UMass Boston

University Conference on Teaching, Learning & Technology

Register for the Symposium

Project-based learning (PBL) is a teaching method in which students learn by actively engaging in real-world and personally meaningful projects. The Buck institute’s website on Project-Based Learning gives seven core features that define high-impact PBL:

  • a challenging problem or question
  • sustained inquiry
  • authenticity
  • student voice & choice
  • reflection
  • critique and revision
  • public product

While not all are required for a given project to be effective, the more of these aspects that are incorporated, the greater its impact on the students.

Project-based learning has been shown to be extremely effective in motivating and educating students and it is being practiced in a wide range of classrooms at UMB. This symposium brings together PBL practitioners from UMB with the following goals:

  • present the principles and best practices of PBL
  • share techniques, successes, and challenges of PBL among practitioners at UMB
  • introduce non-practitioners to PBL so that they can see if it is right for their classes
  • create a long-lived community of PBL practitioners at UMB

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Past Conferences

The 2019 University Conference on Teaching, Learning & Technology was held Friday, May 17, 2019 The conference provided opportunities for sharing strategies and exploring issues that focus on inclusive teaching, learning, and curriculum and technology change in college classrooms. Additional details about the programs and many videotaped sessions from conferences from 2007-2019 are available on the conference website.

Since 1994, CIT has organized an annual conference on Teaching for Transformation. Beginning in 2011, CIT collaborated with IT/Educational Technology and Healey Library to host the conference collaboratively. The day-long conference includes presentations and workshops on a variety of issues that are critical to teaching and learning in a diverse, public institution of higher education. It provides opportunities for presenters across different educational institutions in the New England area to explore issues and share strategies that focus on inclusive teaching and curriculum change in college classrooms.