OUTREACH IN EDUCATIONAL GERONTOLOGY

Abstract

As a response to requests for off‐campus instruction in gerontology, a radio course “Perspectives on Aging” was developed as a multidisciplinary introductory course in the spring semester 1976 at Sangamon State University. Lectures by the course instructor, along with the tapes of talks given at the annual Gerontology Institute were incorporated to provide breadth and variety. Two broadcasts, each one hour in length, were aired twice a week over the university's radio station, WSSR‐FM. Twenty‐four students representing 10 different disciplines enrolled in the course the first semester that it was offered; seven of these were graduate students. Required reading included a study guide containing course instructions, broadcast dates, reading assignments, supplementary reading, bibliography, final examination and diagrams; a text written from a multidisciplinary perspective; and a book of readings. Student evaluations indicated a strong interest in continuing the radio course. The radio course has now been expanded to a radio/cassette course and is offered through the Sangamon State University campus radio station and media division of the university library, and also as a cassette course on the campus of Illinois Central College in Peoria. There is sufficient indication that radio/cassette courses are effective media for education in gerontology, not only for the place‐bound student, but for on‐campus students as well.