OLLIonline Receives Renewed Funding

Margaret Gordon, dean, College of Extended & International Education (CEE), was notified in August that CEE will receive renewed funding of $100,000 from the Bernard Osher Foundation for its Osher Lifelong Learning Institute and the OLLIonline project.

OLLIonline is an innovative lifelong learning program designed for mature and retired adults who may not be able to travel to college campuses where such programs are traditionally offered; CEE also offers an on-campus program called Omnilore, also funded by the Bernard Osher Foundation. The fifth OLLIonline series, "American Film, Television and Culture of the 1950s" will begin on September 14. Programs are broadcast live from CSUDH studios on cable channel LA36 and on the World Wide Web at www.OLLIonline.tv.

"We've had a lifelong learning group since 1990 with Omnilore," she says. "When the Bernard Osher Foundation sent out a request for proposals, we decided to do something a little bit different and try to replicate the experience that our Omnilore people had in their learning society with using media."

Gordon attributes much of the success of OLLIonline to Joanne Zitelli, associate dean, College of Extended Education and Jim Bouchard, senior program development specialist, College of Extended Education Extension Program. She also cites "the cutting edge of a movement that is happening now with the living patterns of senior citizens."

"An aging-in-place movement is emerging, where there's an attempt to keep senior citizens in their homes for longer periods of time," she notes. "What we have here is a program that is designed to meet the needs of seniors who are isolated or who are living in retirement homes and don't have ready access to a university campus. We're actually bringing it to them and giving it the sense of a community. I think we did the right thing at the right time."

Media contact: Russ Hudson, Media Relations Coordinator, (310) 243-2455/2001, rhudson@csudh.edu