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The Assembly

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Project-Based Learning Pods

July 19, 2026

–July 21, 2026

•

Crystal Gateway Marriott 1700 Richmond Highway Arlington, VA, 22202

What are
Project-Based Learning Pods?

At The Assembly, attendees won’t just listen to sessions. They can also join small, collaborative groups to work on real challenges related to credit mobility, technology, or skills and competencies.

These are called Project-Based Learning (PBL) Pods.

Instead of hypothetical discussions, participants will:

Work with peers on real institutional challenges.

Explore barriers and opportunities.

Create practical solutions they can take back to campus.

Leave with tangible outcomes and next steps.

Each Project-Based Learning pod will focus on one of the three paths: credit mobility, technology, or skills and competencies. 

Hear from our PBL Pod Organizers

Youtube video

Pathways

Choose Your Path

Is This Path for You? The Credit Mobility path focuses on the seamless transition of academic progress. Whether a learner is navigating institutional transfers, high school dual enrollment, or seeking credit for prior learning, this path will help you interrogate your institution’s policies and practices to ensure that their hard-earned achievements translate into a clear degree map without getting lost in the shuffle.

While this path is open to everyone, it is specifically designed for professionals whose work involves transfer credit policies, credit articulation and applicability, degree applicability, and barrier reduction. If your mission is to ensure that every credit follows the learner, you’re in the right place.

Is This Path for You? The Technology path focuses on the innovative systems, software, and data tools that make seamless credit mobility possible. You will examine how your institution is ensuring that technology serves as a bridge, not a barrier, to academic progress. 

While this path is open to everyone, it is ideal for professionals whose work involves system integration, process automation, and data integrity. If you are driven by using modern tools to solve complex logistical challenges, this is your fit.

Is This Path for You? The Skills and Competencies path focuses on how institutions recognize, validate, and apply learning that is expressed as skills and competencies rather than traditional course-based credit. This path asks hard questions about what counts as learning, what counts as evidence, and how institutions translate demonstrated capability into meaningful academic or workforce outcomes.

While this path is open to everyone, it is designed for professionals grappling with competency recognition, skills frameworks, assessment practices, and governance decisions. You may belong here if your work involves mapping skills to curricula, aligning competencies to credit or credentials, establishing standards for evidence, or building institutional trust in nontraditional forms of learning. If your institution is struggling to move from acknowledging skills to recognizing them in practice, this path is for you.  

Justification and Microcredentials

Participants in Project-Based Learning pods will receive recognition for their work through AACRAO’s learning management system.

Participation will count toward:

  • Completion of one major requirement for an AACRAO microcredential.

In short, attendees gain both professional impact and formal recognition for their engagement.

AACRAO has created a sample justification letter for registrants to use when seeking institutional support for funding to attend the Assembly if they anticipate participation in the PBL Pods.  Please feel free to download and edit, as necessary.

Facilitate a Pod

Interested in a hands-on leadership role at The Assembly?

Consider serving as a Project-Based Learning (PBL) Facilitator. Before the conference, you’ll complete:

  • AACRAO’s Learning Mobility course
  • Receive facilitation training
  • and connect with fellow facilitators

In the pod, you won’t be the “subject-matter expert” so much as the guide, helping participants stay aligned on the problem, map constraints, and produce practical outputs. You’ll leave with stronger facilitation skills, a broader view of how Learning Mobility shows up across institutions, and a peer network to continue the work through optional follow-up virtual sessions.

Submit Interest

APPLICATIONS REQUIRE LOGIN TO AACRAO COMMUNITY. FIRST TIME LOGGING IN? REVIEW THE LOGIN FAQS.