Recently the unit of Health, Medical and Neuropsychology of Leiden University enabled people from all over the world to follow a little part of their education through an open, online course on Health & Health Behaviour. This MOOC provides an introduction to the field of Health Psychology.
The course is set up to be of interest for a broad range of people in the general population. It is freely available via online learning platform Coursera. The course consists of online lectures, readings, assignments and expert interviews. It takes about 20 hours to complete in total.
Its content
Health & Health behaviour contains four modules, addressing the effect of our behaviour, our emotions, and our environment on our health status. The main focus is on what happens in these domains when we become ill, and how health care professionals can use insights from health psychology to provide patients optimal support in coping with (chronic) illness.
Sharing knowledge
It is interesting to see how many people we will reach, but it is definitely a new and exciting way to spread our knowledge. Currently over 1600 people have already enrolled.
Interested? Check it out via coursera.org/learn/population-health-behaviour
The course is also part of a new interdisciplinary and blended Master programme on Population Health Management, which starts in 2020 in collaboration with the LUMC.
Development
This course was developed by the Unit of Health, Medical and Neuropsychology, by Dr. Rosalie van der Vaart and Dr. Yvette Ciere, with support of Dorottya Erdos and the Centre for Innovation, and input from Prof. Andrea Evers, Dr. Winnie Gebhardt, Dr. Sandra van Dijk and Dr. Sasja Huisman.