Hi there~

I’m Dr. Jacqueline Preston, founder of Project Syllabus and author of Owning Your Project Based Learning: Design Thinking, Problem Selection, and Self-Assessment.

Early in my academic career, I became deeply interested in understanding the challenges students from diverse backgrounds face in the classroom. My doctoral research led me to incorporate project-based learning (PBL) into my courses, and I quickly saw something remarkable: students became deeply engaged, shifting their focus from grades to meaningful learning as they designed their projects.

Motivated by these transformations, I refined my approach to PBL, centering projects on students' literacies, histories, and lived experiences. Over the years, as a tenured faculty member, I designed courses, presented at national conferences, published research, and collaborated with my university's teaching and learning office to help faculty across disciplines implement PBL effectively in the first year program.

Through this work, I noticed a recurring challenge: while PBL often starts strong, many instructors reported feeling overwhelmed as student interest waned and the teacher shouldered more responsibility for project success. This highlighted the need for a more learner-centered approach—one that supports faculty, shifts ownership of learning to students, and sustains students’ engagement throughout the project design process.

While PBL models lay the foundation for active learning, a learner centered approach as featured in Owning Your Project Based Learning focuses on shifting the onus for learning to the student, something I’ve found is vital to keeping students engaged to the end.

I founded Project Syllabus to help educators and students realize the full potential of PBL. Together, we can chart a new path for education with learner-centered project-based learning.

I hope you’ll join me in charting a new era in education with learner centered project based learning.

Jacque