By Autumn Walden, Editor, AACRAO Connect, Content Strategy Manager, AACRAO
You might not see it outright, but higher education professionals must continually reinvent the ways they collaborate to maintain our ecosystem. In fact, collaboration remains embedded in the values of our AACRAO community. But collaboration looks different when it's structured around a shared problem, guided by a volunteer facilitator, and designed from the start to produce something real. That's the premise behind one of the most distinctive features of the Project-Based Learning Pods launching this summer at The Assembly.
The Assembly, being held this July 19-21 in Arlington, Virginia, is an inaugural event dedicated to learning mobility that replaces the Technology and Transfer Conference, and it arrives with an intentionally fresh format. PBL Pods bring together small groups of attendees to work across institutional lines on challenges in credit mobility, technology, or skills and competencies. Participants are re-engineering the infrastructure of learning recognition: rebuilding frameworks, redesigning solutions, and re-entering their institutions with practical tools ready for implementation.
Beyond the convening, the collaboration continues virtually, with pod members refining their work and sharing outcomes through the AACRAO Exchange. Participation also counts toward an AACRAO microcredential, making the investment visible and transferable.
This is peer-driven, action-oriented professional development, and it reflects where our membership networks are headed: toward deeper alignment, shared ownership of field-wide challenges, and communities restructured for learners to complete their educational journeys.
To walk you through how PBL Pods work, what to expect, and how to make the most of the experience, we spoke with four of the people who helped shape this model: Dr. Kelli Hickey, Paige Selman Boucher, Quintina Barnett Gallion, and Dra. Loida González Utley.
What gap were you trying to solve in the traditional conference format?
The Assembly goes beyond the traditional conference model of passive observation and note-taking to a dedicated vehicle for active, collective creation.
What makes a PBL Pod fundamentally different from networking groups, discussion circles, or session tracks?
PBL pods are designed to unite individuals around a shared problem, providing a space to co-create solutions and tangible artifacts in real-time. Pods offer dedicated time and space for creative problem solving, to ensure you walk away with a concrete tool that you can implement the moment you return to your organization.
How do participants move from a real learning mobility challenge to exploring barriers, designing solutions, and building something practical they can use back on campus?
By aligning participants on common challenges and fostering coordination that outlives the event itself, we are building a sustainable network of support that transforms a single conversation into a lasting engine for change.
If this isn’t about “best practices” or “polished answers,” why is that important?
Facilitators at the Assembly are not there to lecture on research or prescribe universal best practices. Instead, they are fellow practitioners and corporate partners who are walking the same path and grappling with the same real-world challenges.
What's the philosophy behind the neutral facilitation model, and how does it change the dynamic compared to expert-led sessions?
Rather than acting as outside experts, they serve as active participants who guide the dialogue and keep the collective energy moving forward. Through structured, interactive activities, they help the group extract broad ideas into shared challenges and tangible artifacts.
Most importantly, these sessions are a strictly neutral ground; corporate facilitators are there to contribute their expertise and push the conversation toward solutions, not to sell products or services. They are also there to listen and learn about how practitioners are struggling to better inform product development
The three pod focus areas—credit mobility, technology, and skills and competencies—cover a lot of ground. How did you land on those three, and what makes them the right pressure points for the field right now?
The three pod paths are the components of learning mobility.
For this year, the four tracks are transfer, dual enrollment, credit for prior learning, and technology and interoperability. However, the tracks could change year by year as we commit to being responsive to the ever-changing learner needs.
Can you share an example of what a “tangible outcome” might look like for credit mobility, technology, or skills/competencies?
The true potential of the Pods lies in their organic nature; because each group is driven by its own unique challenges, the exact outputs are not predetermined. However, depending on the shared problem and the specific barriers in the way, these tangible outcomes might take the form of a standardized glossary or framework, an implementation roadmap, or a peer-vetted policy template. The direction of the work is entirely dependent on the needs of the participants, ensuring that the resulting artifact is a direct answer to the obstacles they face.
What does “impact” look like in the weeks and months that follow?
The impact of the Assembly extends far beyond the final session, ensuring that momentum is maintained rather than lost by transitioning the work into a continuous stream of asynchronous discussions and periodic virtual check-ins. This ongoing engagement allows the collective to move forward in real-time. By treating the Assembly as a launchpad rather than a finish line, we ensure that the coordination built during the event evolves into a sustained, year-round collaboration.
If someone is on the fence about registering or signing up for a pod, what’s your simplest promise about what they’ll gain?
You will gain a dedicated community of practitioners facing a similar challenge and a set of resources to solve them.