Purpose: The purpose of the capstone project is to provide students with experience in clinical and research experiences. The project culminates in a capstone paper.
Tracks: Students select from one of two tracks: clinical or research. The clinical track involves a project with clinical relevance, such as development of a clinical protocol. The research track involves a more traditional research project, such as the evaluation of speech recognition with a novel hearing aid technology.
Mentor(s): Students are assigned a Capstone Project adviser and at least one other faculty mentor. One of the faculty members must come from the on-campus Ph.D. faculty.
Project Title: The Capstone Project Title must be approved by the student's adviser and will be published in the Hooding Ceremony brochure.
- Course Credit: Students enroll in SLPA 998, Research Other Than Thesis, for a total of 8 credit hours. See curriculum map for suggested semesters to enroll in SLPA 998. Registration for SLPA 998 is for variable credit of 1-3 hours. Semester grades are mandatory (no incompletes) and are based upon satisfactory progress during the semester as judged by the Capstone Project adviser. Students must take 1 credit hour, minimum, for their final academic semester at the university (typically Spring Year 3).
Capstone Presentation(s): Students are encouraged to present their research, as either a poster or presentation. This can include presentations at the UNL Graduate Studies Research Fair, typically during April of Year 3, or at NSLHA (typically in October). Students are also encouraged to present at a professional meeting and to publish their research in a peer-reviewed journal.
Capstone Paper: A final capstone paper is due in the Year 3 Spring semester. The paper will be formatted in APA format and submitted electronically, as a PDF or Word document, to the Au.D. Program Coordinator by 5:00 p.m. the last Friday in April.
Rubrics and additional details: The current rubric and expected timeline can be found in Appendix 3. Additional details are provided in class Canvas pages.