Online (In House) Courses   

Back again by popular demand, retired CIA officer Meredith Woodruff, who served 25 years in the Agency and retired as its most senior female officer in operations, will describe life in the world of espionage. With only two sessions, she’ll provide an overview of how spies work and then leave most of the class time for those questions you’ve always wanted to ask.

Join us for the year-round OLLI Mystery Book Club on the second Monday of the month. Our group selects books from member recommendations and members take turns leading the discussion. Must be an active OLLI at OSU member to participate.

Together we’ll read Old Home Town by Rose Wilder Lane, daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder and editor of the Little House book series. Written while she was struggling to find content for her own projects, she looks to her hometown of Mansfield, Missouri, to recreate small-town society of pre-World War I America with a precise feeling for decorum, dress, and kitchen dialogue. The overlay of nostalgia cannot hide some sharp observations about marriage and women's rights. As we read, we’ll place the novel in its historical context, examine its publication history, and consider Rose’s life and her complex relationship with her parents.

On November 3, all 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and 35 in the senate will be up for re-election! Hundreds of local and state offices/issues will be settled! Turn-out in POTUS elections is around 60%. Mid-terms? Barely 40%! This mid-term may be more consequential than any recent election. So, let's dig into all the national issues, looking a how they rank-by party affiliation, generation and region. We'll look at some of the better forecasts of results and we'll conduct our own on-line, in-class polls of issues/results. YES, we will forecast the House-Senate results by party!

The course will examine Germany's history over the last 100 years. It will examine Germany's first experiment in democracy, the Weimar Republic (1919-1933), and the Third Reich and the Holocaust (1933-1945), German division, democracy and communist dictatorship (1945-1990), and then reunited Germany (1990-present). The course will place these era into the larger context of the struggle between freedom and unity in Germany and Germany's place in Europe and the world.

The portrayal in the media and entertainment industries of how people respond during fire and other emergencies is typically not accurate. In this course, we will discuss the difference between how people actually respond compared to the ways that they are portrayed as responding. In addition to covering how people respond during fire and other emergencies, participants in the course will be introduced to how the building codes address human behavior and how this has changed over time. In addition, we will cover how information can be delivered that will result in better and safer responses for a variety of different types of events including large crowds, community-level, and building-level events.

We all carry stories—moments that shaped us, surprised us, or stayed with us long after they passed. This four-week course invites participants to revisit those moments and gently shape them into short, meaningful monologues. Through guided prompts, brief mentor texts inspired by The Moth, and time to write and reflect, participants will explore how memory becomes story—how a single moment can hold humor, insight, and connection. The course grows out of recent community storytelling workshops, including work with an international group of adults in Mazatlán, Mexico, where storytelling became a way to build community across difference. No prior writing or performance experience is needed. Sharing is always optional. Together, we will write, remember, and listen—honoring the stories we carry and the lives behind them. The course will conclude with an optional, informal gathering for those who wish to share their work.

Scammers are getting so sophisticated and using AI to grow more adept at tricking people every day. We will explore some online scams, how you can protect yourself, and how you can help educate your friends and family.

OLLI is excited to offer members an opportunity to travel within the United States together. We partner with Collette to provide engaging, well-organized group travel experiences for our members. This fall, we will be hosting a Zoom information session to introduce three new upcoming trips. This is a great opportunity to learn more about the itineraries, ask questions, and see if any of these travel experiences are a good fit for you. We hope you’ll consider joining us for what promises to be an exciting opportunity to explore and connect with fellow OLLI members.