Advance Your Professional Practice As A Project Based Practitioner
Southern New Hampshire University is proud to partner with PBLWorks to provide a professional learning experience for those eager to elevate their professional teaching practices. Together, we are excited to provide two graduate-level accredited courses:
- PBL Jumpstart: Design
- PBL Jumpstart: Teach
These one-credit graduate-level courses will support you in developing the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to begin transforming and aligning your practice to project based teaching practices or adapting a project to implement in your classroom. You'll learn alongside fellow educators and collaborate within our online learning environment as PBLWorks National Faculty support you through a series of Learning Modules.
Request More Info More Course Details
Course Overview
PBL Jumpstart: Design
(formerly: Adapting Your First Program)
For teachers seeking to engage their students in deep and long-lasting learning through Project Based Learning, PBLWorks offers an 8-week online course to support teachers in becoming stronger project designers through the use of the essential project design elements.
This course is designed to guide teachers in adapting one of the standards-based projects from our Project Library to meet the needs of their students and unique classroom context. Participants will gain grounding and/or a deeper understanding of the Essential Project Design Elements.
Week 1: Gold Standard Project Based Learning Overview - Independent work & required 90-min online session
Build your understanding of PBL and what makes a project Gold Standard, and gain perspective of a project through your students' eyes.
Week 2: Engaging Your Students with a Challenging Problem or Question - Independent work and optional online session
Consider your project with the end in mind by learning how to develop a challenging problem or question tied to learning goals, standards, and success skills, and educational equity.
Week 3: Sustaining Inquiry from Start to Finish - Independent work and optional online session
Adapt an Entry Event to meet the needs of your classroom. Learn how to ensure all students can succeed through need-to-knows and effective question strategies.
Week 4: Planning for Voice and Choice - Independent work & required 90-min online session
Develop opportunities for students to have voice and choice within the activities, milestones, and final project. Consider strategies for developing effective teamwork skills including providing feedback.
Week 5: Authentic Connections - Independent work and optional online session
Develop plans for including authentic audiences - community partners/experts aligned to the subject matter - for your students during the project. Explore technology tools and strategies to help actualize this part of the project plan.
Week 6: Assessing and Reflecting - Independent work and optional online session
Apply formative and summative strategies aligned to learning goals, standards, and success skills that allow students to reflect and improve upon their work.
Week 7: Critique and Revision - Independent work and optional online session
Improve your plan with peer feedback. Learn critique protocols to embed in your project and learn how to anticipate challenges and make adjustments
Week 8: Exhibition of Learning - Independent work and required 90-min online session
Showcase learning and reflection. Learn how to prepare for student showcases and plan for student reflection post-event
PBL Jumpstart: Teach
(formerly: Becoming a PBL Teacher)
For teachers seeking to engage their students in deep and long-lasting learning through PBL (Project Based Learning) , PBLWorks offers an 8-week online course to support teachers in becoming stronger facilitators through the use of project based teaching practices.*
This course is designed to guide teachers in their shift to becoming a PBL teacher. You’ll learn how to incorporate effective teaching practices you already use into the framework of PBL, and you’ll learn how to assume a new and rewarding role in the classroom. Instead of mainly being a transmitter of knowledge, you’ll gain the skills to become a well-informed coach, a facilitator of learning, and a guide through the inquiry process; forming a learning partnership with your students.
Below is a week-by-week overview of the course experience:
Week 1: Build the Culture - Independent work & required 90-minute online session
Create a welcoming learning community with your fellow course participants and learn why high-quality PBL is “main course” learning.
Week 2: Design and Plan - Independent work and optional online session
Focus on the 7 Essential Project Design Elements for Gold Standard PBL to set the stage for high-quality learning experiences for your students.
Week 3: Align to Standards - Independent work and optional online session
Practice how to align a project to standards to set the stage for deeper learning.
Week 4: Manage Activities - Independent work & required 90-minute online session
Build your project management toolkit and experience what it’s like to interview a content expert.
Week 5: Scaffold Student Learning - Independent work and optional online session
Ensure that all students can succeed with PBL by planning for appropriate support.
Week 6: Assess Student Learning - Independent work and optional online session
Apply assessment strategies to keep learning on track in a project from start to finish.
Week 7: Engage and Coach - Independent work and optional online session
Fine-tune your strategies for engaging and coaching students by focusing on your “teacher moves” at the beginning, middle, and end of projects.
Week 8: Celebrate and Reflect - Independent work & required 90-minute online session
Showcase your learning and reflect on your next steps as a Project Based Teacher in our final online session.
Please note that this course is focused on the skills necessary to become a PBL teacher; you will not be developing a project through this experience. If you want to learn how to develop a project through an SNHU online course, you may want to take PBL Jumpstart: Design .
SNHU Course Code: EDTS 500PW - Becoming a Project Based Teacher
Credits: 1 graduate level credit
Registration for graduate credit is offered during Week 4 of your course experience.
Course Details
The one-credit graduate level professional learning experiences are designed by experts from PBLWorks and accredited by Southern New Hampshire University. These fully online 8-week courses include both synchronous sessions and asynchronous learning. Highly-qualified PBLWorks National Faculty will be facilitating these collaborative learning experiences that focus on Essential Project Design Elements or Project Based Teaching Practices for Gold Standard PBL. While the courses can be taken in any order, we recommend participants start with PBL Jumpstart: Design followed by PBLJumpstart: Teach.
Explore more details about each course above or feel free to request more information from our team!
Tuition Details
The SNHU tuition cost for each graduate-level professional learning experience is $120.00 paid directly to SNHU. This tuition cost is in addition to the PBLWorks cost of the course experience which is $399.00. Once registered, you'll have access to your mySNHU portal account - giving you the opportunity to utilize SNHU resources, download/review your grade reports, and order official university transcripts.
Sign up today for PBL Jumpstart: Design or PBL Jumpstart: Teach at the PBLWorks Online Courses registration page!
University Accreditation
Southern New Hampshire University is a private, nonprofit institution accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE) as well as several other accrediting bodies.
Designed in collaboration between Southern New Hampshire University & PBLWorks