Guide to Online Masters Degrees in Speech Pathology

Students and professionals interested in a master's degree in speech pathology have a handful of online learning options at universities in the U.S. However, speech pathology curricula require several hours of clinical fieldwork at an adviser-approved facility in or near the student's geographical location, so none of these programs can be pursued completely via the Internet.

Online Speech Pathology Master's Degree Programs

Idaho State University, Tennessee State University, the University of Cincinnati in Ohio and East Carolina University in North Carolina offer online master's degrees in speech pathology (degree names vary slightly) to prospective students in all locations, but priority is given to state residents.

East Carolina University
www.ecu.edu/

Idaho State University
www.isu.edu

Tennessee State University
www.tnstate.edu

University of Cincinnati
www.grad.uc.edu

Location-Specific Online Speech Pathology Master's Degree Programs

Florida State University's program is only available to state residents. The University of Northern Colorado's online program requires two to three weeks of full-time, on-campus attendance during the summer of the first year of matriculation. Nova Southeastern University offers their program to anyone living within at least a 60-minute drive from the campus in Fort Lauderdale-Davie, Florida.

Florida State University
www.commdisorders.cci.fsu.edu

University of Northern Colorado
www.unco.edu

Nova Southeastern University
www.schoolofed.nova.edu

What Prospective Students Should Know

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All the aforementioned programs require either a bachelor's degree in speech pathology or a closely related field such as communication disorders, or a bachelor's degree in another area of study that included several speech pathology courses that would count as prerequisites for entering the master's program. If the prospective student does not have this background, he can enroll in leveling courses, which are undergraduate courses at the school that would fulfill the prerequisite requirement. Depending on the number of courses that have to be fulfilled, the necessary prerequisites can consist of more than 20 undergraduate credits. For students who have fulfilled the requirement, the master's degree curriculum consists anywhere from 43 to 68 credit course loads depending on the program. On average, this includes 400 hours of field study in a clinical setting. Full-time students can expect to graduate in two to three years.

The program curricula at East Carolina University, Idaho State University and Nova Southeastern University require that the student pass the PRAXIS exam in audiology and speech pathology in order to graduate. A passing score on the exam grants the student licensure to practice as a speech pathologist in public schools in the state in which the test is taken.

PRAXIS Information from the Educational Testing Service
http://www.ets.org/praxis

Per the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association website, the programs referenced in this article have all been accredited by the Council on Academic Accreditation in Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology (CAA), which in turn is recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) and the United States Department of Education (USDE).

References

• American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
• Educational Testing Service