Linda B. Nilson is founding director of the Office of Teaching Effectiveness and Innovation (OTEI) at Clemson University, where she also teaches a graduate course in college teaching. She authored Teaching at Its Best: A Research-Based Resource for College Instructors, the second edition of which was published by Anker in 2003, and The Graphic Syllabus and the Outcomes Map: Communicating Your Course (Jossey-Bass, 2007). She also was co-editor of Enhancing Learning with Laptops in the Classroom (with Barbara E. Weaver, Jossey-Bass, 2005) and associate editor of Volumes 25 and 26 of To Improve the Academy (with Douglas R. Robertson, Anker Publishing, 2007, 2008), the major publication of the Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network in Higher Education. She has been serving as editor of Volumes 27 and 28 while preparing the third edition of Teaching at Its Best for Jossey-Bass.
Dr. Nilson has also published many articles and book chapters and has presented conference sessions and faculty workshops both nationally and internationally on dozens of topics related to teaching effectiveness, assessment, scholarly productivity, and academic career matters.
Before coming Clemson, Dr. Nilson directed the Center for Teaching at Vanderbilt University and another teaching center at the University of California, Riverside. She began her academic career as a sociology professor at UCLA, where she established and directed her department's TA training program. She has held leadership positions in the Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network in Higher Education, the Society for the Study of Social Problems, the Public Relations Society of America, Toastmasters International, Mensa, and the Southern Regional Faculty and Instructional Development Consortium. She received her Ph.D. and M.S. in sociology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and her B.A. in sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.
Contact Dr. Nilson at:
Clemson University
Office of Teaching Effectiveness and Innovation
445 Brackett Hall
Clemson, SC 29634
(864) 656-4542 Voice
(864) 656-0750 Fax
nilson@clemson.edu
Previous Experience
Before coming to Clemson in 1998, she directed the Center for Teaching at Vanderbilt University for five and a half years. During this time, she served a three-year term as chair of the Southern Regional Faculty and Instructional Development Consortium and hosted one of its conferences. Prior to Vanderbilt, she directed the Teaching Development Program at the University of California, Riverside, and designed and taught a very popular graduate seminar on college teaching. In addition, she developed the "disciplinary cluster" approach to training TAs, a cost-effective way for a centralized unit to provide disciplinary-relevant instructional training. This approach received coverage in the Chronicle of Higher Education. She similarly structured TA training at Vanderbilt.
Dr. Nilson entered the area of instructional and faculty development in the late 1970s while she was on the sociology faculty at UCLA. After distinguishing herself as an excellent instructor, her department selected her to establish its Teaching Assistant Training Program. She supervised it for four years. As a sociologist, she published research in the areas of occupations and work, social stratification, political sociology, and disaster behavior.
Dr. Nilson 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.
Recent Publications (* Refereed)
Nilson, Linda B. Under contract for publication in 2010-11. Teaching at Its Best: A Research-Based Resource for College Instructors. 3rd Edition. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
* Nilson, Linda B. and Miller, Judith E., editors. Forthcoming 2010. To Improve the Academy: Resources for Faculty, Instructional, and Organizational Development, Vol. 28. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
* Nilson, Linda B. and Miller, Judith E., editors. 2009. To Improve the Academy: Resources for Faculty, Instructional, and Organizational Development, Vol. 27. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
* Robertson, Douglas R. and Nilson, Linda B., editors. 2008. To Improve the Academy: Resources for Faculty, Instructional, and Organizational Development, Vol. 26. Bolton, MA: Anker Publishing.
Nilson, Linda B. 2007. Why students skip the readings: Both students and faculty contribute to the problem; Tales from real life: True confessions; Getting students to do the readings: Imagine what you could do in class if almost all of your students did the readings!; Best practices: Students will do the readings; Issues to consider: Holding students accountable: The options are endless, the results unexpectedly positive. Thriving in Academe, 25, 3 (December): 5-8.
* Nilson, Linda B. 2007. The Graphic Syllabus and the Outcomes Map: Communicating Your Course. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
* Holaday, Bonnie, Weaver, Kenneth A., and Nilson, Linda B. 2007. Re-visioning graduate professional development. College Teaching, 55, 3 (Summer): 99-103.
* Biktimirov, Ernest and Nilson, Linda B. 2007. Adding animation and interactivity to finance courses with learning objects. Journal of Financial Education 33 (Summer): 37-49.
* Robertson, Douglas R. and Nilson, Linda B., editors. 2007. To Improve the Academy: Resources for Faculty, Instructional, and Organizational Development, Vol. 25. Bolton, MA: Anker Publishing.
* Mikhailova, Elena and Nilson, Linda B. 2007. Developing prolific scholars: The “fast article writing” methodology. Journal of Faculty Development 21, 2 (April): 93-100.
* Biktimirov, Ernest and Nilson, Linda B. 2006. Show them the money: Using mind mapping in the introductory finance course. Journal of Financial Education 32 (Fall): 72-86.
* Biktimirov, Ernest and Nilson, Linda B. 2006. Teaching finance with a Learning Object: A first test of effectiveness. Proceedings of the 2005 International College Teaching Methods and Styles Conference, Reno, NV. (CD-ROM)
* Nilson, Linda B. 2006. College Teaching: Reflection on a graphic syllabus. Pp. 58-59 in Teaching and Learning Creatively: Inspirations and Reflection, edited by P. A. Connor-Greene, C. Mobley, C. E. Paul, J. A. Waldvogel, L. Wright, and A. P. Young. West Lafayette, IN: Parlor Press.
* Nilson, Linda B. and Jackson, Nancy S. 2005. Combating classroom incivility with bills of rights. Proceedings of the 2004 5th World Conference of the International Consortium of Education Development in Higher Education (ICED), Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. (CD-ROM) Available at http://www.uottawa.ca/services/tlss/iced2004/pages/nan.htm.
* Nilson, Linda B. and Weaver, Barbara E., editors. 2005. Enhancing Learning with Laptops in the Classroom. New Directions for Teaching and Learning No. 101, Spring. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Weaver, Barbara E. and Nilson, Linda B. 2005. Laptops in class: What are they good for? What can you do with them? Pp. 3-13 in Enhancing Learning with Laptops in the Classroom, edited by Linda B. Nilson and Barbara E Weaver. New Directions for Teaching and Learning No. 101, Spring. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
My half reprinted on Tomorrow’s Professor Listserv, Stanford University Center for Teaching and Learning, Msg. #727, May 26, 2006.
Weaver, Barbara E. and Nilson, Linda B. 2004. Laptops: Why? Why not? The Department Chair: A Resource for Academic Administrators 15, 1 (Summer): 19-23.
* Biktimirov, Ernest and Nilson, Linda B. 2003. Mapping your course: Designing a graphic syllabus for introductory finance. Journal of Education for Business, 78, 6 (July/August): 308-312.
* Nilson, Linda B. 2003. Teaching at Its Best: A Research-Based Resource for College Instructors. 2nd Edition. Bolton, MA: Anker Publishing. Approx. 124,000 words.
Chapter 10 reprinted on Tomorrow’s Professor Listserv, Stanford University Center for Teaching and Learning, Msg. #519, October 20, 2003.
Chapter 14 partially reprinted in The Teaching Professor, 17, 8 (October): 4.
*Nilson, Linda B. 2003. Improving student peer feedback. College Teaching 51, 1: 34-38.
Partially reprinted in The Teaching Professor, 17, 8 (October): 5.
* Nilson, Linda B. 2002-03. Helping students help each other: Making peer feedback more valuable. Essays in Teaching Excellence 14, 8:1-2.
Nilson, Linda B. 2002. Teaching a social science to a small society. Pp 299-314 in Engaging Large Classes: Strategies and Techniques for College Faculty, edited by C. A. Stanley and M. E. Porter. Bolton, MA: Anker Publishing.
* Nilson, Linda B. 2002. The graphic syllabus: Shedding a visual light on course organization. Pp. 238-259 in To Improve the Academy: Resources for Faculty, Instructional, and Organizational Development, Vol. 20, edited by D. Lieberman and C. Wehlburg. Bolton, MA: Anker Publishing.