OLLI Members Embrace Remote Learning

My dear mother used to say: “When life gets challenging, you can expect angels to appear out of the woodwork.” It made sense to me then – our 1950’s suburban home had lots of decorative paneling. But it turns out that Mom was right – several OLLI members/angels are stepping up and offering their assistance to help get our program through this unusual time. Robbie Fanning has volunteered to assist teacher Kit Kirkpatrick to manage her OLLI Memoirs online course. Gopal Kapur has suggested three other classes he’s ready to offer online to make up for the loss of spring courses that can’t be held online, and board member Gail Yokote turns out to be a whiz with technology. She is helping instructors to rehearse Zoom class delivery in practice sessions. If you have time or a talent to share with OLLI while we all shelter in place, let us know! Contact OLLI Volunteer Chair Charlotte Lucero at ollivolunteerchair@gmail.com.

We’re encouraged by member response to the videos on our new YouTube channel. Members are clicking-in and watching some of our most engaging courses from the past. Here are two comments we received from members on the first day:

“It was as easy as pie— teacher Jerry DeCamp manifested on my smart phone instantly! Shall watch with wifi...thank you guys so much!!!” – Adrienne

“These YouTube classes are great. Thank you, thank you, thank you!” – Norma

Barbara Drushell’s The Glory that Was Greece – Part 1 has had the most views, and the second part of that class will be available this week. Way to go, Barbara! Lectures by The Davis Enterprise’s Bob Dunning and UC Davis Medical Center physician Marlia Braun are just two of this week’s new titles. We hope you’ll enjoy all the latest additions.

I want to end by reassuring you that our IT department is making every effort to keep our Zoom courses secure, and we are following their advisories when setting up our class meetings to block any unwanted content or hacking. And we’re doing great! The first online session of Crossroads America had over 25 people in attendance!

Don’t forget that you can easily phone in to our classes and participate without a computer with Zoom’s conference call feature. That phone link is included in every class email invitation.

We look forward to seeing more and more of you in an online class and using the new YouTube service. Please stay safe and healthy until we meet again.

Warmly,
Lisa Smith-Youngs    
Director – OLLI at UC Davis