Winter Teaching Symposium

Speaker:

Linda Nilson

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Linda Nilson

Linda B. Nilson, Ph.D. is founding director emerita of the Office of Teaching Effectiveness and Innovation (OTEI) at Clemson University and author of Teaching at Its Best: A Research-Based Resource for College Instructors (Jossey-Bass, 2016), now in its fourth edition. She also wrote The Graphic Syllabus and the Outcomes Map: Communicating Your Course (Anker/Jossey-Bass, 2007), Creating Self-Regulated Learners: Strategies to Strengthen Students’ Self-Awareness and Learning Skills (Stylus, 2013), and Specifications Grading: Restoring Rigor, Motivating Students, and Saving Faculty Time (Stylus, 2015).

Her latest books are Creating Engaging Discussions: Strategies for "Avoiding Crickets" in Any Size Classroom and Online with Jennifer H. Herman (Stylus, 2018), the second edition of Online Teaching at Its Best: Merging Instructional Design with Teaching and Learning Research with Ludwika A. Goodson (Wiley/Jossey-Bass, 2021), and Infusing Critical Thinking into Your Course: A Concrete, Practical Approach (Stylus, 2021).

In addition, Dr. Nilson co-edited Enhancing Learning with Laptops in the Classroom (Jossey-Bass, 2005) and Volumes 25 through 28 of To Improve the Academy: Resources for Faculty, Instructional, and Organizational Development (Anker/Jossey-Bass, 2007-2010) which is the major publication of the Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network in Higher Education.

Dr. Nilson’s career as a full-time faculty development director spanned over 25 years before she semi-retired in 2016. She has published many articles and book chapters and has given almost 600 keynotes, webinars, and live workshops at conferences, colleges, and universities both nationally and internationally on dozens of topics related to college teaching and scholarly productivity. She has also taught graduate seminars on college teaching.

Before coming to Clemson University, she directed teaching centers at Vanderbilt University and the University of California, Riverside and was a sociology professor at UCLA, where she entered the area of educational development. After distinguishing herself as an excellent instructor, her department selected her to establish and supervise its Teaching Assistant Training Program. In sociology, her research focused on occupations and work, social stratification, political sociology, and disaster behavior.

Dr. Nilson has held leadership positions in the POD Network, Toastmasters International, Mensa, and the Southern Regional Faculty and Instructional Development Consortium. She was a National Science Foundation Fellow at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where she received her Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in sociology. She completed her undergraduate work in three years at the University of California, Berkeley, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.