Most of the Psychology course is delivered through face-to-face teaching. Having face-to-face interaction is key to tutorials and many practical classes and can be important in lectures as it allows students to meet and talk with others. Some teaching also works best using a hybrid approach consisting of both face-to-face and online asynchronous (taking place at different times) components.
Online asynchronous teaching can work best for material that different students work through at different rates either because their level of interest varies between topics or because some people will have more background or ease with the material (particularly with statistics teaching). The approach allows students to skip back and repeat content to easily fully understand. We have also found that online is helpful for irregular lectures which students might otherwise miss or which may clash with activities such as sports, as it allows students to catch up at the time which is best for them. This rationale underlies our choice of teaching method. We record face-to-face lectures and make them available to students online, allowing students to either watch (or rewatch) them at a time that suits them.
Students will be taught a broad background in psychology, a background in running and planning experiments and analysing data from those experiments, and the ability to query and discuss research in what is an exciting, evolving area of science. To support this learning, students will take two content modules: Introduction to Psychology 1 (Cognitive and Biological Psychology) and 2 (Developmental and Social Psychology). These two content modules are delivered entirely face-to-face (i.e. in-person lectures). You will also take a tutorial-based module (Classic Papers) and a research methods and statistics module (Introduction to Psychological Research).
These two modules are delivered using a hybrid approach consisting of asynchronous online lectures and face-to-face tutorials or practical classes. In addition to these modules, you will also have the option of either taking our Careers in Psychology module (taught asynchronously online) or taking an open module from another department.
The second year will build on the first year by covering the core areas of psychology in greater depth. This includes four content modules, of which three are taught face-to-face:
We teach one with a mixture of online asynchronous lectures and face-to-face tutorials:
The second year also includes the module Advanced Research Methods and Statistics. We teach this using a mixture of online asynchronous lectures, statistics sessions, and face-to-face practical classes.
In the third year, students will choose from a wide range of modules, each exploring a specific area in psychology in even greater depth. Students can then customise their studies to focus on the content that interests them the most. Teaching across all of these modules is delivered face-to-face.
Students also carry out and complete their dissertation project in the third year, working alongside other students and under the direct supervision of a member of staff.
Please see the Psychology webpages if you need more information about the course and department.
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