hybrid dpt delivery model information

We will be holding week-long intensive lab sessions after a period of online learning to solidify your hands on skills. Franklin Pierce’s DPT program operates on the quarter system of 12-week terms. At the beginning of the program, there will be an orientation week in Goodyear, AZ. DPT Terms 1 and 2 will have three intensive labs. In the remaining terms, there will be two intensive labs. Intensive labs will occur at the University's Goodyear Academic Center. All other sessions will be held online with a mix of synchronous (via Zoom) and asynchronous times for didactic material. Synchronous times are mandatory attendance during the online weeks.

Online portions: You will be completing online reading, assignments, and individual projects during the weeks of the online sections on your own time (asynchronous activities).

There will be synchronous sessions scheduled during the online portion (attendance required).

The schedule will vary, but you will be required to have 9 a.m. - 2 p.m. MST (Mountain Standard Time) open for these sessions. You will know about these weekly times before the beginning of each term for your scheduling purposes. During these synchronous times, the faculty will be leading discussions while monitoring group and individual learning activities.

Intensive Lab portions: These will be week-long sessions on-site in our labs in Goodyear, Arizona. These are mandatory sessions and serve as the key learning and assessment of clinical competence and preparation for clinical experiences. These sessions will include long days, including evenings. You are expected to come to these labs with significant learning from the online portion, so that lab can focus on practicing clinical skills and performing evaluations/treatments. We are committed to having live patients for you to work with at our Franklin Pierce (FPU) Clinic at specific times during these sessions.

This is a full-time accelerated graduate program. Full-time work is strongly discouraged and may not be conducive to program success. Part-time flexible work may be possible, but you will need to be sure you can be available for the synchronous times (9 a.m. – 2 p.m. MST) and the on-site labs. Because of the intensity of the labs, missing just one portion of a day may be detrimental to your success in the program.

You will learn in a combination format of online and in-person sessions. We believe that this will prepare you best for lifelong learning as you work to advance your professional knowledge following licensure. Faculty will be available to assist with difficult areas of understanding. In addition, you will have graduate assistants from the class prior to yours to assist you through the understanding of the material. Faculty will also have virtual office hours for you to attend at your own convenience.

All clinical sites must be vetted by our clinical education team, and we will begin that process early in your program if you have sites in your area that are not already approved. We have clinical sites all over the country, so we may already have sites near you. We cannot guarantee that you will be able to stay at your home location for all clinical experiences. You will benefit from a variety of settings during your three clinical experiences, and these may be outside of a commutable distance from your home.

FPU will provide you with an iPad loaded with tools to help you be successful in this program. We are committed to having electronic books available to you through this device. You may still purchase hard copy books, but you will be able to travel lightly with the material available through cloud internet storage. The Comprehensive Fee charged each term includes a rent to own program for this device, and you will be able to keep the device following graduation. This will significantly reduce the amount needed for books and materials.

If you are in the local area or choose to move to the local area, the Goodyear Academic Center will be accessible for your study. You can have access to study with peers or be in-person for the synchronous sessions.

In addition, it is two-year and six-week full-time program. This allows you to complete the program in less time and begin your career sooner. Our goal is to reduce the cost of education for you. You will graduate in October, two years following the start of the program.

Franklin Piercee University is a fully accredited program through 2026 with a strong record of success. Our accreditor CAPTE has reviewed and approved this program. The current curriculum is being maintained with slight changes to allow reducing time to program completion. The faculty have carefully reviewed and found several areas to reduce the length of the program. These include reduction of clinical weeks from 38 to 30 which meets the CAPTE requirement, use of evidence-based practice as the core of research rather than a full research project, and integration of the elective objectives into the required requirements. We believe that we have designed a curriculum that will continue excellent education.

We will be accepting students into this cohort beginning in November until we fill the class. The class size in Arizona is 56 students.

We are keeping the cohort size small to provide for more interactive learning. We believe that this small class size will allow our faculty to provide more direct individualized attention to each student as they progress through the program.

Our current deposit to hold a seat is non-refundable $500. It will be applied to your tuition and fees in the first term.