Posted on 09/07/2009 6:06:46 PM PDT by Clint Williams
Older adults can take a college course and earn a certificate in the mastery of aging well through a new Web-based program developed by Oregon State University.
Co-branded by AARP Oregon, the program developed at the Southern Oregon Research and Extension Center in Central Point is expected to have nationwide reach, says Sharon Johnson, the OSU associate professor who designed the coursework and Web content.
"This is one of the first times the university has really targeted older adult students," Johnson says.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture provided $300,000 for the program's development after requesting grant applications for "innovative learning opportunities" for older adults in rural areas, Johnson says, adding that she never expected to win the award. Johnson spent the past year creating five modules addressing issues that most affect seniors, including memory difficulties, managing medications, physical activity, diet and depression.
"This is just very different for Extension and this demographic," Johnson says.
The program's first tier, available online free of charge, provides a multimedia overview of the five modules. The Web site presents practical, research-based solutions to problems that seniors or their family members commonly encounter, Johnson says, adding that the modules were field-tested by more than 20 local participants.
"We've been getting great response," she says. "One woman called the physical activity module 'brilliant."'
Seniors can enroll for further study with OSU in January. A fee of $225 connects students to an online class of 15 who, with Johnson and a panel of older adults, discuss scenarios and work through practical examples. Students can develop a personal action plan for behavior change. Coursework is conducted by phone, e-mail and Web-based chats.
"Option two is they basically get a mentor," Johnson says.
A third tier expands on the second with printed and bound materials that include references and sources, as well as a DVD of the entire course. Students can earn a certificate of completion in Mastery of Aging Well after passing a final exam. Scholarships are available for the third option, which costs $325.
The free Web content will be updated periodically, Johnson says, adding that OSU needs no further grants to maintain the program.
"There is built-in sustainability," she says.
While the grant did not require an Internet component, the format is likely to reach large numbers of aging adults, Johnson says. It's not necessarily the case that adults in their 80s use the Internet less than seniors who are decades younger, she adds.
"There's an increasingly greater percentage of people who would be able to access this."
Jacksonville resident Gail Myers, 86, agrees after helping Johnson field-test the program.
"The seniors are very computer-literate," says Myers, a former higher-education administrator who specialized in communication and media.
Yet many seniors, Myers adds, don't know where to get information on the issues that are most relevant to them. He likens Mastery of Aging Well and its certification process to OSU's popular master gardening and master food preserving programs.
Naurine McCormick, 84, says that seniors who are eager for more education tend to be more Internet-savvy. A retired associate dean of home economics for OSU, she helped Johnson brainstorm topics with the belief that her fellow seniors value education and training even as they age out of the work force.
"Having another credential is important to us," McCormick says.
AARP Oregon values the program's extensive research and credibility, says Joyce DeMonnin, the organization's director of public outreach. Her office agreed to help market Mastery of Aging Well to its members via e-mail and is considering linking its Web site to the program's, DeMonnin adds.
Does it tell them that lower back tattoos aren’t attractive on 80 year olds?
The “Mastery of Aging” program in Orgeon: “Mrs. Jones, now that you’ve had your 70th birthday, allow me to introduce you to Dr. Kevorkian.”
“Mastery of Aging”.....means.....I KNOW OBOMBA....and HE ain’t American!
That's the end-all, be-all for press agentry cloaked as public relations. I used to "plant" corporate articles in the media all the time. If you give them a publicity hand-out they'll reject it as advertising fluff. But it you talk with a reporter and let him/her think they've come up with a great feature story angle, you're home free.
Must be another huge shovel full of tax dollars about to be dumped into student loan programs.
Every time that happens, yet more useless, pointless, purposeless and idiotic “courses of instruction” get added to college and university catalogs.
LOL — you’ve got it!
Mastery of Beer 101
A history of Wine Drinking 201 Hard Alchohol 301
Your liver, and how to ruin it 401
Pot or Beer, the ancient conundrum (elective)
Advanced Tequila
Liqueurs are for sissies (elective)
Graduate programs
> Doctorate program in "cross" drinking.
Yer humming bird tattoo turn into a pelican did it ?:o)
LOL.
My anteater done went all pot bellied pig on me.
Well, I don’t think I will be needing that course. I’ve almost reached my 76th b’day and I’m still working a full-time job, do community volunteering, am a reenactor for fun, serve on several community committees, head up a 501(C)3 Performing Arts Council that I started myself, direct & act in stage productions, am going to act in a movie soon, babysit my grandaughter 2 days a week,and still have time to freep. I am happy and blessed. What is it about aging that I need to learn?
What do Seniors need with mentors? Shouldn’t that be the other way around? Especially in life experiences.
senior studies... just something else to separate them from their money.
So much for basket weaving 101.
What IS attractive about any 80 year old?
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Only LIBERAL Seniors need MENTORS.....Liberals are NEEDY people!
LOl!
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