Online Course: GRAD 980 Preparing to Teach a Psychology Course*

Dr. Victor Benassi (Professor of Psychology at the University of New Hampshire), and one of the designers of GRAD 980, acknowledges the contributions of Dr. Paul Nelson (left) to the development of GRAD 980 at a dinner held in his honor in October 2006. Dr. Nelson retired in 2006 as Deputy Executive Director of the Education Directorate, American Psychological Association.

Next offering: Summer, 2008

*The GRAD 980 initiative has been made possible over the year by the generous support provided by several organizations. We acknowledge their contribution to our efforts. We receive current support from:

• American Psychological Association Education Directorate
• UNH Graduate School
• UNH Center for Teaching Excellence

We also acknowledge early support from the following organizations:

• Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE)
• Association of American Colleges and Universities
• Council of Graduate Schools Preparing Future Faculty Initiative

Each June/July, UNH offers GRAD 980 (Preparing to Teach a Psychology Course). This totally online course is designed for graduate students and current faculty who are interested in or currently teaching psychology. Students from anywhere in the world can take the course, which is taught in English. To learn more about the course, please see the options below:

• We have assembled a distinguished team of faculty; to learn more about them, click here.
• A working draft of the course syllabus will be available here in Summer, 2008.
• To read comments about the course by participants, click here.
• To visit the American Psychological Association's Preparing Future Faculty site, click here.
• For a brief history of this initiative, click here.
• At a recent planning meeting for the course, several of our faculty advisors participated in a panel discussion about advice they would offer anyone preparing to enter the field of teaching psychology. To view a video of the session, click here.

GRAD 980 will be offered for the seventh time in summer 2008. To date, over 190 people have taken the course. Students in GRAD 980 (graduate students or current faculty) have come from some 70 different colleges and universities. They have hailed from institutions that span the United States and Puerto Rico as well as have come from eight other countries (Chile, Canada, England, France, Mexico, Northern Ireland, Russia, and Scotland). GRAD 980 started in 2002 with two course instructors, and now there are eight.