A Legacy of Lifelong Learning

Barbara Oakley, Ph.D., SECS ’95 and ’98 — a distinguished professor in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Oakland University’s School of Engineering and Computer Science (SECS) — bills herself as an “educator, writer and engineer” on her professional website. But to her family, friends, and the OU community, as well as colleagues and students throughout the world, she’s also a wife, mother, innovator, pioneer and mentor renowned for her lifelong commitment to education.

Oakley's OU journey began in the 1990s, when she and her husband, Philip, moved to the Detroit area, and she enrolled at OU as a part-time student when their children were young. “I chose OU because it’s a really great place, it was relatively close to home, and I had great teachers who were very encouraging,” Oakley says. “The more classes I took, the more fascinated I became.”

While earning a Master of Science in electrical and computer engineering and a Ph.D. in systems engineering, Oakley’s work was so exceptional that she was hired as an OU faculty member upon completing her doctorate in 1998.

Changing her Brain

Before moving to the Midwest, Oakley earned a bachelor’s degree in Slavic languages and literature from the University of Washington (UW) after “flunking her way through elementary, middle and high school math and science.” Then, as a signal corps officer in the Army, seeing firsthand her engineer colleagues’ understanding of their work inspired her to rethink whether she could learn math and science after all. Through research and a process of trial and error that she calls “changing her brain,” Oakley earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from UW. Sharing how she switched “from math-hater to math aficionado” — detailed through her courses, best-selling books and speaking engagements — resulted in her becoming one of the world’s leading experts on the science and practice of learning.

Oakley applies insights from neuroscience to simplify difficult concepts, often using metaphors, so that the material resonates with students. The opportunity arose to further share that approach beyond OU classrooms when she met and teamed up with neuroscientist Terrence Sejnowski, Ph.D., to develop Learning How to Learn, one of the world’s most popular — and free — massive open online courses (MOOCs) with more than 3.6 million registered learners.

Her colleagues attribute the course’s popularity to Oakley’s effectiveness as an educator and communicator. “Barb is brilliant at digging into a topic and finding the key nugget — that one piece of information that is foundational to everything else,” says Christopher J. Kobus, Ph.D., director of outreach, recruitment and retention and an associate professor in mechanical engineering at OU’s SECS. “Then, she’s terrific at explaining it in a way that anyone can understand.”

Committed to Learning

Oakley likens the MOOCs to a form of global mentoring via video that goes beyond the traditional one-on-one relationship. “People feel like they get to know you when they’re watching a video; you become a friend, or mentor, in their learning,” Oakley says. “It’s like when you watch a TV show for a while and get to know the stars. You have this uncanny sense that they’re friends of yours. There’s already a sense of trust.” That familiarity, coupled with the course’s popularity, has led to Oakley being recognized in public, sparking spontaneous conversations with learners as far away as a terminal in France’s Charles de Gaulle Airport or an elevator in Bogota, Colombia.

Back home, Oakley’s commitment to learning extends to her family. All four of Oakley’s adult children, as well as her son-in-law, graduated from Oakland with at least one degree. “OU is a great university, so there wasn’t even a discussion as far as where [our children] would go to school,” says Oakley. “It was as natural as water flowing downhill. Philip and I wanted them to have the wherewithal to be able to stand on their own, and they all did really well at OU.”

Appreciative of her impact, detailed in thousands of thank-you emails from grateful students who say she’s changed their lives, Oakley’s influence is also evident in her countless accolades. Most recently, she was named the inaugural award recipient of the prestigious Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education’s newest category, Lifelong Learning. Oakley says she’s “boggled” to have received the award, known colloquially as the Nobel Prize in education, for making “learning easier for millions of people from all walks of life,” as noted in her award bio.

Not one to rest on her laurels, Oakley is currently creating a MOOC specialization series focusing on critical thinking in an age of artificial intelligence (AI), and she embraces the opportunity to expand her audience. “At OU, we have a great president and a great provost, and so I couldn’t be happier with all they’ve done to create a wonderful environment where professors can do what they’re supposed to be doing,” Oakley says. “I’ve tried to spread the word about OU worldwide because I’m lucky enough to be in a situation where I travel and have global interactions. I like to open the doors even more and let people know about our terrific and unique university.”