Students can currently study on the MSc in Applied Neuroscience or the MSc in Psychology & Neuroscience of Mental Health online. We’ve sat down with programme leads, Dr Anja Harrison, Dr Agnes Kepa and Dr Mark Kennedy, to hear how students can advance their careers and shape their own academic path. Furthermore, they’ve shared reflections on teaching online and achieving success as a team.
Meeting diverse needs
‘I’m extremely proud of the work we do as a team to meet the needs of the diverse groups of students we have studying with us. For example, people enrol on the programmes for completely different reasons; students may want to upskill in their current jobs or make a diagonal jump and need a qualification to do so. Others may want to complete a PhD or are retired and have just had a life-long interest in the subject.
Ensuring that each of those different groups gets what they can out of the programme requires a massive effort from the team and they work tirelessly to meet student’s needs,’ says Mark as he reflects on what he’s proud to have achieved with the team.
Tailored programmes to aid professional development
When asked about how the programmes support students to apply their academic knowledge to real-world scenarios and advance their careers, Anja told us about how assessments are designed to allow students to develop skills relevant to them.
‘We design the programmes keeping in mind that we wanted to help students become completely independent and set them up with the skills to navigate what they’ve learnt outside of a university environment.
We want to ensure they come away with transferable skills and a breadth of knowledge. An important part of this is the programmes being designed with optionality. Students can pick certain advanced modules according to what they’re interested in and what will help them in their careers.
In addition, the Synoptic Project (essentially a thesis) is extremely flexible. They can choose to do it on something they’re working on in their ordinary careers, meaning it will be of use in the real-world.’
Agnes went on to add that ‘alongside breadth, there is a real depth to the materials that we cover. Once you get to the advanced modules, some of them are more technical than others and some are more suitable to particular student interests or career objectives, meaning students can really tailor their learning towards their personal or professional goals.’
The unique offering of an online education with the IoPPN
Anja explained that ‘the IoPPN is a place where world-class research meets world-class clinical applications of the research and world-class education. This paired with the flexibility, frequent opportunities for live sessions, optionality for tailoring, and in demand topics that we teach, creates a unique offering which allow students to form lasting connections with people in similar industries that I don’t think you can find on many other online programmes.’
Mark added, ‘We take what we do seriously, and we do a good job of it, and that’s reflected in the exact same approach to distance education as on-campus. The other benefit of online is the flexibility. Broadly speaking, students can take things at their own pace. This makes such a difference to students who are balancing careers or caring commitments alongside their studies.
We also offer a wide variety of other ways students can engage and be involved. For example, on certain modules, students can be eligible to publish their work on the Collaborative Library, we also have a Research Hub where students who want to, can collaborate with staff and students and carry out real research.
We also have a Mentoring Hub, where our alumni can act as mentors to current students. We also meet as a programme each teaching module and have a Journal Club, where students often present. So loads of opportunities to engage and importantly, to create a better sense of community.’
Your favourite part of teaching online
For Agnes, learning about students is one of the most enjoyable parts of teaching online. ‘The online mode is fairly unique in the way that you meet people from various backgrounds and walks of life. Learning their stories and why they’re doing the programme and then helping them to succeed is hugely rewarding.’
Mark enjoys witnessing the ‘aha’ moments, ‘where you know you’ve explained something to a student in a different way or exposed them to some new evidence which they hadn’t thought about or come across before. Being able to see that shift in people’s thinking is great for us and the student.’
Finally, for Anja it’s all about ‘getting to collaborate with people from across the entire globe with various cultural backgrounds, educational backgrounds and special interests. That’s unique and pretty fun!’
Learn more about our online programmes below:
Applied Neuroscience MSc, PG Dip
Psychology & Neuroscience of Mental Health, MSc, PG Dip, PG Cert