Coronavirus Resources for the Academic Community

Colleges and universities are developing plans to safely implement the academic year given the unusual circumstances surrounding the novel coronavirus pandemic. With the safety of faculty, students, and staff at the forefront of academic planning and decision making, ASHA provides the following resources to keep the academic community informed of updates to program accreditation, certification, testing, and instructional continuity.

Credentialing

CAA Accreditation Guidance for Academic Programs
The Council on Academic Accreditation in Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology (CAA) will continue to provide updates and guidance for academic programs and accreditation.

Praxis Tests
The Educational Testing Service (ETS) provides updates on future testing and test-taker support for students who are planning to take the ETS Praxis Tests.

Teaching Academic Courses and Clinical Education

Communication Sciences & Disorders (CSD) Education Survey Ad Hoc Reports: The COVID-19 Impact on Academic Programs, Academic Years 2019–2020 and 2020–2021
In the CSD Education Survey, ASHA collected data from CSD academic programs about the challenges academic programs were experiencing due to COVID-19 in Academic Year 2019–2020 [PDF] and Academic Year 2020–2021 [PDF].

Planning for the 2020–2021 Academic Year During COVID-19: Findings from Focus Groups
In June 2020, ASHA conducted three focus groups with speech-language pathology, audiology, and speech and hearing science faculty to gain insight into CSD department's plans and strategies to address challenges to academic and clinical teaching as well as research during COVID-19. Findings from these focus groups are summarized in this presentation [PDF] and may be used to help CSD departments mitigate challenges that academic programs are facing in light of COVID-19 safety and social distancing requirements.

ASHA-Produced Courses to Assist With Online Teaching
Faculty who subscribe to the ASHA Learning Pass or who have purchased individual courses produced by ASHA, including currently running online conferences, may share the content with their students via their university's screen-sharing technology. Faculty can also request free access to the ASHA Learning Pass through June 30, 2024, specifically for the purposes of providing additional instructional resources (not for obtaining ASHA continuing education units [CEUs]). Faculty can request access by emailing academicaffairs@asha.org. ASHA will give verified faculty a unique access link that they can also share with their students. Access to the ASHA Learning Pass for use as instructional resources must be requested annually.

ASHA Resources for Teaching Telepractice
ASHA offers a variety of telepractice resources on topics such as preparations necessary for the provision of telepractice; evidence maps; state regulations; and reimbursement policies. Faculty can access the following ASHA resources:

More than 20 telepractice courses in the ASHA Learning Pass to use for student instruction—including courses on getting started with telepractice, offering quality services with telepractice, and using telepractice successfully with various client populations.
A selection of ASHA journals articles on telepractice, currently free to all readers on ASHAWire.

National Academy of Medicine (NAM): Learning from the Global Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Interprofessional Perspective on Health Professions Education
A new NAM Perspectives commentary outlines three global examples of how health professions educators worldwide creatively responded to the COVID-19 pandemic and pivoted their teaching to not only account for this new reality, but to address health disparities and the impacts of the social determinants of health head-on.

ASHA Online Communities
Faculty affiliated with ASHA Online Communities—such as the Special Interest Group (SIG) Communities, which are categorized by content area—are encouraged to use the communities to share experiences, resources, and strategies for teaching and learning in their subject matter.

CAPCSD Education Resources
The Council of Academic Programs in Communication Sciences and Disorders (CAPCSD) provides resources—including an e-book with best practices in health care simulations in communication sciences and disorders (CSD), podcasts on simulations, standardized patients, and a telepractice training program—and provides links to case studies and available audiology simulations.

MERLOT CSD Community Portal
The Communication Sciences and Disorders Community Portal on MERLOT provides a peer-reviewed repository to share reusable CSD teaching and learning resources. It is free to join. Share your resources, access others’ resources, and contribute to building a CSD repository of academic and clinical teaching and learning materials.

Nexus Online Interprofessional Education and Remote Teaming
Incorporate interprofessional education and interprofessional collaborative practice (IPE/IPP) into online learning. The National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education offers free access to a series of web-based discussions, webinars, and forums to foster conversation, learning, and resource sharing in IPE/IPP and education. Access recorded and archived sessions in addition to upcoming webinars.

Reopening Higher Education, Labs, and Clinics

CDC Guidance for Institutions of Higher Education
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a set of considerations for institutions of higher education as part of a comprehensive plan to reduce risk of COVID-19 infection on campus.

Johns Hopkins University Toolkit
The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security created a toolkit, Open Smart EDU, in collaboration with the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) and Tuscany Strategy Consulting (TSC). This free resource is designed to guide colleges and universities in planning operating strategies for both the near- and long-term amid the many challenges of COVID-19.

ACAPT Guidance
American Council of Academic Physical Therapy (ACAPT) guidance documents may serve as a resource for CSD academic programs. Administrators can adapt these resources to their own programs, policies, and procedures for the classroom and clinic.

Classroom and Lab Considerations and Resources (version 2) [PDF]
Guidance on Participation in Clinical Education Experiences (in Physical Therapy Education) [PDF]

Supporting Students

Federal Student Aid
Academic programs can notify students of any changes to Federal Student Aid and loan repayment policies resulting from the COVID-19 outbreak by sharing information provided by the U.S. Department of Education Office of Federal Student Aid.

Managing Research

Managing Your Grants and Research During COVID-19
Panelists from federal funding agencies discuss what measures their agencies are taking to help researchers navigate through a variety of issues, including unanticipated costs as well as delays in research progress, budgeting, and payment of salaries and stipends.

Resilience

We have all experienced a great deal of disruption in recent times. We can develop the capacity to recover from difficulties—and learn from this experience. Resilience means knowing how to cope despite setbacks, barriers, or limited resources. ASHA offers the following resources to assist faculty members in their own development and learning—and to help those faculty members assist their students.