Dr. Leah Savelyev, DHSc, OTR/L, OTA/L, founding Program Director of the OTA program at Virginia Western Community College, shows how she used OTu to find, select, and implement instructional content while building a new program from scratch. You will see where OTu’s videos, case studies, and simulations save course prep time and strengthen student learning. Leave with strategies you can apply to your own OTA or OT curriculum.

Featured Speaker: Sheila Krajnik, EdD, OTR/L

Dr. Krajnik brings over 43 years of diverse clinical and academic expertise to the OTu Team, specializing in adult neurological practice and gerontology. With extensive experience across various settings, she has held administrative and clinical specialist positions, contributed to research and advocacy efforts, and excelled in educating future OT and OTA practitioners.

Featured Speaker: Ann Bartman, EdD, OTD, OTR/L, CPAM

Ann M. Bartman, EdD, OTD, OTR/L, CPAM is an associate professor at The Ohio State University. She has taught in entry-level OTD programs for over ten years, serving as both a doctoral capstone coordinator and program director. Her clinical background has primarily focused on inpatient acute care at level 1 trauma and burn-verified hospitals. She currently teaches physical agent modalities labs, orthopedics, and acute care courses. She is not only an OTu user, but a content editor and contributor.

Featured Speaker: Leah Savelyev, DHSc, OTR/L, OTA/L

Dr. Leah Savelyev, DHSc, OTR/L, OTA/L is an occupational therapist, educator, and Program Director with more than 20 years of experience spanning clinical practice, higher education, and occupational therapy program administration. As the inaugural Program Director of the Occupational Therapy Assistant Program at Virginia Western Community College, she brings firsthand experience in developing and leading a new academic program. Prior to this role, she held faculty positions in both OTA and MOT programs. Dr. Savelyev has conducted and presented research on student success and retention and is engaged in professional leadership at the state and national level.

00:00 OTA Program Development Webinar

00:22 Welcome and Overview of Webinar

03:01 Tour of OTu

10:25 Dr. Leah Savelyev’s Journey with OTu, as OTA Program Director

18:39 Integrating OTu into the Curriculum

26:56 OTu Content Integration in Canvas

39:16 Students’ Response to OTu

41:42 Dr. Savelyev’s Wisdom for Faculty

48:54 Contact Information and Wrap Up

Helpful Links: Complimentary Educator access | Educator resources | Set up a Demo

How to Build a New OTA Program with OTu: Start with One Video

Imagine launching an occupational therapy assistant program from scratch, with a first cohort moving through the curriculum, a second just beginning, and full ACOTE accreditation on the horizon. You are building courses and preparing for accreditation while supporting students who are juggling jobs and family responsibilities. Where do your instructional materials come from, and how do you keep them consistent across instructors?

That was the situation Dr. Leah Savelyev, DHSc, OTR/L, OTA/L, founding Program Director of the OTA program at Virginia Western Community College, faced, and she joined our webinar to share how she built OTu into every layer of her program. She walked us through her choices about access, LMS use, lab time, and adjunct support. Her approach applies whether you are starting a new program or growing an established one, and it began with a single decision.

Required Like a Textbook: Giving Every Student Access from Day One

Dr. Savelyev’s first decision was to make OTu a required learning resource for every student, set up almost like a textbook. Students purchase a three-year OTu subscription and that three-year window carries them through the two-year program, their Level II fieldwork, and NBCOT preparation, which means one resource supports them from their first lab course to exam day. Positioning OTu as a textbook that spans content areas from kinesiology to physical agent modalities answered both the financial reality and the educational need, and it set up everything that followed.

Embedding OTu in Canvas: One Click to the Right Video

Access only helps if students can find what they need, so Dr. Savelyev embedded OTu content directly into her program’s learning management system. Each weekly module opens with an overview page that tells students what to read, what to watch, and what to prepare before lab. Instead of sending students searching through the OTu platform, she places direct video links in the lab section of that week’s module, so they reach the exact video they need in one click. Adding one of those links takes only a few steps:

• Copy the page URL from the OTu webpage.
• Return to the LMS and paste the external URL link to the module.
• Name the link descriptively, and publish.

Because the links sit right in the LMS, OTu feels woven into the course rather than like a separate platform students have to remember to visit. Dr. Savelyev has used this approach across several courses, and the range shows how far a single resource can reach:

• Kinesiology: range of motion and muscle testing videos.
• Professional skills: patient care and infection control content.
• Physical disabilities: orthopedic and special tests videos.

She also uses the same method for videos she wants to show in class but not assign ahead of time. Those videos are embedded in unpublished form, so only she can see them, which gives her instant access during lab without navigating through menus while students are watching and waiting.

The Flipped Lab: Arriving Ready to Practice

Those embedded links feed directly into Dr. Savelyev’s flipped classroom. Students watch the assigned OTu videos before lab, whether the upcoming skill is vital signs, transfers, or range of motion assessments, so they arrive with foundational knowledge in place and can spend lab time practicing instead of watching a demonstration for the first time. She has noticed the difference in her students, explaining that “I feel like they come to class or lab better prepared, but also with better confidence.”

Virginia Western’s lab was set up to support this approach. It includes a casual seating area with comfortable chairs gathered around a large screen, mat tables and open practice space beyond that, and simulation areas for bedroom and bathroom scenarios in the back. When students struggle with a concept during practice, the class can pause, gather in the seating area, watch the OTu video together on the big screen, and then return to hands-on work with more clarity.

The “auto-replay” feature adds another layer of support during practice. A video on putting on and taking off PPE, for example, can loop on the large screen while Dr. Savelyev circulates among students and gives real-time feedback as they work. Because the demonstration plays again as many times as needed, she can focus on individual students rather than repeatedly demonstrating it herself.

Supporting Adjuncts and Students: Consistency and Flexibility

The same embedded videos help Dr. Savelyev’s faculty team as well. Community college programs often run with minimal full-time faculty, sometimes only two permanent positions, supplemented by adjunct instructors who bring clinical expertise but have limited time for course planning. She designed her OTu integration with those adjuncts in mind, explaining that “Having those videos ready for [adjuncts], almost like a template for that content, is so helpful, because they don’t have to spend their time searching for the appropriate content to provide the students.”

Consistency is the other benefit. The embedded videos keep content the same across sections and semesters no matter who is teaching, and faculty can trust that students are seeing accurate, professionally produced demonstrations. Dr. Savelyev recalled that in her previous teaching experience she sometimes had to give disclaimers about incorrect terminology in the only videos available. That standardization matters most for skills like transfers, where experienced practitioners may have legitimate variations in technique, because OTu offers one clear, correct method that gives students a solid foundation. Faculty can then add nuance and clinical judgment, with everyone starting from the same baseline.

Students benefit from OTu’s flexibility as well. Nearly all of Virginia Western’s OTA students hold jobs, many in professional roles they left to pursue occupational therapy, and most have family or caregiving commitments. These are not traditional students with unlimited time on campus, so OTu lets them work around their schedules:

• They can watch videos on their own schedule and at their own pace, with closed captions on or off.
• They can slow a video down when first learning a skill or speed it up when reviewing for exams.
• They can study on a computer, tablet, or smartphone, whether during lunch breaks, commutes, or whenever they carve out time.

The “quiz of the day” feature adds low-stakes, ongoing retrieval practice without the pressure of a formal assessment. When Dr. Savelyev pulled up OTu during one class session and the quiz appeared, students engaged on their own, eager to test their knowledge of content covered a year earlier. She shared a photo from that moment, and every student in it is focused on the screen.

Starting Where You Are: Making It Real on Monday Morning

Dr. Savelyev’s advice for faculty who feel overwhelmed is to begin small, saying, “Integrate one video into your course, whether it’s something that you watch during class or during a lab. Just try out one video, and from there, you can try out maybe some topics.” From there, you might choose one category, such as physical agent modalities or goniometry, and grow as your curriculum and comfort level develop. A good first step could be as simple as linking one goniometry video in the lab section of an upcoming LMS module.

Dr. Savelyev also shared that she came from a well-established program, so she initially felt pressure to match that level of polish right away. Letting go of that expectation and starting where you are made the work sustainable. As her program approaches full accreditation and prepares to grow toward its capacity of 24 students per cohort, the embedded videos stay in place, the flipped lab keeps working, and new adjuncts have a clear roadmap for delivering content.

Watch the full recording to see how Dr. Savelyev tours OTu and builds it into her LMS, then claim Complimentary Educator access to explore OTu for yourself. If you would like to talk through how it could fit your program, you can also set up a demo with our OTu Education Lead.