The following resources have been curated to support faculty in their use of project-based learning. The practices guided through these resources include student peer-review of team-based writing, teaching a project-based capstone course, how to design your class for student-driven production of open-educational resources, and other common teaching and learning strategies.
Resources
Peer Review Guide to Project-Based Team Writing by John-Michael Davis (WPI, Department of Integrative and Global Studies)
The peer review guide contains four exercises that offer a step-by-step approach to support students’ revision process as they move from macro-level, big picture structural revisions to meso-level scrutiny at the paragraph level to micro-level line-editing. The four exercises are designed to be completed sequentially as students progress through their writing, but they can also be completed independently on an as needed basis.
Centering Inclusive Practices in Student-authored OERs in Project-based Learning by Marja Bakermans (WPI, Department of Integrative and Global Studies)
The idea of co-creating inclusive OERs with students can be daunting, so this site provides materials, reflections, steps, and examples to walk-through how this occurs in one of my courses. For example, I provide a syllabus, assignments, sources, and project context. All items have an open license, so participants may adopt and adapt materials to meet their own needs. Remember- students are looking to change the world—let them!
Instructor Toolkit for Engineering Capstone Design by Fiona Levey (WPI, Mechanical & Materials Engineering)
Designing or redesigning a capstone course is both challenging and rewarding. Effective course design directly affects the development of student career readiness and life skills, and departmental ABET accreditation. This toolkit consists of modules so that instructors can focus on one aspect of course design at a time. The intention for this organization is two-fold: 1) to obviate the need to comb through the entire guide to extract information of interest, and 2) to make course redesign less intimidating by providing suggestions for discrete incremental changes, and also having all the principles clearly laid out for those who wish to do a full course design or redesign.
Capacity Building Guide
by Kris Wobbe and Kimberly LeChasseur from WPI, and Irene Shaver from the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges with support from Samantha Shields and Debra Fowler from Texas A&M University, and Michael Reese from Bellevue College. Website design by Eddy Carrotta, Madelyn Vecchia, and Claire Li with support from Gillian Smith.
Are you planning to build the capacity of colleagues through your initiative, program, center or other type of project? Have you wondered whether there are alternatives to top-down approaches to professional learning? This capacity-building guide provides a number of strategies, examples, and resources gleaned from an NSF-funded capacity-building project at the Center. The guide includes prompts for reflective journaling to track your learning and plans.
Project-Based Learning in the First Year: Beyond All Expectations
This book uses the practical experience of a group of educators doing interdisciplinary project work in first year courses. The lessons are easily transferable to a variety of settings, course types and disciplines.
You can learn more here, and find information about a book for educators looking to implement PBL in first-year courses.