Barbara Oakley

Barbara Oakley, PhD, PE is a Professor of Engineering at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan and Coursera’s inaugural “Innovation Instructor.” Her work focuses on the complex relationship between neuroscience and social behavior.

Dr. Oakley’s research has been described as “revolutionary” in the Wall Street Journal and she has published in outlets as varied as the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times. Dr. Oakley has won numerous national teaching awards, including the American Society of Engineering Education’s Chester F. Carlson Award for technical innovation in engineering education. Together with Terrence Sejnowski, the Francis Crick Professor at the Salk Institute, she co-teaches Coursera – UC San Diego’s “Learning How to Learn,” one of the world’s most popular massive open online course. Her books include "Uncommon Sense Teaching," "A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science (Even If You Flunked Algebra)," "Mindshift: Break Through Obstacles to Learning and Discover Your Hidden Potential"; and "Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying; A Guide for Kids and Teens".

She rose from the ranks of Private to Captain in the U.S. Army, during which time she was recognized as a Distinguished Military Scholar. She also worked as a communications expert at the South Pole Station in Antarctica, and has served as a Russian translator on board Soviet trawlers on the Bering Sea. Dr. Oakley is winner of the McGraw Prize--the colloquial "Nobel Prize for Education," and an elected Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.