Collaborative Project-Based Learning in Higher Education: Case Studies

Colleges and universities have increasingly recognized the power of experiential learning, whether it occurs in labs or archives, through fieldwork, or via co-ops and internships. The act of learning by doing is a powerful motivator for students — it leads to deeper understanding and builds a suite of crucial skills relevant both for more advanced study and the many contexts of adult life.

As sources of information proliferate, the comparative educational advantage possessed by colleges and universities no longer lies predominantly in didactic instruction. Instead, faculty increasingly are recognizing the value of helping students frame questions and undertake open-ended inquiry. At the same time, advances in artificial intelligence, online learning, and open access publishing have created new avenues for research that incorporates student ingenuity. And colleges and universities have recognized the imperative of rededicating themselves to equitable community engagement, in which partners beyond the academy help to shape applied research agendas.

This compilation of 17 case studies provides examples of how institutions of higher education — ranging from community colleges, to liberal arts universities, to large public and private research universities — are deploying collaborative project-based learning to foster the critical thinking, communication skills and experience in teamwork that will enable students at all levels to make a difference.

By providing practical information and insights on program design, best practices, common challenges and lessons learned, we hope that these cases will spark innovation at other universities, aiding the spread and scaling of collaborative projects across higher education. We invite individual educators, departments, schools and universities to use these resources freely, including sharing and cross-posting them.

Released in February 2025, these case studies were originally developed by program directors as a complement to The Future of Higher Education: A Symposium on Collaborative, Project-Based Learning, hosted by Bass Connections at Duke University on June 26–27, 2023. The authors updated and added material in the Fall of 2024. For more information, please contact bassconnections@duke.edu.

When appropriately scaffolded, collaborative projects help students grasp the relevance of their education and encourage students to take greater ownership of the learning process, boosting their self-confidence and sense of efficacy.