I wanted to clarify a couple of things regarding the end of the course. Firstly, you all should receive your certificates approximately one week after the final exam due date, which is 5:00 pm EDT on Sunday, April 20. Secondly, although the course officially closes on Sunday, May 11, you all will still be able to access all Coursera materials after this date (OLI can be accessed for free through the OLI website). The closing date simply means that, after May 11, no one will be allowed to register for the course.

Finally, if you all have concerns about questions on the final exam, post the number of the question in the forum, and I will ask Dr. Smith to check those particular questions. Do not post answers to any questions until after April 20, since many students have not completed the exam. If a question needs to be clarified, changed, or regraded, I will post an announcement about it.

- Alex

Fri 11 Apr 2014 10:01 AM EDT

An optional sample Advance Placement (AP) test, available through module 51 of the OLI textbook, will be available for you to take from 8:00 am EDT on Friday, April 11 until 5:00 pm EDT on Sunday, April 20. Completing the AP test will not affect your grade. However, your responses on it will help us assess the effectiveness of our course, so we highly encourage you to complete it! The Week 12 page has been updated with this information.

I understand that some of you have not received updated scores on the final exam to reflect the regrade for question 33. I am checking with Coursera about this and will keep you posted.

- Alex

Thu 10 Apr 2014 8:50 AM EDT

Many of you have asked about question 33 on the final exam. The answer to this question was mistakenly entered as "Stanley Milgram's obedience studies". The correct answer is "Bibb Latane and John Darley's bystander apathy studies". This correction has been made, and everyone will get credit for this question. If you have already completed the final exam, please make sure you have gotten credit for this question. We apologize for any confusion.

Please post any other concerns you have in the forums.

- Alex

Wed 9 Apr 2014 1:01 AM EDT

You've made it to the final week of the course! As we begin to wrap things up, here are some things to keep in mind. Please read this announcement carefully - it contains important dates and information.

• Quiz 11 was released on Friday, April 4 and is due at 5:00 pm EDT on Sunday, April 13.
• The topic for Week 12 is treatment. New lecture videos will be released at 8:00 am EDT on Monday, April 7.
• This week, you will be going through OLI modules 47-50. The PDFs for these modules have been uploaded. (If you are accessing OLI through the CMU site rather than our course site, these modules will correspond to modules 53-56 for you.)
• The Final Exam will open at 8:00 am EDT on Monday, April 7 and is due at 5:00 pm EDT on Sunday, April 20. It is a multiple-choice exam and will cover all 12 weeks of material, but it will be weighted towards material from Week 12, since there is no Quiz 12.
• There is an optional End-of-Course Survey which will be available from 8:00 am EDT on Friday, April 11 until 5:00 pm EDT on Sunday, April 20. Participating in this survey is not required and will not affect your grade in any way, but it will help us improve future courses, so we encourage everyone to take it!
• There will be an optional Advanced Placement (AP) exam offered through the OLI textbook. It will also open at 8:00 am EDT on Friday, April 11 and close at 5:00 pm EDT on Sunday, April 20. It is not required that you take this exam, and it will not affect your grade in any way, but it will help us gauge the effectiveness of our course, so please take it if you have a chance! More details on how to access it will be sent out in a separate announcement later this week.
• The course will officially close at 5:00 pm EDT on May 11. Until then, you may access all course materials and the OLI textbook. After that date, you will be able to go to https://oli.cmu.edu/jcourse/webui/guest/join.do?section=psychology to access the OLI textbook for free.

I understand many of you will have questions as the course comes to an end. Dr. Smith and I will do our best to answer your questions in a timely manner, but please understand that this will be a busy time for us, and it may take a little longer than usual.

Congratulations to all of you who have made it to the final week, and good luck on the exam!

- Alex

Mon 7 Apr 2014 2:30 AM EDT

For Week 11, you should be going through the OLI modules on disorders. When accessing the OLI textbook through our course, this is Unit 14, which includes modules 40-46. If you are accessing OLI through the OLI website, this is Unit 15, which includes modules 46-52. However, we highly recommend that you access OLI through our course website.

The OLI PDFs that have been uploaded for Week 11 are labeled as modules 40-46. When you open the PDFs, you will see that they are labeled as modules 46-52; this is because they were created from the original OLI website. Please ignore these numbers and consider them modules 40-46.

I apologize for any confusion this has caused. Let me know if you have any other questions.

- Alex

Tue 1 Apr 2014 4:30 PM EDT

Here are some things to keep in mind as we move into Week 11 - the second-to-last week of the course!

• Quiz 10 was released on Friday and is due at 5:00 pm EDT on Sunday, April 6.
• The topic for Week 11 is psychological disorders. New lecture videos will be posted at 8:00 am EDT on Monday, March 31.
• This week, you will be covering OLI modules 46-52. PDFs of these modules have been posted if you need them.
• Quiz 11 will be released at 5:00 pm EDT on Friday, April 4 and is due at 5:00 pm EDT on Sunday, April 13.
• The Final Exam will open at 8:00 am EDT on Monday, April 7 and is due at 5:00 pm EDT on Sunday, April 20.

- Alex

Sun 30 Mar 2014 11:59 PM EDT

I hope you all enjoyed your break from the course. It's time to start back up again! There are three more weeks of material left. As we move into Week 10 of the course, here are some things to keep in mind:

• The topic for Week 10 is social environment. New lecture videos will be posted at 8:00 am EDT on Monday, March 24.
• You will be going through OLI modules 37-39 this week. PDFs of these modules have been posted, if you need them.
• Quiz 10 will open at 5:00 pm EDT on Friday, March 28 and is due at 5:00 pm EDT on Sunday, April 6.

I know many of you are curious about the format and content of the final exam. I will send out an announcement with details soon.

- Alex

Mon 24 Mar 2014 2:07 AM EDT

This week is Spring Break in our course! Hopefully this gives you all a chance to either relax for a bit or catch up in the course. Remember that Quiz 9 was released on Friday and is due at 5:00 pm EDT on Sunday, March 23. The course will continue with Week 10 starting with the release of new lecture videos at 8:00 am EDT on Monday, March 24.

I will still be checking the forums regularly to answer your questions, but please understand that it may take a little longer than usual for me to get back to you.

Enjoy the break!

- Alex

Mon 17 Mar 2014 9:47 AM EDT

Dear Students,

We are always looking for ways to make this course more interactive and participatory. And so I want to let you know about a new web app called OfficeHours that could be of particular interest for those of you looking for a more social learning experience.

OfficeHours allows you to easily connect with your fellow students in instant, real-time chat conversations. You can ask questions, share links, organize a study group, or start a debate all in one simple interface. You can also join regular group review sessions that are being led by a community of knowledgeable Teaching Assistants that have previously taken this course.

To register or learn more about OfficeHours: https://www.officehours.co/student/index.html?courseCode=51f99d07764d3bbf43000005&schoolCode=Coursera

Participation in OfficeHours is completely voluntary and is in no way necessary for successfully completing the course nor will it have any bearing on your final grade. But for some of you, it might be a fun tool to add an extra, more collaborative dimension to this MOOC.

Thanks so much again for your continued interest and enthusiasm.

Best,

Professor Smith

**OfficeHours is an independent service that is not affiliated with the Georgia Institute of Technology. And as the professor of this course, I have no financial or other interest in the company.

Tue 11 Mar 2014 1:04 PM EDT

Please note that Daylight Saving Time has started here in Atlanta - we set our clocks forward one hour on Sunday morning. This may or may not affect your deadilnes, depending on where you live. Please use this Time Zone Converter to double-check deadlines for your time zone. For the time and place to convert from, enter the deadline as it appears on the week page and select "U.S.A. - Georgia - Atlanta" for the location. For the place to convert to, select your time zone/location. Then click the green "Convert time" button.

Let's use the Week 9 lecture videos as an example. These will be released at 8:00 am EDT on Monday, March 10. If you live in London, you would select "United Kingdom - England - London" as the place to convert to. The converter would show you that the lecture videos would be released at noon on Monday, March 10 in London. Click here to see the result of this example.

I hope this is clear! If you have any questions, please let me know through the forums.

- Alex

Mon 10 Mar 2014 12:40 AM EDT

Here are some things to remember as we move into Week 9 of the course:

• Quiz 8 was released on Friday and is due at 5:00 pm EDT on Sunday, March 16.
• The topic for Week 9 is personality. New lecture videos will be released at 8:00 am EDT on Monday, March 10.
• You will be going through OLI modules 34-36 this week. The PDFs for these modules have been uploaded to the "OLI PDFs" page.
• Quiz 9 will be released at 5:00 pm EDT on Friday, March 14 and is due at 5:00 pm EDT on Sunday, March 23.

We're two-thirds of the way through the course! Keep up the hard work, and don't hesitate to contact me through the forums if you have any questions or comments.

- Alex

Sun 9 Mar 2014 11:16 PM EDT

[CORRECTION: The original announcement mentioned Quiz 9. The announcement has been updated with details about Quiz 7 instead. Please ignore the previous announcement.]

Here are some things to keep in mind as we move into week 8 of the course:

• Quiz 7 was released on Friday and is due at 5:00 pm EDT on Sunday, March 9. From now on, all quizzes will be due Sundays at 5:00 pm EDT, giving you 9 days to complete each one.
• The topic for Week 8 is motivation and emotion. The new lecture videos will be released at 8:00 am EDT on Monday, March 3.
• You will be going through OLI modules 31-33 this week. The PDFs for these modules have been uploaded, if you need them.
• Quiz 8 will open at 5:00 pm EDT on Friday, March 7. It is due at 5:00 pm EDT on Sunday, March 16.
• The optional Mid-Course Survey closes at 8:00 am EDT on Monday, March 3. We encourage everyone to take it!

- Alex

Mon 3 Mar 2014 12:03 AM EST

Many of you have been asking to have the quiz deadlines extended to have more time to complete them. I spoke with Dr. Smith about this, and he authorized an extension to Sunday at 5:00 pm EDT (instead of Friday at 5:00 pm EDT) for all remaining quizzes. This extension will take effect beginning with Quiz 7. Quiz 6 is still due today (February 28) at 5:00 pm EDT. This change is reflected on the Week 7 page.

We hope that, by having each quiz open during two weekends instead of one, those of you who are working or have busy schedules will have a better opportunity to complete the quizzes. Dr. Smith and I both care about your performance in this course, and we hope this helps you all succeed in completing it!

- Alex

Fri 28 Feb 2014 12:58 PM EST

Here are some things to keep in mind as we move into Week 7 of the course:

• Quiz 6 was released on Friday, February 21 and is due at 5:00 pm EDT on Friday, February 28.
• The topic for Week 7 is development. The new lecture videos will be posted at 8:00 am EDT on Monday, February 24.
• This week, you will be going through OLI modules 25-30. We encourage you to use the interactive online textbook, but the PDF versions of these modules have been posted if you need them.
• Quiz 7 will be released at 5:00 pm EDT on Friday, February 28 and is due at 5:00 pm EDT on Friday, March 7.
• Remember, there is an optional Mid-Course Survey that will remain open until 8:00 am EDT on Monday, March 3. Although participation in this survey won't impact your grade in the course, it will help us understand how MOOCs help students learn, so participation is highly encouraged!

Congratulations for making it halfway through the course!

- Alex

Mon 24 Feb 2014 2:41 AM EST

Some information to keep in mind as we begin Week 6 of the course:

• Quiz 5 was released on February 14 and is due at 5:00 pm EDT on February 21.
• The topic for Week 6 is cognition, language, and intelligence. Week 6 lecture videos will be available at 8:00 am EDT on Monday, February 17.
• This week, you will be reviewing OLI modules 20-24. The PDFs for these modules have been posted.
• Quiz 6 will be released at 5:00 pm EDT on Friday, February 21. It is due at 5:00 pm EDT on Friday, February 28.
• We also ask that you please complete the optional Mid-Course Survey, which will open at 8:00 am EDT on Monday, February 17 and will close at 8:00 am EDT on Monday, March 3. Your participation in this survey will not impact your grade in the course, but it will help us understand how MOOCs help students learn. You can find the link to the survey on the Week 6 page.

We're almost halfway through the course; keep up the hard work!

- Alex

Sun 16 Feb 2014 9:40 PM EST

Some things to keep in mind as we move into Week 5 of the course:

• Quiz 4 was released on Friday, Feburary 7 and is due at 5:00 pm EDT on Friday, February 14.
• The topic for Week 5 is memory. Week 5 lecture videos will be available at 8:00 am EDT on Monday, February 10.
• OLI has been linked to our course, so please access the textbook through the "OLI Textbook" link. However, PDF versions of the modules will still be available. Modules 16-19 have been uploaded.
• Quiz 5 will be released at 5:00 pm EDT on Friday, February 14 and is due at 5:00 pm EDT on Friday, February 21.
• Remember that answers to many questions about Coursera itself can be found on Coursera's FAQ page. At the bottom of this page is a "Contact Us" link if you can't find the answer to your question there - please use this link for any questions regarding the Signature Track.

Thanks to all of you who have been helping out your fellow students in the forums!

- Alex

Sun 9 Feb 2014 10:16 PM EST

The interactive OLI textbook should now be up and running. You will still click on "OLI Textbook", but it will now take you to the interactive version of the textbook. The first time you click on it, it will likely ask you to input your name and e-mail address. After doing this and accepting their consent form, you will have access to the textbook; click on "Course Syllabus" to view the modules. For those of you who signed up at the OLI website, please use this link from now on. An instructional video on how to use the OLI textbook through our course is available on the Lecture Videos page, or you can click here. Note there may be some minor differences between the video and what you see, but the overall experience should be the same.

I will continue to post the PDFs of the modules each week; however, I will no longer be posting the answers to the activities, since these will now be available in OLI.

Please use the forums to let me know about any questions or concerns you have regarding the OLI textbook.

- Alex

Fri 7 Feb 2014 7:48 PM EST

Answers for this week's OLI modules (13-15) have been posted.

- Alex

Wed 5 Feb 2014 1:30 PM EST

The lecture videos for Week 4 should now be working.

- Alex

Mon 3 Feb 2014 11:42 AM EST

I understand there is an issue viewing the lecture videos for Week 4. I am reuploading the videos, so this should hopefully be fixed within the hour. I will send out another announcement when the problem has been resolved.

- Alex

Mon 3 Feb 2014 10:59 AM EST

As we move into Week 4 of the course, here are some things to note:

• Quiz 3 was released on Friday and is due at 5:00 pm EDT on Friday, February 7.
• Answers to the activities in OLI modules 9-12 have been posted.
• The topic for this week is learning. PDFs of the new OLI modules have been uploaded, and the new lecture videos will be available at 8:00 am EDT on Monday, February 3.
• Quiz 4 will open at 5:00 pm EDT on Friday, February 7 and will be due at 5:00 pm EDT on Friday, February 14.

I'd also like to address some general questions that have been coming up in the forums:

• Quizzes cover material from both the lecture videos and the OLI modules, so be sure you go through both before attempting the quiz. You have one attempt for each quiz, and late submissions will not be counted. If you miss a quiz or are unable to complete it by the deadline, remember that we will drop the lowest of your 11 quiz grades. The intent of this policy is to accommodate unforeseen circumstances that may prevent you from doing your best on one of the quizzes.
• Quizzes will be open for one week, from 5:00 pm EDT on Friday of the current week until 5:00 pm EDT on Friday of the following week. This allows every student to complete the quiz on whichever day of the week is best for him or her. Keeping the quizzes open for longer will prevent us from discussing quiz questions for a longer period of time. Additionally, it is our hope that a one-week timeframe will encourage students to keep up with the course material as it is released.
• If you are just entering the course, there is still time to catch up! I recommend you work your way through the lecture videos and OLI modules starting with Week 1. You may still be able to access the quizzes from Weeks 1 and 2, but submissions for these quizzes are no longer being accepted, so completing them will simply help you check your understanding of the material.
• If you experience technical problems (videos are slow or won't load, quizzes won't load or submit, Coursera won't function on various browsers or mobile devices, etc.), please view Coursera's FAQs. If you don't find the answer to your question there, use the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of that page to contact Coursera about your problem.
• We are still working as fast as possible to link OLI to our course. We appreciate your patience.

As usual, if you have any other questions, the best way to get them answered is through the discussion forums.

- Alex

Mon 3 Feb 2014 12:26 AM EST

This week, you'll be learning about sensation and perception. Here are some things to remember as we move into week 3 of the course:

• The deadline to submit Quiz 1 is this Wednesday, January 29, at 5:00 pm EDT. Keep in mind that this deadline was previously extended - all other quizzes will be released at 5:00 pm EDT on Friday of the current week and must be completed by 5:00 pm EDT on the following Friday.
• The deadline to submit Quiz 2 is this Friday, January 31, at 5:00 pm EDT.
• The lecture videos for Week 3 were released today (Monday) at 8:00 am EDT. Lecture videos for each week will be released on Mondays at this same time. All videos will remain available for the duration of the course.
• Quiz 3 will be released at 5:00 pm EDT this Friday, January 31 and will be due at 5:00 pm EDT next Friday, February 7.

We are still working hard to get OLI linked to our course. If you have any problems accessing the textbook through the PDFs, please let me know in the discussion forums (you all have been doing a great job of this already). Additionally, continue to use the discussion forums if you have any other questions.

- Alex

Mon 27 Jan 2014 5:43 PM EST

The PDF for OLI Module 5 has been fixed and should now show the activities. In addition, the answers for the activities in Modules 5-8 have been posted on the "OLI Textbook" page. Please bare with us as we continue to work on linking OLI to our course. I understand it is frustrating to be unable to experience the interactive components of the textbook. The PDFs are a temporary solution, and you all will be notified as soon as the link has been established between OLI and our course.

Due to some concerns expressed about time constraints, the quizzes will now be available for one whole week (from 5:00 pm EDT on Friday of the current week until 5:00 pm EDT on Friday of the following week). This will allow people who have limited time to choose whichever day (or days) of the week works best for them to complete the quiz. The syllabus and Week 2 page have been updated accordingly. (Note that Quiz 1 will still be open until 5:00 pm EDT on January 29.)

I'm pleased with the enthusiasm I've seen in the discussion forums - continue to use those to communicate with other students, Dr. Smith, and me. I'll do my best to address your concerns in a timely manner.

- Alex

Wed 22 Jan 2014 7:42 PM EST

The answers to the OLI activities for Modules 1-4 have been posted on the OLI Textbook page. You can use these to check your work on the activities while we are working on linking OLI to our course.

Again, we apologize for the delay in establishing this link, and we appreciate your patience while we work on it.

- Alex

Sat 18 Jan 2014 9:50 AM EST

Due to the fact that OLI has not yet been linked to our course and it is difficult for many students to receive feedback on the interactive activities, the due date for Quiz 1 has been extended to 5:00 pm EDT on Wednesday, January 29. The quiz will still open on Friday, January 17.

Again, we appreciate everyone's patience as we continue working on this issue, and we will let you know as soon as OLI is available through our course.

- Alex

Fri 17 Jan 2014 3:25 AM EST

Dear Students,

As we begin this first week, I want to tell you about a new start-up, OfficeHours, that I think will prove a useful resource as you work your way through the course.

OfficeHours allows you to instantly connect and collaborate with other students from this course. Through the OfficeHours browser app (optimized for Google Chrome), you can ask questions and begin discussions with other students that are online when you are.

OfficeHours also provides a community of experienced Teaching Assistants (TAs) that you can speak with by text and/or video chat from an easy-to-use web application. You can initiate a one-on-one session or participate in weekly, TA-led group reviews.

Because this is an initial pilot, OfficeHours is offering free access to the service for the students of my course. The pilot will begin with a subset of the class - initially it will be limited to 250 students. But each week the pilot will expand and be made available to more students.

Participation in OfficeHours is completely voluntary and is in no way necessary for successfully completing the course nor will it have any bearing on your final grade. It is simply an additional resource available to you, if you wish to make use of it.

If you would like to sign up or learn more about OfficeHours, please REGISTER HERE.

If you have any questions, you can also email directly at max@o10s.com.

Thanks again for enrolling in Psychology as a Science. I'm really looking forward to spending these next few months with you.

Best,
Professor Smith

**OfficeHours is an independent service that is not affiliated with the Georgia Institute of Technology. And as the professor of this course, I have no financial or other interest in the company.

Wed 15 Jan 2014 6:18 PM EST

Each week, as mentioned in the Syllabus, you will be required to go through specific modules in an online textbook called the Open Learning Initiative (OLI). In addition to text, this book contains interactive activities for you to check your understanding of the material. However, OLI has not yet been linked to our course, so you will currently get an error message if you try to access it.

Until this link is established, please use the textbook PDFs instead; these are provided on the Week 1 page under "Review OLI Modules 1-4". These PDFs preserve everything from the actual online textbook; the only difference is that the activities are not interactive. However, you can still use them as practice to check your understanding.

We apologize for this inconvenience, and we will let you know as soon as OLI is linked to our course. Thanks for your patience.

- Alex

Mon 13 Jan 2014 12:30 AM EST

The videos used in this course are from a previous offering of the course, so here are some updates:

Lecture Video 1.1 (these corrections have all been made on the syllabus):

• There are no projects or written assignments for the course.
• The grading policy is 50% for your quiz average (with the lowest of the 11 quizzes being dropped) and 50% for the final exam.

Lecture Video 1.3:

• The numbering in the video may get confusing. Know that there are three primary groups of research methods: descriptive, correlational, and experimental; case studies are a specific type of descriptive research method.

Don't forget to take the Pretest before watching Lecture Video 1.2!

- Alex

Mon 13 Jan 2014 12:29 AM EST

About the Course

Hello, and welcome to Introduction to Psychology as a Science! In this course, you'll learn all about the brain and nervous system, sensation and perception, learning, memory, intelligence and thinking, lifespan development, emotion and motivation, personality, social behavior, behavioral disorders, and psychological treatment of disorders. Each week, you'll watch a series of lecture videos and review the relevant modules in an online textbook developed at Carnegie Mellon University called the Open Learning Initiative. At the end of each week, you'll take a quiz to assess what you've learned, and at the end of the course, you'll complete a cumulative final exam.

Getting Started

If you're new to an online course (or even if you're not!), check out this instructional video to help you get started.

Important points to keep in mind:

• The Announcements page (the page you're on right now) will contain announcements about videos and other general course content. Additionally, upcoming deadlines will be displayed on the right side of this page. You will receive most announcements by e-mail, but it is recommended that you check this page regularly (at least once a week).
• The Syllabus page contains information regarding grading, communication, and the course outline, among other things.
• The page for each week will contain links to the lecture videos and learning objectives for that week; the materials for the first week are already posted on the Week 1 page!
• Check the Lecture Videos page for access to all lecture videos that been posted.
• Check the OLI Textbook page to access the course textbook and to view instructional videos about how to use and navigate the textbook.
• On the Forums page, you can discuss the course and assignments with other students, ask questions, report technical issues, and post a bio to introduce yourself. Questions or comments with the most up-votes will be reviewed and addressed by the teaching staff periodically. Don't hesitate to ask for help!
• Surveys about the course will be posted on the Surveys page. There will be a survey at the beginning and end of the course, as well as surveys at the end of each week. These surveys are optional, but your feedback will be helpful, and participation will be greatly appreciated.
• Click on the About the Instructor page to learn more about your instructor, Dr. Anderson Smith.

Ready to begin?

Click on the Week 1 page, complete the pretest and background survey (the survey will be available after Thursday, January 9), and jump into Lecture Video 1.1!

Sat 11 Jan 2014 11:50 PM EST