Teaching for UR Osher

While a good percentage of our instructors are members, we welcome community experts, authors, UR faculty/staff, and others to teach. All are volunteers.

Course proposals may be submitted at any time, but typically in June for the fall term, October for the spring term, and February for the summer term.

You will receive an email confirmation within 24 hours that your proposal was submitted successfully. If you do not hear from us, please reach out to Osher Director Peggy Watson at margaret.watson@richmond.edu. 

It takes about a month after the deadline for submissions to review the courses for a term and begin the scheduling process. You will know if your proposal has been accepted when the Osher staff reaches out with a proposed time and date. If your course has not been accepted, you will also be notified.

There are several factors that help determine if your proposal is accepted:

• Repeat courses: we recommend waiting several semesters before offering the same course again. (Exceptions include courses with wait lists and small cap enrollments and certain courses that are offered every semester, such as orientation, library talks, and some Aging Well topics.)
• Duplicated topics: if several instructors are proposing to teach on the same topic, we may accept only one.
• Room in the schedule: because we offer only one course per time slot, we may simply run out of slots to offer.

We strive to schedule courses to fit each instructor’s schedule while keeping in mind our members’ preferences for attending class. We typically offer courses beginning at these times each weekday: 10 a.m., 1 p.m., and 3:30 p.m. Night and weekend classes are an option, especially when a course lends itself to those time slots.

Additionally, we offer courses from the National Osher Resource Center. These online courses vary from our own UR Osher courses in that they may be any day and at any time because that they are offered simultaneously in all time zones. These courses often conflict with our own Osher courses, but they do offer a value-added online component we would not have otherwise.

Because our courses can be a single lecture up to an eight-part course, our classes can begin at any time during the semester.

The UR Osher Institute follows the University of Richmond’s calendar for campus-wide holidays and other closings.

UR Osher in-person classes are held in various classrooms and buildings throughout the campus. We reserve rooms based on class size and instructor requirements.

We do offer classes that are off campus, and we market them as “field trips” and “drive-to events.”

UR Osher online courses are offered via a Zoom link, which the staff creates and manages for instructors and provides to students. Each online class has staff and/or a class host to take attendance, monitor the Chat for questions, and manage other aspects of the zoom session.

National Osher Online courses are managed by the National Resource Center and require a different log-in, which is provided to students.

Classrooms and event spaces at the University of Richmond are equipped with projectors and screens, and most classrooms also have computers and HDMI cords (which makes it easy for instructors who wish to use their own laptop). More about UR’s Standard Classroom Technology Configuration maybe be found here.

Osher instructors are expected to create their own handouts, visuals, slide presentations, and any other teaching materials.

The UR Teaching and Learning Center (TLC) is available to Osher member-instructors. TLC staff can assist with the finishing touches on a slide presentation. You must have your UR Network credentials and make an appointment.

We are happy to work with instructors who wish to test the technology in their classroom in advance of their class.

Yes, you would incorporate this into your course proposal by indicated the number of sessions in person, online, or in a different location.

Osher courses are intended to educate members, not to facilitate financial gain of the instructors, either directly or by increasing business opportunities. The one exception is with Osher instructors who are authors. They may sell and sign their books after class.

The instructor may provide business cards and other literature at the back of the classroom for members to pick up if they wish. Handouts and other course information should be provided to all enrollees without having to sign up to receive them.

Virginia student privacy laws protect Osher members and their contact information. The Osher Office will not give out members’ contact information.

Please send an email to osher@richmond.edu or call the Osher Office at 804-287-6344 for assistance. You may stop by during office hours with general questions Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m.–5 p.m.

You may always email the Osher Office about any aspect of your class at osher@richmond.edu.

Several weeks before the start of the class, you will receive an email providing the number of students registered and the location of your class, and we request any slide decks and/or handouts you wish to use or send out. We will load your slide deck into the University’s cloud storage and have it available for download and use the day of your class.

Due to Virginia Student Privacy laws, the Osher Office acts as the intermediary for communication between you and your students. We are happy to send course information, including assignments and handouts, before or after class.

The Osher Office will send out materials to those registered in class at your request and on your timeline. We prefer to send all handouts and other materials electronically.

If the enrollment is greater than the maximum number of students specified by the instructor, a waitlist is created. When students withdraw from a course, the Osher Office will invite waitlisted students to participate.

Managing the waitlist requires no action on the instructor’s part. We often have a few registered students who do not withdraw and their seat cannot be filled from the waitlist.

We only admit students to a class prior to the first session. We do not register students into a class that has already started.

The UR Osher Institute policy states that a member may invite a guest to one session of class per year (excluding special events and courses that carry fees for all members). Instructors follow this same policy. There must be seats available and no waiting list. Members and instructors who wish to bring a guest are asked to contact the Osher office in advance of the class.

The Osher Office requests feedback from each student registered in our Osher classes. We have an online evaluation system, and a link is sent to each student at the conclusion of each class. It’s a simple form, and we hope our members will take a minute to respond. The responses are anonymous, and the tallied data is confidential.

The Osher staff allows two to three weeks for all members to respond. Then we pull a report and send it to the instructor. We also ask the instructor for feedback on the support provided in preparation for and delivery of the course.

If you need to cancel your talk or multi-session class (or one session of it), please contact Peggy Watson in the Osher Office (margaret.watson@richmond.edu) as soon as you can. We can look at rescheduling, cancelling, or combining sessions, depending on the nature of the course.

The Osher Office will notify all instructors and registered students of any weather or other issues that would require cancelling or delaying a class. The University will notify the entire campus community of closures, and the Osher staff will share this information as quickly as possible to avoid unnecessary travel to campus.

CALL 911 ON THE CLASSROOM PHONE.

There is a house phone in every classroom/event space on campus. It is critical to use this phone to call 911, as the UR Police will be able to locate you far faster than if you dial 911 on your cell phone.