Early history
In 1962 the Institute for Retired Professionals (IRP) was founded in New York City in association with the New School for Social Research (nowElderhostel Institute Network / Road Scholar Lifelong Learning Institute Network
By the mid-1980s about 50 lifelong learning institutes had been started. Requests to older lifelong learning institutes for information and assistance in setting up new institutes had become overwhelming.Nancy Merz Nordstrom and Jon F. Merz, ''Learning Later, Living Greater'', Sentient Publications, Boulder, CO, 2006, pp.70–72. In 1984 a regional network, the Association for Learning in Retirement of the West (ALIROW), was formed to assist. Its usefulness led representatives of the lifelong learning institutes at New School University, Harvard College, UCLA, Duke University, and American University to create a national network. To implement it they teamed with Elderhostel, an established travel corporation that serviced the same age group. The Elderhostel Institute Network opened in 1988 with the mission of supporting its member lifelong learning institutes, leading workshops, giving advice on how to start new institutes, and providing information about its member institutes, which numbered about 75 in 1988. By 1994 there were nearly 300 member institutes; by 2006 there were over 350 member institutes, and by 2019 there were over 400 member institutes. In 2013, a corporate name change resulted in the Elderhostel Institute Network getting the new name "Road Scholar Lifelong Learning Institute Network."Osher Foundation funding
The private, charitable Bernard Osher Foundation greatly increased the funding of lifelong learning institutes across the United States beginning in 2001. That year, the foundation gave an endowment grant to Senior College at the University of Southern Maine, whereupon it renamed itself the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, or OLLI. That was the first of numerous renamings of existing lifelong learning institutes asMeeting styles
Lifelong learning institutes use two fundamentally-different meeting styles: ''instructor-led'' and ''peer-led''. The meeting style can affect many aspects of the learning and social experience in a lifelong learning institute. Instructor-led meetings use an expert lecturer to present content to a passive group of lifelong learning institute members. That style is familiar to American students from elementary school through university. The extent to which members must prepare in advance is up to the lecturer. A lecturer may choose to take questions, but that is the only discussion that takes place in an instructor-led meeting except for informal post-meeting conversation. Instructor-led meetings can accommodate hundreds of members at once. Peer-led meetings consist primarily of group discussion of content by lifelong learning institute members, who must study the content before the meeting. That meeting style is typical of graduate-level college and university seminars. The member who leads the meeting may prepare a short outline of the content, and/or discussion questions about the content, that is distributed well before the meeting. No expert is present; the discussion itself illuminates the content and can deepen members' understanding of it—and of each other. Peer-led meetings must be small enough to allow all members to interact easily. Most of the oldest lifelong learning institutes—IRP at New School University, HILR at Harvard College, the PLATO Society of Los Angeles, and ILR at Northwestern—have peer-led meetings exclusively, while many lifelong learning institutes have instructor-led meetings with content presented by professors or knowledgeable institute members.Activities
While learning is central, many lifelong learning institutes also have busy programs of activities. Those can include opportunities at the associated college or university, such as having a library or student card or attending campus lectures, classes, or events. There are also activities that are limited to institute members, such as discussion groups, social gatherings, and theater groups; group visits to museums, art exhibitions, and historic places; regional and international group travel.Administration
Most lifelong learning institutes have administrative and financial ties to the college or university with which they are associated, with details that vary widely. A few lifelong learning institutes have total administrative and financial independence.Lists of institutes
The Road Scholar Lifelong Learning Institute Network maintains a searchable list of all its member lifelong learning institutes, including location and contact information. The Osher Foundation maintains a list of the names of all Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes. Some institutes appear in both lists.References
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