Teach a Course
Instructors are at the heart of the OLLI member experience. We welcome and appreciate new and returning instructors. Note: instructors do not need to be OLLI members to teach at OLLI.
Some OLLI policies and procedures have recently changed, so please review the following points as well as the information on the Course Proposal Form [PDF] before preparing a proposal.
- The Curriculum Committee will make every effort to accommodate your first choice of class time and day, but this will not always be possible. That is why we ask for alternate choices. Selecting only one time and day of the week may mean we cannot schedule your course.
- The fall, winter, and spring terms are ten weeks in length and each course is usually scheduled for one session per week. However, you may teach as many weeks as you wish, between two and ten. While we do not accept courses of only one class session, it may be possible to schedule this as part of OLLI's Community Lecture or Community Forum series. If you have a one-session program, please contact the OLLI office.
- Instructors are asked to submit an outline of the proposed course as a part of this proposal. Course enrollees should be given a copy of the outline at the first session (or provided to the OLLI office to post on the OLLI website). If an outline is not possible or appropriate for the course you are proposing, please indicate why an outline is not being submitted.
- Please be clear about any audio visual needs you have. All classrooms have up-to-date AV capability (i.e., digital projectors, DVD/VCR players, in-rack computers, laptop and flash drive connections, etc.). We need to know if you have any special needs such as a slide or overhead transparency projector.
- Please give as accurate and complete a description as possible of any books you intend participants to purchase, listing title, author, and if possible the year of publication. If you know the ISBN, it helps to provide it.
- We encourage instructors to post their course handouts on the website so that members can read and print them, but please provide hard copies for off-web people. The office will assist you with this. If you cannot get the pages to the office two days before class, you can go to Printfast, 1700 Ashland St., Ashland, tell them you are an OLLI instructor, and charge it. Printfast will keep your receipt copy for billing purposes.
- In order to assure a good fit between courses and students, when writing your course description, please attempt to draw the reader’s attention and be clear so that prospective students will know what to expect of the class. Your students would like to know what you will teach, how you will approach the subject matter (e.g., lecture or interactive discussion), how substantive your course will be and whether there will be reading or videos, CDs, etc.
- Courses must not be used to promote commercial interests, whether to sell a book, or to publicize a business or profession. You may state your background, including business affiliation, at the start of the first session, but should not do so thereafter. Promotional materials may not be distributed in OLLI courses.
For clarification on any part of the form, call Sally Klein, OLLI at SOU Coordinator 541-552-6048. For questions about course content or teaching approach, consult the Chair of the Curriculum Committee, Sandy Theis at theis.saundra@gmail.com or 488-7917.
Fall 2013 Course Proposal Forum [PDF]
This form can be typed into on your computer - Note: Do not use the "Preview" feature in your browser to fill out PDF forms. Save the PDF to your computer and use the free Acrobat Reader program to fill it out. You may also print this form and fill it out by hand.