The University of St. Augustine is proud to announce a unique and flexible part-time 
way to obtain a Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) degree through our Flex distance education program in St. Augustine, FL and San Marcos, CA.
Termed Flex, this program offers the university's professional physical therapy curriculum online with corresponding lab sessions on weekends. The Flex DPT student can graduate from this 12 trimester part-time program while still maintaining their current employment.
The model represents an expansion of the on-campus, entry-level DPT Program in place at the University of St. Augustine (USA). The same mission and curriculum used in the full-time program is utilized in the Flex Program with the only differences being a reduction in the number of credits taken per term and the distance education delivery format. The Flex Program pre-requisites, admission requirements, academic calendar, tuition, and policies are the same as the on-campus program. Students in the Flex program complete 3 full-time clinical internships that are seven to eight weeks in length in the second half of the program. This portion of the curriculum will require full time attendance by the Flex DPT student.
More than 50% of the coursework is delivered on-line to the student. The online courses consist of web-based text with extensive graphics, videos, and audio clips. There are opportunities provided for faculty-to-student and student-to-student synchronous and asynchronous interactive collaboration. Assessment of online learning outcomes includes a wide variety of evaluation tools depending on the course objectives such as: 1) regular quizzes completed online, 2) graded bulletin board assignments, 3) case reports, 4) group projects, 5) research papers, and 6) article critiques.
In courses with a lab component, students come together for up to 16 hours of laboratory classes per weekend for no more than eight weekends a trimester. The lab sessions provide an avenue for teaching activities not well suited for online delivery such as the hands-on learning that is vital to physical therapy education, as well as oral presentations, lab practical testing, socialization activities, and some proctored written examinations. Additionally, students may have to make arrangements for locally proctored exams at other times, which may include non-lab weekends.
The University of St. Augustine's entry-level DPT Programs are licensed by the Commission for Independent Education, Florida Department of Education and accredited by The Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education (CAPTE). In addition, the Flex program is accredited by the Distance Education and Training Council.