According to Dr. Martha Maxwell in an article , "An Annual Institute for Directors and Staff of College Learning Centers,"  published in an 1981 volume of the Jossey-Bass series, NEW DIRECTIONS FOR COLLEGE LEARNING ASSISTANC , audience response to an IRA presentation by herself, Ernest Gourdine (UC Davis), and Barbara Tomlinson (UC Riverside), demonstrated to Maxwell and her two co-presenters that there was a need to have some type of program for learning center directors and practitioners to learn what other learning centers were doing, to exchange information on successful practices and materials, and, in general, to improve their professionality in a relatively new and expanding program area.

In 1977, with support from UC Berkeley Extension and the sponsorship of the School of Education, Maxwell began the UC Berkeley Annual Institutes for College Learning Center Directors and Staff. The first institute was the collaborative effort of Maxwell, Gourdine, and Tomlinson at which they made all the presentations during that first live-in week at Berkeley. Although Martha Maxwell left the directorship of the UC Berkeley Learning Center in 1976 to become its Academic Liaison and retired from the university three years later, the institutes were continuously under her direction.

In the first five years (1977-1981), the Berkeley Institutes hosted over 450 new and experienced learning center administrators and skills specialists. After the first institute, each institute had 20 to 25 speakers involved in 70 to 80 presentations, discussion, focus groups, and forums. In her article, Maxwell listed over 50 topics that were presented in those five years. Although the first two institutes had no publicized themes, the next three addressed the following themes: "Increasing the Impact of Learning Centers" (1989), "Meeting the Challenges of the 1980's" (1990), and "Bridging the Gap" (1991). For each of the UC Berkeley Institutes, proceedings were published and given to participants at the beginning of the institute. Institute topics included starting new learning centers, program management, writing skills improvement and writing centers, reading and study skills improvement, math and science skills development, and updates on current research. In addition, at some of the institutes, presentations were taped and audiocassettes were made available for sale.

In 1982, the Sixth Annual Institute with its theme "Stretching Our  Resources" was announced and advertised but ironically was cancelled because only 95 people signed up for the Institute and UC Berkeley Extension required 100 sign-ups for the institute to be held. Thisinstitute ended a series of Berkeley Summer Institutes that had hosted over 450 participants representing administration and faculty from more than 100 postsecondary institutions who listened to over 300 presentations made by 60 different presenters.

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