Program Overview
This XSeries Program has been designed to influence, empower and educate a wider population to improve the health and healthcare of people with intellectual disability.
Worldwide, 60+ million people with intellectual disability experience poor health, die prematurely and receive inadequate healthcare. You will gain an understanding of the barriers and enablers for people with intellectual disability, their families, and their healthcare providers.
In our courses, you will learn about best practice in the field of intellectual disability healthcare and gain knowledge to improve health outcomes for this disadvantaged group.
What you will learn
- What is the experience of people with intellectual disability around the world, what barriers do they face, and how do they overcome these?
- What are their healthcare needs and how can good health be promoted?
- What health conditions do they commonly experience and how can these be assessed and managed?
- What influence do other factors such as ageing and epilepsy have on their health?
- What mental health issues do they have and how can these be recognised and managed?
- What are some of the ethical and legal issues that are of particular relevance to them?
Program class list
1Through My Eyes - Intellectual Disability Healthcare around the World
Course Details
2Well and Able - Improving the Physical Health of People with Intellectual Disability
Course Details
3Able-Minded - Mental Health and People with Intellectual Disability
Course Details
Meet your instructors

Miriam Taylor

Nicholas Lennox
About This Course:
This health course will focus on the mental health issues of people with intellectual disability.
You will learn about the complexities of diagnosing mental health issues in people with intellectual disabilities and the types of disorders, assessments, screenings, and treatments used. There will also be a special focus on the legal and ethical complexities in health practice with patients who often require substituted consent.
This course is open to anyone, but will be of particular relevance to those in the field of advanced medical, allied health, and disability. It can also be used as workforce education for professionals who are interested in mental health.
What You’ll Learn:
- mental health issues and disorders
- mental health assessments and screenings
- challenging behaviors
- treatments
- legal and ethical issues

XSeries Program in Intellectual Disability Healthcare
Understand the barriers and enablers
Meet Your Instructors:

Nicholas Lennox

Miriam Taylor
About This Course:
This health course will examine the specific physical health issues that affect people with an intellectual disability including, oral health, syndrome specific health issues, health communication, especially for non-verbal patients, sexual health, and interactions between tertiary and primary healthcare systems. There is a special section on complex care including issues associated with aging and spasticity, and the health impacts of epilepsy.
This course is open to anyone, but will be of particular relevance to those in the field of medical, allied health, and disability. It can also be used as workforce education for medical professionals in this field.
What You’ll Learn:
- common health conditions
- health assessments and health promotion
- oral health
- syndrome specific health issues
- complex care associated with aging, epilepsy and spasticity

XSeries Program in Intellectual Disability Healthcare
Understand the barriers and enablers
Meet Your Instructors:

Nicholas Lennox

Miriam Taylor
About This Course:
This health course focuses on the stories of people with intellectual disabilities around the world, as well as their families and supporters.
You will learn about the challenges and aid received in healthcare for people with intellectual disabilities, including their experience of specific syndromes and communication difficulties, and how they stay healthy.
Learners will also hear from family members as they discuss complex care, rare syndromes, early death, and planning for independence. The end of the course will focus on the history of treatment, the impact of rights’ movements on healthcare delivery, common health conditions, and health promotion.
This course is open to anyone, but will be of particular relevance to those in the field of advanced medical, allied health, and disability. This course can also be used as workforce education for medical professionals in this field.
What You’ll Learn:
- Insights into the daily life of those with intellectual disabilities and their families
- Challenges and obstacles experienced and how these are overcome
- Specific healthcare needs and how to promote good health for people with an intellectual disability

XSeries Program in Intellectual Disability Healthcare
Understand the barriers and enablers
Meet Your Instructors:

Nicholas Lennox

Miriam Taylor
About this course
This course systematically explores the effectiveness of the law and justice system from a psychological perspective. By experiencing a fictional case first hand, you will learn about the psychology of law and some of the misconceptions commonly held about criminal justice.
What you’ll learn
- How to identify some of the myths about how the criminal justice system works from a psychological perspective
- The empirical evidence that can inform our understanding of criminal justice
- How to improve how justice is administered
Meet Your Instructors

Blake McKimmie

Barbara Masser

Mark Horswill
About this course
Have you ever wondered what causes mental illness, or why we react to stress the way we do? Or what to expect as you get older?
Clinical psychology is the study of psychological disorders and the treatments designed to improve the day-to-day lives of people suffering from them. The focus of the course will be on common psychological disorders, such as schizophrenia, and the symptoms of each. We will also discuss the underlying role of stress and how it affects people mentally and physically. We will also consider more general issues and theories around personality and intelligence.
You should take this course if you want to better understand psychological disorders and how we can treat them.
What you’ll learn
- Common psychological disorders including anxiety, mood disorders and Schizophrenia
- Treatments for psychological disorders
- How stress affects us and how we cope
- Theories about personality and intelligence
- What normal ageing is

XSeries Program in Introduction to Developmental, Social & Clinical Psychology
Understand why we think and behave the way we do
Unfortunately, learners from one or more of the following countries or regions will not be able to register for this course: Iran, Cuba and the Crimea region of Ukraine. While edX has sought licenses from the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to offer our courses to learners in these countries and regions, the licenses we have received are not broad enough to allow us to offer this course in all locations. EdX truly regrets that U.S. sanctions prevent us from offering all of our courses to everyone, no matter where they live.
Meet Your Instructors

Blake McKimmie

Nancy Pachana

Vanessa Cobham
About This Course:
This course is part of the Leadership in Global Development MicroMasters program. In order to get the most out of this course, we recommend that you have experience working in the development sector or a strong interest in this area. We also recommend that you complete the other three courses that make up the Leadership in Global Development MicroMasters program: Leaders in Global Development, The Science and Practice of Sustainable Development, and Adaptive Leadership in Development.
There is a vast array of different arguments about what development is and how development can be achieved. A leader in development must be able to understand, appreciate, evaluate and broker between differing and sometimes conflicting perspectives and ideas.
In this course you will develop skills in critical thinking and analysis, while being introduced to some of the contemporary debates and current challenges facing development practice. The wide variety of topics covered will also give you a sense of the diversity of issues that development encapsulates. Learners are encouraged to reflect on their own ideas and practice, and share their perspectives with other learners and the course team.
Each module in the course focuses on a contemporary topic in the development field. Within each module you will engage with key readings that argue different perspectives on the same topic. Interviews with the author complement these readings. Some of the authors we interview include Philip McMichael (Cornell University), Doug Porter (Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, Australian National University), Blessings Chinsinga (The University of Malawi), Naila Kabeer (London School of Economics and Political Science), and Rachel Glennerster, (The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, MIT).
What You’ll Learn:
• To identify the key arguments in academic papers
• To identify different methodological and conceptual approaches to research
• To compare and contrast different perspectives in development
• To evaluate the merits of different arguments
• To apply these different perspectives to practice and discuss their implications
Meet Your Instructor:

Mark Moran
About This Course:
This course is part of the Leadership in Global Development MicroMasters program. In order to get the most out of this course, we recommend that you have experience working in the development sector or a strong interest in this area. We also recommend that you complete the other three courses that make up the Leadership in Global Development MicroMasters program: Leaders in Global Development, The Science and Practice of Sustainable Development and Critical Development Perspectives.
Being a leader in development means working in complex and challenging contexts. Projects rarely run as planned, and managers need to be flexible and adaptive in their approach.
This course will teach you the skills to tackle complex problems in developing – and developed – countries. You will learn how problems in development contexts are always complex – no matter how simple they may appear at first. You will learn strategies for how to dig deeper into the problem and come up with solutions that address the real issues. You will learn techniques and practical tools for understanding local context, and ways to lead effectively. This course will also expose you to the disconnect between policy and practice.
To complement our lecture videos, and enhance your learning, we have included interviews with real world, experienced and development practitioners. Some of the practitioners we interview include: David Booth, Alina Rocha Menocal, Arnaldo Pellini and Louise Shaxton from the Overseas Development Institute; Scott Guggenheim (AusAID-Indonesia Partnership Program); and Jaime Faustino (The Asia Foundation).
Uncertainty is a way of life in development, and leaders need the skills to adapt and excel in this space. Join us to learn effective strategies for being an adaptive leader in development.
What You’ll Learn:
- To appreciate the fundamental mismatch between policy and practice in development
- To understand the importance of having context, and in finding local solutions to local problems
- Skills in adaptive development practice, in the cycles of experimentation, learning, iteration and adaptation
- To discern strategies to overcome political challenges and broker new collaborations
- To comprehend how to measure progress and manage performance when working adaptively
- To diffuse results from practice, by taking them to scale and influencing policy
Meet Your Instructors:

Mark Moran

Jodie Curth-Bibb

Sarah Glavey

Tim Grice
Program Overview
This psychology XSeries is an introduction to developmental, social, and clinical psychology so you can better understand the human mind and how it drives behavior.
You will learn about:
- Psychological disorders and how they are treated
- Why we act the way we do in certain settings and situations
- How our bodies and minds develop from birth until later in life
- Methods behind psychological research and how to interpret and report research
What you will learn
- An understanding of human behaviour in social settings
- An appreciation for how we develop over our lifespan
- An introduction to common psychological disorders and how we treat them
- An understanding of the benefits of systematic research, and how to conduct and report it
This XSeries consists of four courses. The first three courses can be taken in any order. We suggest taking Introduction to Psychological Research Methods last. Each course in this XSeries includes between 7 and 8 sections. You may wish to aim to complete 1 to 2 sections per week.
Courses
1Introduction to Social Psychology
Course Details
2Introduction to Developmental Psychology
Course Details
3Introduction to Clinical Psychology
Course Details
4Introduction to Psychological Research Methods
Course Details
Meet your instructors

Roy Baumeister

Virginia Slaughter

Mark Nielsen

Nicole Nelson

Nancy Pachana

Vanessa Cobham

Wen Wu

Blake McKimmie
About this course
We often have firmly held beliefs about why people think and behave the way they do. Sometimes our intuitions are correct, but often they are not.
Social psychology helps us understand how people think about themselves and other people and what motivates their behaviour in social settings.
This course explores a range of topics in social psychology, from how we think about ourselves, how we think about others, and how we interact and communicate with others. We will also discuss the ways that we can influence others and be influenced by others. Finally, we look at some problematic aspects of human behaviour, such as prejudice and aggression.
You should take this course if you are curious about why we behave the way we do.
What you’ll learn
- How we influence each other
- Why we sometimes hurt other people
- How we think about ourselves and others
- How we communicate non-verbally
- Why people behave pro-socially
- Where prejudice and stereotypes come from

XSeries Program in Introduction to Developmental, Social & Clinical Psychology
Understand why we think and behave the way we do
Meet Your Instructors

Blake McKimmie
