Practice Project and Preceptorship
All students in an Aspen University Doctoral program are required to successfully complete the DrPH Project, which entails producing a DrPH project that is approved by the DrPH Project Team appointed by Aspen University. The DrPH courses provide a comprehensive template for producing the DrPH project. A DrPH Project is a record of original activity conducted by the student in contribution to earning a Doctoral degree. The DrPH Project is scholarly work based on a combination of existing research and an original project that contributes to the body of human knowledge and field of practice. It demonstrates the Doctoral Student can collect, analyze, and report data based on critical, analytical, and synthesis skills. Each Doctoral Student must write a DrPH Project that presents the results of a project carried out by the student. An appropriate project involves a substantive piece of original innovative work grounded in an appropriate body of literature. It is relevant to the Public Health field as practiced in the past, the present, or in the potential future. It presents a significant contribution or advancement in that field.
It is the student’s responsibility to work with their DrPH Project Team as determined appropriate in collaboration with the Faculty Chair. The student bears full responsibility for a successful outcome. As additional expert resources and guidance are believed necessary, the student explores and acquires any such assistance. As a student enters the last stages of the doctoral program, the expectation is that they need little help in conducting their project, writing the Project Manuscript, or obtaining the advice needed to complete the DrPH journey. Doctoral students are scholars in the making, with clear goals, adequate investigative tools, solid research agendas, and the determination to achieve the goals they set forth in the beginning stages of the doctoral journey. The DrPH Project Team will accept the resulting DrPH Project for completion of the DrPH requirements after a final review and approval. Training, editing, and other forms of assistance are acceptable and recommended, but under no circumstances may someone produce a DrPH Project other than the student.
Immersion Course & Immersion Hours Instructions