Despite The Pandemic, OLLI Continues To Do Its Thing: Teaching And Learning
Lifelong learners are adding to their knowledge base with training on — and courses taught via — Zoom.
OLLI members get up to speed on Zoom.
“We’re a community of learners,” says Megan Whilden, executive director of Osher Lifelong Learning Insitute (better known as OLLI) at Berkshire Community College in Pittsfield, Mass. The membership organization is geared to people ages 50-plus and offers courses, special events and day trips to its members. The spring semester will go on as planned, but the courses will be online. Mastering Zoom will just be another feather in the cap of members who love being perennial students.
Twenty-seven classes were scheduled to start on April 13 all over the Berkshires. When the order came to shut schools down —OLLI is affiliated with Berkshire Community College — Whilden began reaching out to instructors to see if they’d be willing to offer their class online. Fifteen of them said yes. That lead to a flurry of arrangements to make Zoom training available to both instructors and members.
A combination of OLLI staff and volunteers are giving the Zoom instruction. OLLI provides the resources and sets up the online gatherings, and Whilden is hoping people will start meeting one to one and teaching each other. If there’s anything she’s certain about, it’s this: the members will enjoy it. They love learning new things, or else they probably wouldn’t be flocking to OLLI courses throughout the year. Early reports indicate the training appears to be taking off. In fact, OLLI's board president, Barbara Lane, was planning on attending a virtual cocktail party via Zoom with three other couples.
The Zoom training, however, doesn’t mean that the almost 1,300 members are necessarily computer novices. In fact, says Whilden, most of them are pretty computer, smartphone and internet savvy —it’s just a matter of getting comfortable with Zoom, as we’re all finding out. Nearly all but about 50 current members have smartphones or internet access, although, Whilden points out, the dearth of broadband in some parts of the Berkshires puts the spotlight on the need for dependable service around the county. An OLLI instructor, Bess Dillman, who is curating an OLLI class, lives in South Egremont, where the internet is not up to snuff, so she will be parking near the Great Barrington Town Hall to access its wifi for the class. As another option, some libraries have encouraged people to use their wifi by parking nearby.
Classes, taught by active and retired college professors, include The Songs of Woody’s Children: Pete Seeger and Beyond; Art and Artists of the Hudson River School; Macroecomics; and Women Spies and Codebreakers. Whilden has rejiggered the class times so there are no overlapping course for those who want to take multiple courses in a day.
There are some benefits to OLLIE-in-the-time-of-Covid-19. While courses are normally offered in a variety of locations throughout the Berkshires, the Zoom versions will allow people outside the area (and those stuck in place at their winter homes) to take part. And no drive time, either.
Another bright spot is the community connection online learning brings to those who may be at higher risk for infection. Being able to participate in class can contribute to their wellbeing and quality of life. Signing up for a class also adds structure to people’s days when one can hardly keep track of what day it is. Even those living along the last mile can take part in classes, because Zoom has a phone-in option. Win for OLLI, win for its members.
Registration is still open. Wherever you are, sign up and then, sign in.
