Dr. Nilson’s keynote and workshop repertoire spans a wide range of faculty development topics. Most of the workshops listed below are half-day (three hours) unless otherwise indicated, but the length can be adjusted and the topic adapted to a keynote speech.
General Teaching/Overview
Top 10 best and top 10 worst teaching practices I have seen
Preparing to Teach
Formulating assessable student learning outcomes and sequencing them to create an outcomes map
Matching student learning outcomes with appropriate teaching methods and assessments
Designing and developing a course around student learning outcomes
Developing a graphic syllabus
Teaching and Learning
Engaging student with interactive lecturing
Engaging students in their classroom learning/basic active learning
Engaging students in their out-of-class learning (reading)
Integrating critical thinking into a course
Designing and teaching an online course
Preventing and troubleshooting problems in small-group learning
Discussion management and questioning techniques
Communicating with international students
Enhancing long classes with activity and interactivity
Motivating and teaching students to take good lecture notes
The truth about learning styles (multimodal learning)
Powerful learning techniques to share with students
Pedagogically sound ways to use laptops in class
Valuable websites for teaching and learning
Choosing instructional technologies that help rather than hinder student learning
Flipping your classroom
Teaching students to be self-regulated learners (based on my 2013 book)
Teaching students to defer gratification and avoid procrastination (90 minutes)
Teaching and reaching today’s young students
Teaching with the case method and problem-based learning (PBL) – for all disciplines or for STEM disciplines specifically
Teaching students how to make concept maps, mind maps, and concept circle diagrams
Teaching to how the mind works
Teaching and managing large classes
Getting students to do and comprehend the readings
Classroom Management
Getting students to do the readings/prepare for class
Reducing student/classroom incivility by projecting a commanding persona
Responding wisely to student/classroom incivility
Assessment
Writing objective test items that assess thinking skills
Designing writing assignments and essay questions that assess thinking skills
Improving student-peer feedback and student self-assessment
Assessing/grading student work quickly and objectively with rubrics
Setting and assessing program learning outcomes (best for departments or department chairs)
Specifications grading (based on my 2015 book)
Assessing experiential learning (simulations, role plays, service-learning/community engagement; internships, field work)
Career, Research, and Teaching Evaluation
Quick-starting and managing the early stages of an academic career (for new/junior faculty in research-oriented institutions)
Writing a teaching philosophy (including as a basis of a teaching portfolio)
Measuring student learning in a course as evidence of teaching effectiveness (suitable to besubmitted for faculty review as a counterbalance to student ratings)
Peer assessment of teaching for promotion and tenure (best for departments or department chairs)
Becoming a more prolific scholar (best practices in scholarly writing and publishing)
What student ratings do and do not evaluate about faculty members’ teaching