From academic articles to sites advertising that latest Star Wars figurine, the Internet provides access to all sorts of information. Professor John Johnson of the DuBois campus takes advantage of the web to teach students introductory concepts about psychology. Students are actively engaged as they search the information superhighway for relevant and contemporary applications of course concepts. Psychology 2, an introductory level psychology course, contains four main segments. The course chronicles the history of psychology dating from the prescientific to the scientific understanding of human behavior.
Students explore the evolution of behavior, social structure, and the mind.
Students also learn the basic physiological, cognitive, and learning processes. Finally, the course distinguishes between normal and abnormal individual differences. Professor Johnson has taken the initiative to make his large class of 150 students both active and collaborative. To learn the history of psychology segment, students are divided into groups of eight. Students work together in and out of class to develop a list of relevant Internet links that illustrate contemporary examples of the key concepts assigned to each group.