Psychology of the Digital Media will be the first publicly financed master programme of ESSB (and of EUR) starting online as of 1 September 2022. Chances are that this programme will even be the first in the Netherlands. Together with the ErasmusU_Online team of the Community for Learning & Innovation (CLI), the three ESSB course coordinators and supporting staff have worked hard to make this possible.
Prof. dr. Rolf Zwaan, dr. Daantje Derks and dr. Huib Tabbers are the leading course coordinators for this ESSB-master. The programme has ample experience with online education. During the last two years, courses have been given in online, hybrid and on-campus formats. Given that the master is being taught by lecturers who are experts in the field, and the content of the curriculum is very well suited to online teaching, starting an online variant is seen as a logical next step.
Impact of digital media
“This master is all about obtaining a psychological perspective on the role of digital media in our personal and professional lives”, prof. Zwaan explains. “We teach students to develop awareness about the impact of digital media on behaviour, and to be able to use scientific knowledge to analyse the design of digital environments for work, communication, or learning. Students will be able to perform original research into the impact of such environments on human behaviour.”
Current students ánd new audiences
Dr. Derks continues: “(Inter)national students who have just graduated from a bachelor’s or master’s in Psychology are our main target group, but the programme could also be well suited to reach out to new audiences. Think of (inter)national students who are physically or financially unable to come to campus, or who don’t want to come to campus because of the travel distance or the housing issues in Rotterdam and other Dutch cities. Or think of life-long learners, the working professionals who want to develop their knowledge and (academic) skills. They could bring their experience and practical examples from the field to the students without prior work experience.”
The first in this field
“No other psychology programme exists in the Netherlands that focuses on digital media”, dr. Tabbers concludes. “A few general digital media programmes are offered without this psychology focus, but they aren’t offered as an online variant yet. We offer an advanced analytical reflection of the effects of digital media, to be practically applied during your career. As lecturers, we are actively performing research in this area and are continuously in touch with the latest developments in the field.”
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