Online Health Psychology: Do Students Need It, Use It, Like It, and Want It?

Health psychology is taught across a range of courses throughout higher education institutions in the UK. This study aimed firstly to produce online teaching material in health psychology, ensuring that students from a range of courses and levels can access appropriate material. The second aim, which is the focus of this report, was to explore students’ views on the material, their performance with the material and to explore any student group differences. Results suggested that some students taught through the online medium performed at a higher level in examinations than those taught through ‘traditional lectures’, and performance was correlated with usage of the material for psychology students. Furthermore, students appeared to enjoy the material although there was some reluctance to develop an independent learning style. There was also a noted difference between different student groups in terms of their views on the material and the rewards derived from it. It was apparent that material has to be developed that can both engage and motivate learners, thereby further developing independent learning, and that this may have to be tailored dependent on a number of student factors