Enhance your personal skills, learn how to use your creativity, commit to lifelong learning. The University of Minnesota offers many online and classroom-based opportunities to learn and to grow.

Online Offerings

Learning Life (College of Continuing Education)
The U of M's new learning community for people who truly believe that life keeps getting more and more interesting. Make today worth remembering and the journey toward tomorrow better at every turn. Whether you're looking to reinvent your career, live well in retirement, or expand your learning horizons, LearningLife can help.

University of Minnesota Extension E-Learning programs in gardening, natural resources, and family development are available to you as close as your computer.

Classroom-based Offerings

Bell Museum Programs - The Bell Museum of Natural History offers adult, family, group, and special event programs.

Design - The College of Design offers a variety of public lectures, exhibitions, podcasts, and symposia on design-related topics.  Design research, webcasts and short online courses are also available through InformeDesign.

Extension Programs - University of Minnesota Extension offers non-credit classes, seminars, and programs in the areas of community development and vitality; land, food, and the environment; and youth development and family living.

Goldstein Museum of Design -  The only design museum in the upper Midwest, the Goldstein annually presents three exhibitions plus a graduating students show and exhibitions in Rapson Hall. Topics cover the breadth of design - from clothing and textiles to decorative art and graphic design.  Most exhibitions are accompanied by public programs.

Mini-Medical School - The Academic Health Center provides a special opportunity for students to learn about new and emerging health-related issues, improve their knowledge about the body, and understand how research and discoveries translate into innovations and treatments.

Minnesota Landscape Arboretum - The University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum offers classes for adults, kids, and families. Click on the "Learn" tab on the Arboretum web site.

The Weisman Art Museum offers events, lectures, film and video showings, and a travel program to the public.

The College of Continuing Education offers a number of personal enrichment programs including:

Compleat Scholar
Indulge your lifelong passion for learning through conveniently-scheduled short courses in the arts and humanities, literature and reading, science and nature, and social sciences.

Great Conversations
Inspire your love of learning. University faculty engage international thought leaders in riveting conversations about the most vital ideas and issues of our time.

Headliners
Meet University and community experts as they share first-hand knowledge of the day’s most intriguing stories—the medical breakthroughs, culture clashes, social trends, and foreign affairs that are making headlines. Hear the Who, What, Why, and How from an insider’s point of view—and then share your insights and inquiries.

Split Rock Arts Program: Summer Workshops
Immerse yourself in workshops, retreats, and three-day intensives in creative writing, visual art, and design. All workshops are taught by renowned practicing artists; are held on the Twin Cities campus or at the Cloquet Forestry Center in northern Minnesota; and may be taken for no credit or undergraduate/graduate credit.

Curiosity Camp
Give yourself a break with one-day summer learning adventures for adults. Eminent University scholars and community experts explore places and things you've always been curious about.

Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI)
Get connected with other lifelong learners. Become a member of OLLI and participate in group study and personal learning through peer-led, non-credit classes, lectures, discussion groups, and travel opportunities that reflect the variety and intellectual rigor of the University of Minnesota.