Engage with Us
Upcoming Events
Fri, Apr 04https://cuesta-edu.zoom.us/my/aubreykuan
Thu, Apr 17San Luis Obispo
Announcements
Spring 2025 Faculty Book Club: Project-Based Learning
Ungrading is a philosophy of assessment that privileges support for intrinsic motivation and personalized learning. Acknowledging that extrinsic rewards stymy intrinsic motivation, ungrading typically removes formal, top-down grading structures in favor of regular peer and instructor feedback and either a) student reflection and self-evaluation, or b) contract-based grading that is often holistic in nature.
Project-based learning (PBL) encourages student-led inquiry through work on real-world projects. PBL integrates content learning with transferrable skills and community-mindedness, in both teambased and individual contexts. In PBL, the faculty member is not an instructor but rather a mentor, able to offer content expertise, guidance navigating issues as they arise, and structure for engaging in long-term project work.
Ungrading and PBL are in close philosophical alignment. Projects provide opportunities for intrinsic motivation, students take control of their own learning, and both student and faculty learn a great deal over the course of the project. PBL requires embracing that students and faculty alike will learn skills, content, and approaches that move beyond a set of expectations laid out at the start of the project. Self-evaluation approaches are especially useful for PBL, as they explicitly ask students to reflect upon their learning and advocate--with evidence--for the grade they believe they have earned. This affords students a great deal of freedom and flexibility in their project work, allowing them to do the work that makes the most sense for their own learning. It effectively extends the "student-led" nature of PBL, keeping the instructor in the role of a mentor rather than judge, thus building a relationship between student and faculty that is founded in trust and mutual interest in project success and learning.
Introduction This brief outlines and critiques the evidence supporting the use of PBL in three high-impact practices commonly used to support the transition to college: first-year seminars and experiences, learning communities, and writing-intensive courses. Learning communities and writing-intensive courses can and do support students beyond their first year of college; however, they are often intentionally chosen as part of institutional strategic plans to better support f irst-year students. The transition from high school to college can be a vulnerable time for students; research has demonstrated the importance of supporting students during this time, both within and beyond the classroom.1 These three high-impact practices have been empirically demonstrated to engage students and amplify learning.2 First-year seminars and experiences and learning communities in the first year have been demonstrated to increase student satisfaction3 and to improve retention.4 Writing-intensive courses can be particularly impactful for students when offered early in their college careers, as these experiences can shape how students engage in writing to learn in subsequent coursework.5 However, it is important to note that the quality of implementation has been found to be critical to the impact of high-impact practices.6 PBL can be one strategy used to attend to the quality of learning experiences provided to students in all three of these high impact practices.
Opportunities For Cuesta Faculty
The Institute on Project-Based Learning at Worcester Polytechnic Institute is the flagship offering of the WPI Center for Project-Based Learning—serving as a resource to promote and support efforts by colleges and universities looking to advance project-based learning on their campuses. The Institute is a 3-day intensive workshop where faculty and administrators work with experts to learn about project-based learning and make tangible progress to integrate best practices into their own courses and curricula. The Institute will run June 3-6, 2025.