Overview of the Centre for Psychology

The Centre for Psychology at Athabasca University offers both three-year and four-year programs leading to B.A. degrees with majors in psychology, a certificate in Career Development, and a diploma in Inclusive Education. Approximately 5000 students enroll in psychology courses each year at Athabasca University and the Centre has approximately 900 students enrolled in the 3 and 4 year BA programs majoring in psychology.

The majority of the Centre for Psychology's courses are offered at a distance with on-line enhancements. Students receive course packages that include student manuals, study guides, texts, quizzes, packaged lab exercises, and other learning support materials. The on-line enhancements include web accessible course materials, on-line quizzes, on-line glossary, numerous online tutorials, web resources in psychology, and access to social networking tools for blogging and creating profiles. Students also have telephone and email access to their own course tutor who has specialized knowledge in the course material. The centre also has a limited number of conventional classroom courses at selected sites in Alberta.

As with most AU courses, there are no admission deadlines for psychology courses. Students may register and enroll in most AU courses at the beginning of any month. This flexibility enables students to complete courses according to their own schedule. Psychology courses at AU also have transfer credit agreements with many other institutions. This allows students based at other universities the opportunity to take an AU course to fulfill a degree requirement when that course is not currently available at their home institution.

Generally, students give high ratings to AU psychology courses because of the use of:

• Clearly specified instructional objectives that delineate precisely what is required.
• Mastery-learning approaches that require students to pass individual units of course material before proceeding to subsequent units.
• Self-paced learning that allows students to progress through the course material on a schedule appropriate for the individual student.
• Self-instructional exercises that provide a focus for studying. See some examples of such exercises.

University Certificate/Diploma Program

University Certificate in Career Development

Diploma in Inclusive Education

Undergraduate Program

Three-year degree requirements (Program Plan)

Four-year degree requirements (Program Plan)

Graduate Program

Graduate Program in Counselling offered by Campus Alberta, an inter-university collaboration

Potential Programs

We are always striving to meet student demand for programs they require for their interests and careers. If you would like to take a program that is not listed above among our current offerings, please take a moment to fill out this questionnaire concerning programs you would like to see us develop.

The Centre for Psychology currently offers the courses in the table below. As indicated in the table, most of the courses are available as online internet courses. In addition to the courses listed below, courses from other disciplines (e.g., organizational behavior, social science, communications) may be used to fulfill psychology degree requirements. Some of the study-guide material in the online courses is restricted to current students, but student manuals and information about the structure of the courses provide prospective students with a considerable amount of detailed information about these online courses. Simply click on the online course you are interested in and go to the student manual.

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Potential Courses

We are also striving to meet student demand for required courses. If you are interested in a course that is not listed among our current offerings, please take a moment to fill out this questionnaire concerning courses you would like to see us develop.

Further information about courses and degree programs in psychology may be found in the Athabasca University Calendar. Those seeking immediate information about Athabasca University may consult the Athabasca University Home Page or call the Information Centre at 1 (800) 788-9041.