Laura Wetherald, a Senior LERN Leader, past Chair of the LERN Recreation Council, and one of the leading recreation professionals in the field, passed away recently due to COVID.

From our exclusive survey of lifelong learning programs, here’s the top things you are doing right in 2021.

It takes no time. And it doesn’t cost anything more.

Gain a 21st Century skill for the rest of your career.

February 2021 set another new all-time monthly record for registrations for UGotClass.

Our LERN hero did it again.

You told us. We listened. Here’s your Top 3 information needs for 2021 for which you asked LERN to help.

Online learning is still hot now. And that surge in online learners won’t cool down after the pandemic.

By request. LERN predicts the future for the field of lifelong learning. We talk about the hot issues today. We suggest answers. And we offer controversial cutting-edge ideas and strategies.

If you have not yet read our “Your 2021 Game Plan Checklist,” get it in the LERN Club, now.

The Certified Faculty Developer (CFD) professional development and designation is the leading program and designation in higher education.

For the second time, a LERN member program has gotten its own U.S. postal stamp. The Chicago Botanic Gardens has its own stamp, part of the “American Gardens” series of stamps.

Make money and serve your community with LERN’s new Contact Tracing Training Program.

SQL, one of the four certificates in LERN’s new Data Science program, is now being offered monthly, year round.

You can’t take care of your community if you don’t take care of yourself, LERN’s Senior Vice President Julie Coates warns.

Having been through numerous recessions over the past 50 years, LERN offers you this Optional information regarding your personal finances in the pandemic.

More Certified Online Instructors (COI) have been certified this year than any year since its founding twenty years ago.

The happy news continues for December. Enjoy.

It’s now time to look at your program’s game plan for 2021. With the uncertainty of the pandemic situation either continuing or in fluctuation, your programming needs to reflect the reality of that external environment.

Based on the record registrations for this fall, here’s our recommendations to increase your UGotClass registrations and income in 2021.

Even during these tough times of budget cuts and reduced income, LERN Members are staying with LERN, and staying strong.

LERN Membership continues to be strong. Here’s what LERN has done for you recently. We got more good stuff comin at ya this fall.

A new independent study has shown that LERN Members have 10% higher registrations than non-members.

News you might not have seen to keep your hopes up, and your work strong, during the pandemic.

The most popular new skill set in North America right now is Data Science.  UGotClass has just added a whole new Data Science category of four certificates (12 courses) to the fall line up.

Regular free UGotClass Briefing webinars are now being held for people interested in becoming a Partner. 

Exclusive to LERN members, LERN is producing both webinars and articles with Recommendations on the top issues for your program right now.

Huge attendance at our almost-daily webinars, new research into the top pandemic issues for member programs, and a new plan to ramp up your program with online are the top 3 services for members this month. Here’s the list.

Perhaps because of the budget woes the pandemic has produced, central administrators are starting to revisit a disastrous move that almost killed the entire field of lifelong learning over the past five years. 

Thanks for the many testimonials we have been getting from our pandemic special webinars, information and Exclusive Members-Only Recommendations. 

Online, even after the pandemic, will keep growing.  Online now needs to be a part of your offerings moving forward. 

Free webinars for you, teachers in your institution and even your customers in your community are now being held almost daily by LERN.

If your students start to fall off in participation.  If your teachers ask how to improve their courses. If you are planning to keep doing online courses past the next two months.

Thanks to you members who have asked for new LERN services and information during the pandemic.

It’s one of the top questions programmers are asking LERN right now. And we have the answers.

It’s the most important question we received this month.  And possibly the most important question ever on marketing and promotion for your program.

Thanks to LERN members who contributed to the earthquake relief efforts in Puerto Rico. Over $1,000 was raised for the effort to buy food and medical supplies to help the victims of on the ongoing earthquakes.

Some 130 LERN member programs have responded so far. If you have not yet responded to our Program Survey, you shortly will be getting another request to complete it. 

Operations is possibly the fastest growing area of lifelong learning programming right now. It is key to profitability.  The upcoming first-ever Operations Conference has great registrations already.  From the upcoming conference, here’s a sneak preview of the top 7 trends.

LERN Members generated more than 1,000 registrations for February UGotClass online courses, one of the best ever for the month. 

What started off as a little idea soon became the “little engine that could” for Sanford Community Education in Springville, Maine. Slowly, more and more local musicians joined the cause to create what would become Sanford’s weeklong summer camp for musically-minded students, mentored by local rock musicians.

We are both sad and grateful to Julia King Tamang and Fred Bayley for their work with LERN. They each did outstanding presentations at the big LERN annual conference in San Diego, unfortunately their last LERN conference.

Here are the Courses of the Year LERN has selected from many excellent submissions. It was hard to choose with so many programs doing such great work out there.