want to make sure that we can maintain standards in the face of these changes.  For example, prerequisite grades are particularly important.  Prerequisite grades tell us how well someone has mastered foundational knowledge that is specifically relevant to Occupational Therapy.  Furthermore, having a transparent and equitable process for all applicants is key to maintaining the integrity of our admission decision process.

I know these types of situations have the potential to push buttons in all of us.  I feel vulnerable submitting thoughts to the listserv about an issue of this magnitude but my level of moral distress supersedes my feelings of vulnerability right now.  I would ask all who read this to assume good will and know that we are just trying to gather perspectives from others who may be struggling with the same questions.  Thanking you in advance for your responses.

Most sincerely,

Christine

Christine E. Wright, PhD, OTR/L
Chair, Department of Occupational Therapy
Director,  OTD Program
College of Nursing & Health Professions
Arkansas State University - Jonesboro
P.O. Box 910
State University, AR 72467
Phone: 870-972-2274
Email: cwright@astate.edu<mailto:cwright@astate.edu>

[Arkansas State University]<http://www.astate.edu/>

    [cid:image002.png@01D4B892.9ACC8E20]         [NBCOT Education and Research Badge]

From: ot-pd@aotalists.org <ot-pd@aotalists.org>
Sent: Wednesday, April 15, 2020 2:43 PM
To: ot-pd@aotalists.org
Subject: [OT-PD List - AOTA] - RE: Applicant questions

Julie,

Re CAS:

Great question!  The quarterly report I receive tells me the total number of applicants and the total number of applications. It would be a custom report but I will see if I can get??

Re COVID pass for prerequisite courses:

There is a lot of discussion going among the CAS coordinators from the different professions on how to handle the grading system(s) being used by institutions in the wake of covid-19. The professions are working through how to communicate the (negative) impact of P/F systems on student GPAs to under/graduate admission teams. In addition, the CAS staff are asking how to alleviate applicant concerns about alternative grading systems will impact their admission potential.

I know it does not answer your question but it is something being discussed widely.   Ultimately any prerequisite requirements is at the discretion of the institution.  It may be helpful to understand how each program thinks they will handle issue.

Neil

Neil Harvison PhD, OTR, FNAP, FAOTA
Chief Officer, Knowledge

From: ot-pd@aotalists.org<mailto:ot-pd@aotalists.org> <ot-pd@aotalists.org<mailto:ot-pd@aotalists.org>>
Sent: Wednesday, April 15, 2020 1:14 PM
To: ot-pd@aotalists.org<mailto:ot-pd@aotalists.org>
Subject: [OT-PD List - AOTA] - Applicant questions

Questions from today's webinar that did not go through:

For OTCAS applicants, do we know if students who submit multiple applications apply to both master and doctorate level programs vs select a specific application level?

As programs are being asked to provide counsel to undergraduate students now, are there any recommendations regarding handling of COVID pass for prerequisite courses on applications?

Thank you for a good overview of both pre-COVID and post-COVID issues despite the technical difficulties!

Julie

JULIANE CHRESTON OTD OTRL
Professor, Director of Occupational Therapy Program
School of Health Professions

p 734.995.7596 | c 810.516.8171

Concordia University Ann Arbor
4090 Geddes Road
Ann Arbor MI 48105
cuaa.edu

Please note:
The Concordia University Ann Arbor entry-level occupational therapy doctoral degree program has applied for accreditation by the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education (ACOTE) of the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA), located at 6116 Executive Boulevard, Suite 200, North Bethesda, MD 20852-4929. ACOTE’s telephone number c/o AOTA is (301) 652-AOTA and its Web address is www.acoteonline.org<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.acoteonline.org&d=DwMF-g&c=QzRQJlHx0ZTYmlwGx7ptjrPEeuNmnYRxm_FN73lod7w&r=TdTmEArxWfc8mEj8SkVFiKMtyy-EffzysoYJUUIrNl0&m=C1doWnYfZ15KlaqTfThLFQp21QVirW86ocgSe2DNSCc&s=DfNTux0L-LETNc_HXkjUV2IArF-kIi39tGoz02KWlLs&e=><http://www.acoteonline.org/<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.acoteonline.org&d=DwMF-g&c=QzRQJlHx0ZTYmlwGx7ptjrPEeuNmnYRxm_FN73lod7w&r=TdTmEArxWfc8mEj8SkVFiKMtyy-EffzysoYJUUIrNl0&m=C1doWnYfZ15KlaqTfThLFQp21QVirW86ocgSe2DNSCc&s=DfNTux0L-LETNc_HXkjUV2IArF-kIi39tGoz02KWlLs&e=>>.
The program must be granted Candidacy Status before students can be admitted to the program. Concordia University and Dr. Chreston are fully committed to the development of the entry-level occupational therapy doctoral degree program, but prospective students should be aware there is no guarantee that the program will receive Candidacy Status or be allowed to admit students. An ACOTE candidacy decision is expected in April 2022. Prospective students will be informed of acceptance into the program May 2022 with an anticipated program start of Fall 2022.
The program must be granted Candidacy Status, have a preaccreditation review, complete an on-site evaluation, and be granted Accreditation Status before its graduates will be eligible to sit for the national certification examination for the occupational therapist administered by the National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy (NBCOT). After successful completion of this exam, the individual will be an Occupational Therapist, Registered (OTR). In addition, all states require licensure in order to practice; however, state licenses are usually based on the results of the NBCOT Certification Examination. Note that a felony conviction may affect a graduate’s ability to sit for the NBCOT certification examination or attain state licensure.
Students must complete 24 weeks of Level II fieldwork as well as an individual 14-week capstone experience within 24 months following the completion of the didactic portion of the program. The doctoral capstone experience must be started after completion of all coursework and Level II fieldwork as well as completion of preparatory activities defined in 2018 ACOTE OTD Standard D.1.3.
________________________________

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