The Provost’s Teaching and Learning Symposium is an annual celebration of teaching and learning at UMBC. Begun in 2014 as part of the Hrabowski Innovation Fund initiative, the Symposium brings together UMBC faculty and staff to present and discuss pedagogical innovations on campus and to plan future directions in teaching and learning.
The Symposium typically features a poster session and a keynote presentation by an invited, nationally-known speaker. Other sessions have included Breakfast with the Deans, themed interactive exploration/demonstration spaces, panel presentations, and Speed Geeking sessions.
Resources from past Symposia are available on our archived Symposium Resources 2014-2025 page.
SAVE THE DATE: Tenth Annual Symposium – Friday, October 2, 2026
Please mark your calendars for the 10th annual Symposium on Friday, October 2, 2026, from approximately 9:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. in the University Center. We are excited to partner with the UMBC Re-Envisioning General Education Faculty Core Committee to center this year’s Symposium around Re-envisioning General Education.
We are excited to have Dr. Paul Gaston presenting the keynote. Dr. Gaston is a Distinguished Fellow in the Office of Curricular, Pedagogical, and Digital Innovation at the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U). His scholarly work around re-envisioning general education includes the books General Education Transformed: How We Can, Why We Must (AAC&U, 2015), General Education and Liberal Learning: Principles of Effective Practice (AAC&U, 2010), and Revising General Education And Avoiding the Potholes (AAC&U, 2009).
This event is a wonderful time to celebrate UMBC’s commitment to student success and to share your work around teaching, learning, and assessment. Please save the date and plan to join us! More information including activities, a call for poster/demo proposals, and a registration link will be provided at a later date.
Ninth Annual Symposium – Friday, September 19, 2025
The ninth annual Symposium centered around the theme Cultivating Critical Hope: Nurturing Transformative Teaching and Learning. It featured Breakfast with the Deans, a poster and teaching tool demonstration session, two rooms featuring demonstrations of reflective, healing, and transformative practices, lunch, and a keynote, Critical Hope as a Catalyst for Transformative Pedagogies, by Dr. Kari Grain.
Eighth Annual Symposium – Friday, September 27, 2024
The eighth annual Symposium featured Breakfast with the Deans, a poster and teaching tool demonstration session, themed interactive exploration spaces, lunch, and a keynote, Effective, Engaging Teaching in a Wired World: Using the Science of Memory to Promote Deep Learning, by Dr. Michelle Miller.
In the video below, Peggy Re (Interim Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and Professor in the Department of Visual Arts) details the curriculum mapping session at the Eighth Annual Symposium, where colleagues explored UMBC’s curriculum, discovered common ground across disciplines, and identified “hidden” learning outcomes. Faculty and staff experts guided visitors through this live mapping experience.
Seventh Annual Symposium – Friday, April 21, 2023
On April 21, 2023, after a hiatus due to constraints from the COVID-19 pandemic, the campus came together to celebrate the return from remote instruction and honor Provost Rous in our seventh annual Symposium. It featured lunch, a keynote, Beyond Inclusion – Teaching for Civic Engagement and Social Participation, by Dr. Bryan Dewsbury, and a poster session where UMBC faculty and staff shared their teaching projects.
We have heard many, many positive comments from attendees about Dr. Dewsbury’s powerful keynote and the wonderful posters. You won’t want to miss them!
Sixth Annual Symposium – Friday, September 20, 2019
The sixth annual Symposium featured breakfast and lunch, two groups of concurrent sessions, poster presentations, and a keynote, Making Relationship-Rich Experiences the Heart of Higher Education, by Dr. Peter Felten.
Fifth Annual Symposium – Friday, March 1, 2019
The fifth annual Symposium was rescheduled after a campus water outage on the original date of Friday, October 12, 2018. It went on, despite a delayed campus opening on March 1, 2019. The abbreviated Symposium featured lunch, poster presentations, and a keynote, Integrative Learning in a Dis-integrative Era, by Dr. Randy Bass.
Fourth Annual Symposium – Friday, September 22, 2017
The fourth annual Symposium featured breakfast and lunch, two groups of concurrent sessions, poster presentations, and a keynote, Get Students to Focus on Learning Instead of Grades: Metacognition is the Key!, by Dr. Saundra Y. McGuire.
Third Annual Symposium – Friday, September 30, 2016
The third annual Symposium featured breakfast and lunch, two groups of concurrent panel presentations, a Speed Geeking session, poster presentations, and a keynote, What Have We Learned about Learning in the Last 50 Years – and How Might We Use that Knowledge?, by Dr. Thomas A. Angelo.
Second Annual Symposium – Friday, September 25, 2015
The second annual Symposium featured breakfast and lunch, two groups of concurrent panel presentations and workshops, a Speed Geeking session, poster presentations, and remarks by President Freeman Hrabowski.
First Annual Symposium – Friday, September 12, 2014
The inaugural Symposium was rescheduled after inclement weather on the original date of January 22, 2014. It featured breakfast and lunch, morning and afternoon panel presentations, morning and afternoon poster presentations, and a round table discussion on strategies to support and extend pedagogical innovation.