Teach at Harrisburg

OLLI welcomes anyone who is interested to be an instructor — from those who have taught in university or school settings to those with no formal teaching experience who simply have a desire to share their passion for a particular art, hobby, topic, or interest.

Many instructors have shared that teaching for OLLI has been some of the most rewarding teaching experiences of their lives. OLLI learners are intelligent, vibrant, and engaged. They bring to the classroom a wisdom, maturity, and depth of experience that is difficult to find in younger learners. Many instructors also cherish the opportunity to teach without worrying about grades, homework, and tests.

OLLI instructors are volunteers, however, they receive a complimentary OLLI membership as a thank you ($65 value). We appreciate the generosity of instructors in sharing their time and talent with us and neither OLLI nor Penn State will assume ownership of their content or course materials. 

The online course proposal form provides the OLLI committee and staff the information to plan and schedule your course. We recommend that you have this information on hand prior to filling out the proposal form:

1. Your personal information, including brief biography. Refer to examples below.
2. Preferred teaching format (in-person, online, or hybrid) and technology needs.
3. Course information, including title, description, additional details and supplies (if needed), semester choice, number of sessions, length
4. Preferred teaching schedule – day of the week, time of day, etc.
5. Any special venue locations (other than Penn State Outreach Building) or equipment needs.

Note: OLLI at Penn State reserves the right to edit or reduce course descriptions, titles, and/or bios as required to meet catalog standards and requirements.

These examples provide OLLI instructors with a reference for crafting engaging course descriptions and narrative biographies for new course proposals.

Course Title: An eye-catching title is descriptive and concise.

Course Description: Write a paragraph (three to five sentences) explaining how participants will engage in the class. This course description should be informative, enticing, and brief. Please use complete sentences.

Short Instructor Biographies: Write a three- to five-sentence narrative biography, in third-person point of view, that includes your work/background experience, relevant education (formal or informal), and your interest or expertise in teaching this topic. This information should be pertinent to the course described.