The COVID pandemic changed a lot of things – both in my town and across the globe. Old ways of doing things disappeared with remarkable speed. We all became proficient in using technology to communicate in ways we had never believed possible. Public schools taught through Zoom or other platforms, and workplaces began encouraging (or requiring) employees to work from home. I don’t think the high-rise canyons of downtown office buildings will ever be repopulated to 2019 levels, and this will have enormous implications not only for urban planners but for all of us.
Programs like the Osher Institute for Lifelong Learning at William and Mary have also changed. Our instructors and our members are part of a vulnerable population – we’re mostly retired and we’re all over 60, and many of us are immuno-compromised because of previous or current medical conditions. Many of us are also technology-compromised; some of us have adapted to emerging technologies better than others of us, but few of us are as proficient as we need to be if we want to operate effortlessly in this “new normal.”
During COVID, the Osher program continued to offer instruction through Zoom. However, many of our long-time instructors were not interested in teaching that way, and a lot of our members were also uncomfortable with that mode of instruction. When we returned to in-person instruction (following the rules set by the College of William and Mary, our institutional home), some of our instructors and members objected to the college vaccine mandate, and many of our instructors were unwilling to teach while wearing a face mask. Our members also were hesitant about joining classes that required them to sit in an enclosed room with a lot of other people.
All this has led to a current problem our program faces – although we are not alone, as all programs like Osher are dealing with the same issues. We do not have the instructors or the members that we need to operate a vibrant and growing program. One of the indicators of this is that during our enrollment period, many of our members are shut out of classes that they want to take, and many popular classes have long waitlists. This makes members unhappy, and unhappy members don’t sign up for the next semester. This is the opposite of what we need to see if we want to grow and sustain the program.
So we are doing something about it. In February, we are offering a course called “Osher Wants YOU: Be an Instructor for Osher at W&M.” Right now, 20 people have signed up for this class, and we hope that this will generate new course proposals for the fall semester.
I’m part of the group of six instructors who will be co-teaching this class; we have met a couple of times to talk about what we want to do, and we will meet again next week to firm up our presentation and continue to brainstorm how to make the course proposal process simpler and more accessible for new instructors. We’ll meet one more time to do a run-through of our presentation before the class meets. This group includes instructors from a variety of subject areas and with a variety of teaching styles, so I hope we’ll have something that will appeal to everyone in the class. We will be delighted if this class generates a bunch of new proposals for next fall. We’ll offer the course every semester as we continue to build our stable of instructors (and thus our course offerings) as we adjust to the post-COVID normal.
It has been interesting to strategize for this course. Our current Osher instructors have a wide variety of life experiences. Some were career college professors – who often need to alter lifelong teaching habits as they recognize that the Osher members aren’t seeking a degree or admission to grad school. Others come from the corporate training world – and they also need to recognize that Osher members are interested in being informed and entertained but do not necessarily want to be held accountable for remembering the course content over the long run. Other instructors are retired public school teachers; these instructors are sometimes very successful because they are accustomed to having to set their hair on fire in order to keep the attention of children, and these skills translate remarkably well to an older audience. There is another set of instructors who have never taught anything but have an interest that they would like to share with Osher members. The potential instructors in this class will need different types of support as they think about offering an Osher course, and although the 2-hour session we’re offering in February will be a good start, it won’t be able to address all of their needs.
So what do we want to happen as a result of this course? The proposal deadline for the fall semester is in April, and we anticipate that many of the potential instructors who take this class will have time to put their proposals together in time for the fall catalog. To help the new instructors make this deadline, we will offer a variety of support options, including understanding the needs and capabilities of adult learners, brainstorming and refining a topic, preparing a proposal, producing a manageable course outline, creating accessible PowerPoint slides, using the technology in the various classroom spaces where we teach, engaging the audience through various public speaking techniques, and so forth. We will offer formal mentor relationships to the new instructors who want that, and we’ll provide various types of ongoing support to other new instructors who have specific needs and concerns.
Our first goal is to demystify the process and make people feel comfortable about offering a class. Even the most experienced instructors are nervous about doing a lousy job in front of their friends and neighbors, so we will focus on easing that anxiety. None of the current Osher instructors would teach for the program if they weren’t having fun, and we want potential new instructors to find the same enjoyment and satisfaction that we feel as instructors for this program.
The more the merrier! If you are reading this and think you might want to teach for the Osher program, let me know. You don’t have to take the February class in order to become an Osher instructor. You don’t even have to live in Williamsburg – we will continue to offer classes through Zoom. I can talk you through the process and connect you with the people who will make this easy for you.
"these instructors are sometimes very successful because they are accustomed to having to set their hair on fire in order to keep the attention of children"
hahahahaha, so true!
Thanks, Karen!