Students in UNL’s Doctor of Audiology (AuD) program learn from an innovative spiral curriculum consisting of 87 credits.
Year 1. In year one of your program, you will discover the foundations to practice audiology. Your classes, experiential learning experiences (labs), and clinical practicum will focus on anatomy, physiology, assessment, and rehabilitation methods. Within our spiral curriculum, you will develop your knowledge and skills in modules. Example module topics for year one includes the outer ear, middle ear, and inner ear. Within each module, you will explore anatomy and physiology, along with assessment and rehabilitation methods. You will practice and build on the knowledge acquired during class in experiential and clinical practicum learning experiences. Clinical practicum is completed in house at the Barkley Clinic Speech Language and Hearing Clinic.
Year 2. In year two of the program, additional complexity is added into the spiral curriculum with implantable devices, pediatric assessment and treatment, and balance assessment and treatment. Clinical practicum experiences during year 2 typically involve semester-long rotations at local sites, to refine mastery of clinical skills.
Year 3. The third year of the program covers advance concepts in electrophysiology and amplification. Clinical practicum experiences continue with semester-long rotations at local sites.
Year 4. The fourth year of the AuD program is focused on full-time clinical externships placements at facilities across the country. You will also participant in an on-line seminar addressing professional practice issues.
Weekly Schedule and Current Curriculum: For the first three years of the AuD curriculum, classes are held two days a week. This schedule allows for your clinical placement (and potential work experience) to occur during the remaining three weekdays. For each week, the first day of class consists of academic content followed by an experiential learning experience (lab). The second day consists of a seminar with rotating topics. To facilitate learning and experiences across AuD cohorts, seminars are held in conjunction with year 1-3 cohorts. The current curriculum is available in the appendix of the AuD Handbook.