Senior Learners, Inc.

 

Submit Your Fall 2021 Course Proposals

It’s time to submit your course proposals for the Fall 2021 Term, which starts Monday, August 30. Our Fall Term Kickoff and Senior Learners, Inc., Annual Meeting will be in the College of Central Florida Building 20 Lobby on August 27, 1:30 to 3:30 PM.

CF needed our former classroom, so we are now in Room 107 in Building 20 which has a capacity of 30 students and 1 instructor. Some popular courses will be online only to allow greater participation. Eventually, we hope to offer hybrid courses during where some students will be in the classroom while others participate online using Zoom. 

Starting with the Fall Term, CF expects to eliminate social distancing and mask requirements in most of its facilities. Some seniors may not have been vaccinated or are otherwise susceptible to adverse outcomes from COVID–19 infections. The Board strongly recommends that such students either participate on Zoom or take protective measures while they are in the classroom. Of course, a resurgence of COVID–19 infections, especially amongst the previously vaccinated, could reduce the number of students permitted in the classroom, or make it unavailable. 

Please consider offering a course. Instructors decide whether their courses are in the classroom or online. The Great Courses include a large number of topics that you might use, or you can create your own.

Course Proposal Process

1. Decide whether you prefer to teach online or in person in the classroom.
2. Download the Guidelines for SLI Online Instructors that outlines equipment requirements and provides tips and tutorials for developing online classes.
3. Check the Table of Openings to see the current open dates. Reserve a time slot early by sending an email to info@seniorlearners.org with your preferred date(s) and time.
4. Please focus on the one- or two-week openings for short courses to preserve the multiple consecutive week openings for longer courses.
5. Submit your complete course proposals with the course titles and descriptions no later than July 18. You can email your course proposal to info@seniorlearners.org.

Course Proposals

Course Proposals must include the following information:

1. Name
2. Email
3. Phone
4. Mailing Address
5. Course Title
6. Course Description
7. Preferences
   1. Delivery Preference: Classroom, Online, Hybrid (if this becomes available)
   2. Day of week
   3. Class length (hours)
   4. Number of sessions
   5. Start date
   6. Start time
   7. Student Fee** ($2.50 per classroom hour)
   8. Instructor Fee** ($2.50 per classroom hour for each student registered -- maximum fee is $25/hr)

** If fewer than 10 paying students register for a course, the Instructor has the option of accepting a prorated reduced fee or cancelling the course. If cancelled, the Instructor will not be paid a fee. Instructors may choose to waive their fee.

Board Policies on Courses

Extremely long courses tend to discourage registrations; both because the cost for students becomes substantial and they often are not able to attend all of the classes.

1. Unless we are short of courses during a term, the maximum number of 2-hour class periods any instructor can offer is the number of instructional weeks in the term.
2. Courses normally should be no more than 4 to 6 weeks long. When possible, courses needing more than 6 weeks should be broken into two or more shorter courses. No course will be scheduled that is longer than 8 weeks.
3. When long courses are broken into two or more shorter courses, provisions must be made in the later courses for students to join without having attended the earlier session(s). For example, this accommodation can be accomplished by not relying on the content of the earlier courses(s) or by including summaries of the information needed for the next course in the first class.
4. Instructors are prohibited from promoting commercial products and services for their benefit.

New and Potential Instructors

If you would like to become a Senior Learners Instructor, please send an email to info@seniorlearners.org. Please include: 1. Your name, phone, and email; 2. A summary of the course you would like to offer; 3. Your training and experience..

We will review the information and let you know whether your course fits into our plans.

Please do not contact CF personnel about any Senior Learners, Inc. courses. Senior Learners, Inc. is independent of CF. We have the use of a classroom and we support the CF Foundation with donations. If you have any questions about our courses or operations, contact us at info@seniorlearners.org.