Real-World Skills in a Virtual World: An Innovative Activity for Teaching Developmental Psychopathology

Background: Incorporating professional development into undergraduate psychology coursework is an ongoing area of improvement for educators. Objective: We present a novel activity encouraging students to explore various professional skills and roles for which their psychology major prepares them through application to real-world issues. Method: Students participated in one of two virtual mental health summits and formed working groups to present from different perspectives (e.g., public health, epidemiology, etc.). Students collectively voted on resolutions at the end of each summit (e.g., budgetary recommendations for a county health department). Results: We examined student perceptions of confidence in their professional skills and content knowledge before and after summits. Students indicated that they wanted more applied assignments like the mental health summit in other psychology classes and preferred the activity to exams or papers in a virtual course. Teaching Implications: The mental health summit represented a real-world application activity that students indicated wanting in their courses. Recommendations for how to adapt the presented activity for non-clinical psychology courses are discussed. Conclusion: The mental health summit activity supported the real-world application that students desire. Future iterations of the activity can build on the model we describe to support greater skill improvement.