Skip to main content
KBS_Icon_questionmark link-ico
Website archive

Go to…

IoP launches new free online addictions course

The Institute of Psychiatry (IoP) at King’s College London has launched a new online learning course in partnership with FutureLearn, ‘Understanding Drugs and Addiction’.

FutureLearn-image

Image credit: FutureLearn

The ‘Massive Online Open Course’ (MOOC) will draw on the IoP’s world leading expertise in the science and treatment of addiction to explore the biological and psychosocial basis of addiction, effective treatments of addiction, and how national and international policies can reduce the harm caused by addiction.

Starting in February 2014, the course will feature lectures drawn from a variety of disciplines across the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London. This includes researchers and lecturers from the Addictions Department, MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, MRC London Neurodegenerative Diseases Brain Bank and the Department of Neuroimaging who work together to understand and respond to addiction. 

Dr Kyle Dyer, lead academic  on the course and Senior Lecturer in Addiction Science at the IoP at King’s says: “We are all touched by addiction; whether personally, within our circle of family and friends, or within our community. The associated harms caused can be crippling. Our course has been developed with the input of world-leading experts from King’s and will explore how addiction develops as well as what we can do to treat it and prevent it. The course is open to anyone who is interested in understanding addictions and no special knowledge or previous experience of studying is required. We hope that many students who complete the new course will go on to explore other education programmes offered by King’s.”

FutureLearn is an online higher education initiative led by The Open University, with the aim of providing students from the UK and around the world with free access to some of the country’s top universities.

Last year, King’s College London announced its plans to deliver MOOCs with FutureLearn. The first two MOOCs, ‘Understanding Drugs and Addiction’ and ‘Causes of War’ focus on areas of international research reputation with established expertise in distance learning at King’s. 'Causes of War' was developed by the Department of War Studies. 

‘Understanding Drugs and Addiction’ - details of the course:

  • Start date: 17 February
  • Duration: 6 weeks
  • 4 hours per week

For further information, or to sign up to the course, please visit the FutureLearn website