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Hi, my name is Hosanna.

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I'm an undergraduate
student at

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PSUs Speech and Hearing
Sciences Department.

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And hi, I'm Celine.

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I'm also a student in

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the Speech and Hearing
Sciences Department.

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Thank you so
much for taking

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the time to view
our video

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00:00:18,490 --> 00:00:19,760
submission of our poster

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titled Investigation
of Augmentative

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and Alternative
Communication

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Course Syllabi Across

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Accredited Speech Language

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Pathology Programs for the

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2022 PSU Student
Research Symposium.

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First, we'd like to
minimize our video

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so that you can see

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our poster a
little bit better.

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Augmentative and
Alternative Communication,

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or AAC, is an area of

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clinical practice for

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speech language
pathologists.

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AAC is used to
compensate or supplement

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speech language production
and/or comprehension,

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often with the use of
alternative forms of

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communication like
computerized devices.

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Historically, speech
language pathologists

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or SLPs have reported

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feeling a lack of
preparedness with

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AAC even though it

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falls into their
scope of practice.

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High-quality
pre-service training at

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the graduate
level has been

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suggested as the
key solution

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to better prepare
future clinicians.

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Prior research from
our research team

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demonstrated that 78.8% of

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graduate programs
accredited by

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the American
Speech and Hearing

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Association offer

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at least one
dedicated AAC course.

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While offering a course in

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the topic is essential to

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training, course
design features

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may affect
student learning.

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A previous study by Sauerwein
and Burris in 2021

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surveyed AAC
course instructors

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to learn about
their AAC courses.

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Their studies suggested
that course features

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vary substantially
across programs.

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However, they did not

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account for the number of

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credit hours which may

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affect course
design features.

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Given the classes
with more time,

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may include more features

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such as topics discussed,

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more diverse assignments,

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or guest presenters.

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Thus, the purpose of

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our study was
to investigate

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AAC course design features

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while accounting for

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the number of
credit hours.

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With that, I will hand
it over to my partner,

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Hosanna, who will 
discuss our method and results

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with you. Thank you.

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While Sauerwein
and Burris (2021)

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surveyed AAC course
instructors,

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we made direct
requests for

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syllabi similar to Lasker

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(2004) to provide a more
comprehensive analysis

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of all available
course features.

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Our first step was to

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acquire the
course syllabi.

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We use the dataset
from Pinto,

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Sorensen and
Eddy (2021) to

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identify graduate programs

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which offered
AAC coursework.

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Our team searched each
program's website

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for an email address
and phone contact.

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We first searched for
contact information for

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a department
chair person,

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then if that was not
available, for a

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department
graduate advisor

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and lastly, general
department contacts.

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We then contacted
them via e-mail and

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invited them to
participate in our study

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by providing their
AAC course syllabus.

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We sent each program
one follow-up email if

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we did not hear
back from them

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after two to four weeks.

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If we still
didn't hear back

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after another two
to four weeks,

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we followed up with
one phone call

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to the general
department line.

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Acquisition of
syllabi lasted

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approximately
four months and

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resulted in receipt of

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94 syllabi representing

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89 different graduate
programs. Two members of

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our team were originally
randomly assigned

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50 percent of the 94
syllabi to review.

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An additional 38% of
the data was randomly

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assigned for double entry

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to evaluate
inter-rater agreement.

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The research team members
reviewed syllabi,

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and coded for several
different features

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including year
of syllabus,

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credit hours, course
length in weeks,

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course duration
in minutes,

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term syllabus was from and

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whether or not it was
a required course.

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As mentioned
before, we received

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94 syllabi from

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89 programs for a total

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of a 30 percent (correction 37%)
response rate.

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The graph at the bottom of

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our poster shows

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the majority of
these syllabi,

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76 percent, were from 2021.

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Only 3% of the
total syllabi

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were dated prior to 2020 when

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the COVID-19
pandemic began.

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The next two features
we investigated

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were course
length in weeks by

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credit hours and course
term by credit hours.

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For the left-hand graph,

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you can see course
length and weeks along

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the x-axis and along

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the y-axis is
percent of syllabi

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from our total
sample of 94.

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There are four
patterns per bar,

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which denote the percent
of syllabi given

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the course credit amount

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fitting into the course
length by weeks.

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From this graph, we can

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see that there
was variation

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in the number
of weeks that

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AAC coursework was offered.

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And we can see
within each bar that

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the number of course
hours varied.

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This suggests that
dosage and intensity

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of coursework varies
across programs

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substantially,

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ranging from three credits

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delivered across a one
to two week course,

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to one credit
delivered across

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a 14 to 17 week course.

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Course intensity may
have an impact on

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student learning in
a AAC coursework,

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though this has not yet
been studied and is

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a future direction of
our research team.

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The graph on the right

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uses the same
pattern scheme to

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denote the percent
of syllabi

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given the course
credit amount,

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but this time we looked at

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the term the AAC
course was offered.

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Academic term is listed
along the x-axis and

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percent of total syllabi

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received is the y-axis.

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Looking at the
separate total bars,

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as you can see, there is

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variation between
programs that is

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somewhat distributed

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throughout the school year.

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Due to syllabi not

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listing whether the
course was delivered in

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the first or second year

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of their graduate program,

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we were unable to

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determine whether
students receive

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this content early or

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late in their
graduate training.

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Encouraging programs
to prioritize

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AAC coursework early in

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the degree program
may benefit

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the overall readiness of

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clinicians to provide
AAC services.

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AAC is relevant
across the lifespan,

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and connections to AAC

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throughout other
related coursework in

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their remaining graduate

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curriculum would provide

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opportunities to discover
its applications

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in other clinical areas.

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Further, students

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typically apply
for externships in

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the Spring of
their first year.

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With limited
exposure to AAC

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prior to externship
applications,

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students may choose
not to apply for AAC

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focused placements
because they

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are unfamiliar with
the practice area.

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Now I will hand
it over to Celine

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to share with you

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the rest of our
discussion points.

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While Hosanna has

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already reviewed some of

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our discussion
points while she

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covered the graphs above,

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there were some limitations
to our research.

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A challenge we did not

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initially expect
was the lack of

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information on
syllabi that

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we consider to be key.

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Some syllabi did not
provide information

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we were searching for, or vaguely stated

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the information which was

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then coded as unspecified.

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We were unable
to successfully

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and reliably code class

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duration in minutes
because many syllabi

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00:09:01,310 --> 00:09:04,070
did not specify their class
meeting times.

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A possible explanation for

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this is that our study was

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completed within
the context

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of the COVID-19 pandemic,

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00:09:10,880 --> 00:09:12,965
which may have
affected the syllabi

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00:09:12,965 --> 00:09:14,510
as different
programs switched to

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asynchronous online or
hybrid course formats

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00:09:18,155 --> 00:09:20,705
which did not have
required meetings.

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00:09:20,705 --> 00:09:23,180
Another limitation
is the lack of

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standardization of
language among syllabi.

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Some courses
describe credits

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while others
described units.

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00:09:29,675 --> 00:09:30,830
Some courses counted

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holiday weeks on
their calendars,

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00:09:32,960 --> 00:09:34,730
while others did not.

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00:09:34,730 --> 00:09:36,935
With these
limitations in mind,

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00:09:36,935 --> 00:09:38,090
it is possible that

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an alternative
study design,

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00:09:39,680 --> 00:09:41,420
like an instructor survey,

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00:09:41,420 --> 00:09:43,070
may have been more
successful for

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certain fields.
In the future,

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an integrated data
collection approach,

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00:09:49,039 --> 00:09:50,915
may provide more clarity

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00:09:50,915 --> 00:09:52,340
by being able to combine

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00:09:52,340 --> 00:09:54,080
an instructor survey with

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00:09:54,080 --> 00:09:55,160
the syllabus that can be

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coded for information
without personal bias.

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00:09:58,820 --> 00:10:02,090
An additional and
unexpected challenge of

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00:10:02,090 --> 00:10:04,940
our project
was a lack of

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00:10:04,940 --> 00:10:06,680
clarity and transparency

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00:10:06,680 --> 00:10:08,899
in university websites.

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00:10:08,899 --> 00:10:11,360
One, often we were faced

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00:10:11,360 --> 00:10:13,340
with issues of
accessibility to

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00:10:13,340 --> 00:10:15,785
the contact information
we looked for due to

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00:10:15,785 --> 00:10:18,605
difficulty navigating
program websites.

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00:10:18,605 --> 00:10:20,060
This may be a barrier to

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00:10:20,060 --> 00:10:22,250
prospective graduate
students attempting

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00:10:22,250 --> 00:10:24,455
to decide where
they may study.

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In the future, additional

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00:10:26,450 --> 00:10:27,980
course features
of the syllabi

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00:10:27,980 --> 00:10:31,400
received will be
evaluated with AAC experts.

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We hope that research
in this area can help

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00:10:34,100 --> 00:10:35,690
AAC course instructors

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00:10:35,690 --> 00:10:38,405
to improve pre-service
education.

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00:10:38,405 --> 00:10:40,340
With that, we're
going to go ahead and

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00:10:40,340 --> 00:10:43,050
turn our video back on.

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Thank you so
much for taking

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00:10:48,500 --> 00:10:50,465
the time to view
our presentation.

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00:10:50,465 --> 00:10:53,165
If you have any questions
or feedback for us,

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00:10:53,165 --> 00:10:55,790
we can be reached by
email at eddylab@pdx.edu

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00:10:55,790 --> 00:10:58,805
Thank you.

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00:10:58,805 --> 00:11:00,450
Thanks.