The COVID-19 pandemic requires that professional psychology develop and elaborate its knowledge base – and respond in real time and at scale to difficulties individual and communities are experiencing. When what to teach, what students need to learn, and community needs are all changing so rapidly, how to build a plane while flying it? The Psychology of Pandemics course taught in fall 2020 presented psychological literature related to pandemics and just-published learning resources on COVID-19. Equipped with this knowledge, students selected community populations to which they had access, assessed their populations’ current COVID-related needs, developed psychoeducational workshops to present to groups, and refined their presentation skills with the aid of their classmates. This NCSPP presentation will narrate the process of how the course unfolded, describe samples of student outcomes, include a brief presentation by a member of the class who brought a workshop to the community, and invite interaction among faculty members nationwide who are striving to implement similar courses.
Learning Objectives
Participants will be able to:
1. Explain how to assemble scholarly resources in emerging areas of psychological research and practice for utilization in teaching on a current topic.
2. Apply a model of program planning to structure students’ service-learning projects for a class.
3. Describe at least three psychological issues prevalent in the US population during the COVID-19 pandemic.