Introduction to a New Blog Post Series: Distance and Virtual Project-Based Learning

Project-based learning is the perfect approach for distance learning, especially when it comes to high school students. You want them to be able to work productively and independently from home, and rest assured that they are engaged in the content and the experience. Project-based learning is a great way to check all of those boxes.

But how can student-directed, project-based learning be done from home? So much of PBL is community-based. As I said before in previous posts, PBL is not just doing poster board projects. With project-based learning, students incorporate the community into the experience, learn from community experts, engage in authentic learning experiences, present their work to relevant and often public audiences, and more (check out past project-based learning posts, such as the elements of PBL). So how do students do these things from home, or from a computer? 

This series will walk you through that question! I wrote a vague blog post on this a while ago, promising to go into more detail at some point. Here we are! I'm finally getting around to it. So let's dig in!

Before diving too deeply into this series with me, I highly recommend snagging my free resource for subscribing to my email list. This free resource is a high school project-based learning digital assessment portfolio. It is an editable Google Slides resource that students use to demonstrate learning over the course of a class or session. They insert photos of their projects, experiences with community experts, completed evaluations and reflections, etc. If you are planning to do any significant amount of project-based learning with your students this fall, online or in the classroom, this is a great tool to have. Grab it now!

Project-Based Distance Learning Blog Series

So just to clarify, project-based learning is not the same as a project. How do you touch on all of the components that define PBL, those listed in the infographic below, digitally? This series will go over how to implement project-based learning digitally with confidence. ​

I will be going over the following pieces or processes of project-based learning over the course of the next few weeks, all about how to project-based educate from a distance. All of the following tips and tricks can be applied to a classroom environment as well. The purpose of this series is to show you how to get students engaged with the community even if they cannot be directly or physically immersed in it. 

• Brainstorming project-topic ideas digitally (interest-led and student-directed).
• Working and communicating with community experts virtually.
• Digital final product ideas: Unique and innovative ways for students to demonstrate learning virtually. 
• Digital authentic presentations: Ways for students to share new skills and knowledge with a wide and relevant audience virtually.
• Student/teacher communication and feedback: This post will includes check in tips, advice on project approvals, student-generated rubric approvals, and more.
• Assessments: Self, peer, community expert, and teacher evaluations online.
• How to use Experiential Learning Depot PBL digital resources: I will go over some tutorials for my PBL resources that were created/converted to be used with Google Classroom. 

If you have any recommendations or requests for topics to include in this series, let me know! You can email me at [email protected] or head to the contact tab above. 

I plan to get my first post of the series on brainstorming project ideas out asap! Early next week at the latest, so stay-tuned or keep an eye out for an email alert. In the meantime, head to Experiential Learning Depot on TPT to download my free Project-Based Learning Topic Brainstorming Activity. We'll go over it right here in a few days.

If you are questioning project-based learning because you're unsure of your situation in the coming months, don't make any big decisions yet! Follow along here first so that you feel confident and solid about your ultimate decision.

I could say that project-based learning isn't for everyone, but in my biased opinion, it is for everyone. PBL is so wonderful precisely for that reason, especially when the experiences are entirely interest-led and self-directed. Student-directed PBL considers all learning styles, skill levels, needs, interests, backgrounds, home life situation, personal responsibilites outside of school and more. It looks at every individual child. It's a great form of differentiation for upper grade levels. Don't pawn it off just yet. We'll see you back here soon!